A comparative study of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages

Abstract

This study explores the typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese and Germanic languages. Earlier studies, mostly done on Indo-European languages (e.g. Heine et al. 1991, Traugott & Dasher 2002), suggest that semantic change follows the cline A>A, B>B. Based on numerous case studies of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization in Chinese, this paper provides evidence that semantic change in Chinese follows a somewhat different pattern: A>A, B>A,B,C. The key factors responsible for this, as it will be argued, are twofold: Chinese grammar is typologically structured without inflections and Chinese words have become increasingly disyllabic. Indo-European languages, which exhibit quite different grammatical and morphological structures and diachronic evolution, therefore show a different tendency.