Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies ›› 2013, Vol. 13 ›› Issue (02): 16-21.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Grammaticalization of the Mandarin Chinese Short Time Adverbs Liji, Like and Lima

LI Zhou, LIU Zhengguang   

  • Online:2013-02-15 Published:2020-07-25

Abstract: The paper examines the grammaticalization of the Chinese short time adverbs Liji, Like and Lima. The study shows two important points. One is that the semantic universals are more fundamental in linguistic and cognitive systems; the other is that serial constructions are of much research value for theory construction. The three words, before they are grammaticalized into short time adverbs had different compositional relations. But their common semantic features paved the way for them to grammaticalization into short time adverbs through serial constructions. This shows diachronic studies can shed much light for theory construction and will play a crucial role in the explanation of universal principles.

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