Title The syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui

Advisor(s) Bodomo, AB; Lam, OSC

Author(s) Lu, Wen; 陸文

Lu, W. [陸文]. (2012). The syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi

Citation Hui. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b4786973

Issued Date 2012

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/161516

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)

Rights and the right to use in future works.
THE SYNTAX OF THE TI CONSTRUCTION IN TUNXI HUI

Lu Wen

M.Phil. Thesis

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

2012
 Abstract of thesis entitled

The Syntax of the Ti Construction in Tunxi Hui

Submitted by

Lu Wen

for the degree of Master of Philosophy

at The University of Hong Kong
in March 2012

This thesis is a study of the syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui, an

understudied Hui dialect in the Sinitic family of languages.

The aims of this these are three-fold: (i) to provide a sketch of the syntax of

Tunxi Hui, and (ii) to explore the polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme and the syntax

of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui, and (iii) to examine the north-south division of

passive markers particularly with respect to languages in Anhui Province, and the type

of passive marker the Tunxi Hui ti belongs to, as well as some properties of the ti

passive construction.

This thesis explores the polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui, as a

lexical verb ‘give’ and as a coverb. When ti is a lexical verb, the construction it

appears in is a double object construction (DOC), and the linear order of the two

objects has to be the recipient NP before the Theme NP. When ti is a coverb, it is often

found in a serial verb construction (SVC) or a pivotal construction. As far as an SVC

is concerned, the coverb ti can serve as a recipient marker, a benefactive marker or a

locative marker. Otherwise, if the coveb ti occurs in a pivotal construction where the

two or more verbs in the sentence do not share the same structural subject, it can serve

as a permissive marker, a causative marker or a passive marker.

With respect to passive markers, we first give an overview of the types of

passives markers in Sinitic languages. Aside from the bei passives, we also have the

zhuo ‘attach’ passives, the causative passives and the ‘give’-passives. We propose a

revision of Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south division of passive markers, i.e. the

causative passives versus the ‘give’-passives, particularly with respect to languages of

Anhui Province. We find that the passive marker ti in Tunxi Hui belongs to the give

type of passives. The ti passive construction in Tunxi Hui is characterized by the

obligatory occurrence of an agent phrase and the semantic implication of

adversity.

It is hoped that this study can contribute to the understanding of the syntax of the

ti construction in Tunxi Hui, and can provide useful authentic data of an understudied

language for further linguistic analyses.

(380 Words)
The Syntax of the Ti Construction in Tunxi Hui

by

Lu Wen
陸文
B.A. H.K.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Philosophy
at The University of Hong Kong

March 2012
 Declaration

I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due acknowledgement

is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report

submitted to this University or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other

qualifications.

Signed……………………………………

Lu Wen

i
 Acknowledgements

This thesis will not be possible without the supervision and support from my

supervisors Dr. Adams Bodomo and Dr. Olivia Lam. I owe my sincere thanks to Dr.

Bodomo who has given me a chance to pursue my M.Phil. study at this University. I

can never thank Dr. Olivia LAM enough for her help, patience, care, encouragement,

and suggestions all along the way. Time spent with them as a student during the past

two years will not be forgotten.

I would also like to thank my internal examiner Dr. Stephen Matthews and my

external examiner Dr. Yap Foong Ha for their precious comments and suggestions,

without which the thesis can never be finished.

Thanks are also to the University of Hong Kong and the School of Humanities

(Linguistics) for providing everything financially and administratively for my study.

Thanks for the fantastic library resources that I can always rely on, and the

postgraduate studentship by this University to facilitate my study and life in the past

two years.

My cordial thanks also go to the academic and non-academic staff of the School

of Humanities (Linguistics), especially Dr. Stephen Matthews, Dr. Umberto Ansaldo,

Dr. W. T. Siok, Professor L. H. Tan, Dr. O. Zayts, Dr. Picus Ding, Dr. Wu Yicheng, Dr.

Gong Tao, Mr. John Guest and Ms. Golly Lo, for their enduring support and care.

ii
 I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Stephen Matthews and Dr. Foong

Ha Yap for their helpful comments and suggestions during a seminar given by me in

this University.

My thankfulness also goes to the wonderful colleagues during my two years of

study, especially Mr. Jerome Zhang, Dr. Yanghong Pan, Dr. Lucille Hu, Ms. Dewei

Che, Ms. Daisy Chow, Ms. Lemon Lau, Ms. Manxiang Wu and Ms. Sabena Lam,

whose company has made my stay in this University an enjoyment.

I would also love to thanks my life-long friends Ms. Shenping Cao, Ms. Sherry

Xiao, Ms. Min Chen and Ms. Sandy Ho and Ms. Juliet Ye, who is always there

whenever I need them. I’m also indebted to those whose names are not acknowledged

here, for their morale and intellectual supports.

Last but not least, I’m also grateful to my husband Mr. Rickel Ngan, my mom

and dad and other family members for their unfailing love, care and encouragement

especially during the last few months when the weak moments come.

iii
 Table of Contents

Declaration………………………………………………………………………………..i
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………ii
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………..iv
List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….vii

Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………….1
1.1 Research Background………………………………………………….1
1.2 Aims of Study………………………………………………………….5
1.3 Romanization…………………………………………………………..6
1.4 Organization of Thesis…………………………………………………7

Chapter 2 A Sketch of the Syntax of Tunxi Hui………………………………..9

2.1 Basic Categories of Tunxi Hui………………………………………....9
2.1.1 Nouns……………………………………………………….10
2.2.1.1 Nouns and Classifiers………………………………….10
2.2.1.2 The Suffix –le………………………………………………..13
2.1.2 Pronouns……………………………………………………..16
2.1.3 Verbs…………………………………………………………18
2.1.3.1 Definition………………………………………….19
2.1.3.2 Types of Verbs……………………………………..20
2.1.3.2.1 Intransitive Verbs…………………………….21
2.1.3.2.2 Transitive Verbs……………………………...21
2.1.3.2.3 Ditransitive Verbs…………………………….21
2.1.3.2.4 Verbs with a Sentential Complement………...22
2.1.3.2.5 The Copular Verb…………………………….23
2.1.3.2.6 Coverbs……………………………………….23
2.1.3.2.7 Stative Verbs……………………………….…28
2.1.4 Adjectives………………………………………………….…30
2.1.5 Adverbs…………………………………………………….…31
2.1.6 Prepositions…………………………………………………...33
2.1.7 Others…………………………………………………………34

2.2 Word Order……………………………………………………………..34

iv
 2.2.1 Basic Constituent Order……………………………………......34
2.2.2 Declarative Sentences………………………………………….36
2.2.3 Questions……………………………………………………….37
2.2.3.1 Yes-No Questions…………………………………………37
2.2.3.2 Alternative Questions……………………………………..39
2.2.3.3 Wh-Questions……………………………………………..39
2.2.3.4 Section Summary………………………………………………41

2.3 Tense and Aspect………………………………………………………….42

2.3.1 Tense……………………………………………………………42
2.3.2 Aspect…………………………………………………………..43

2.4 Chapter Summary…………………………………………………………45

Chapter 3 The Syntax of the Ti construction…………………………………...…47

3.1 On Teminology…………………………………………………………….48
3.1.1 Ditransitivity and Double Object Constructions (DOCs).……...48
3.1.2 Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs)………………………………51

3.2 Distribution of the Ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui………………………..…..52

3.2.1 Ti ‘give’ as a Full Lexical Verb……………………………………53
3.2.2 Ti as a coverb……………………………………………………...56
3.2.2.1 Ti as a Recipient Marker…………………………………..57
3.2.2.2 Ti as a Benefactive Marker………………………………...58
3.2.2.3 Ti as a Locative Marker……………………………..……..61
3.2.2.4 Ti as a Permissive Marker……………………………...….63
3.2.2.5 Ti as a Causative Marker…………………………………..64
3.2.2.6 Ti as a Passive Marker………………………………….….65
3.2.3 Section Summary……………………………………………….66

3.3 Grammaticalization - towards an Explanation……………………………68

3.3.1 Cross-linguistic Grammaticalization Pathways………………...69
3.3.2 Plausible Grammaticalization Pathways of Tunxi Hui ti…….…70

3.4 Chapter Summary………………………………………………………….71

v
Chapter 4 The Ti-Passive Construction in Tunxi Hui………………………….73
4.1 The Typology of Passive Markers in Sinitic Languages………………….73
4.1.1 The ‘Suffer’ Type of Passive Markers………………………..75
4.1.1.1 The Passive Marker Bei……………………………………...75
4.1.1.2 The Passive Marker zhuo…………………………………....78
4.1.2 The Causative Type of Passive Markers………………………79
4.1.3 The Give Type of Passive Markers………………………..…..80
4.1.3.1 Hashimoto’s (1988) North-South Divison of
Passive Markers in China………………………………81
4.1.3.2 Our Proposed Revidion………………………………….83
4.1.4 Ditaxia…………………………………………………………86
4.1.5 Section Summary……………………………………………...88

4.2 The Passive construction in Tunxi Hui…………………………………..90

4.2.1 An Overview……………………………………………………..90
4.2.2 Properties of the Tunxi Hui ti-passives………………………..…92
4.2.2.1.1 An Obligatory Agent Phrase………………………92
4.2.2.1.2 Adversity…………………………………………..95
4.2.3 Section Summary…………………………………………………98

4.3 Chapter Summary………………………………………………………...99

Chapter 5 Conclusions……………………………………………………………100
5.1 Summary and Conclusions……………………………………………….101
5.2 Implications for Future Research…………………………………….….104

References……………………………………………….………………………...106

vi
 List of Abbreviations

Ag Agent
ANT Anterior/perfect aspect
Ben Benefactive
CL Classifier
COP Copular verb
EXP Experiential aspect
NEG Negation marker
OBJ Object
OM Object marker
PART Particle
PASS Passive marker
PERF Perfective aspect
PL Plural number
PN Proper nouns
POSS Possessor
PROG Progress aspect
Rpt Recipient
RVC Resultative verb compound
SFP Sentence final particle
SG Singular number
SUBJ Subject
Th Theme
1 First person
2 Second person
3 Third person

vii
 Chapter 1 Introduction

This thesis is a study of the syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui, a Hui

dialect of Chinese. In literature, the body of work on the target language of this study,

Tunxi Hui, is fairly small. Among the few studies on Tunxi Hui, here are Qian’s

(1997) Tunxihua Yindang ‘The recoding of the Tunxi Dialect’ and Meng’s (2005)

Huizhou Fangyan ‘The Hui Dialects’. Qian’s (1997) work is primarily a

documentation of Tunxi Hui’s phonology and lexicon. Although it is rich in examples,

her work does not offer much analysis from the perspective of syntax. Meng’s work

(2005), on the other hand, is a general study on the Hui group of dialects. Its

coverage of Tunxi Hui, a Hui dialect, is even smaller. Neither Qian (1997) nor Meng

(2005) said much about the syntax of Tunxi Hui, let alone the syntax of a specific

construction, for example, the ti construction. Therefore, there is a big research gap

to be filled.

This thesis is dedicated to the syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui. Ti is a

multifunctional morpheme in Tunxi Hui. As a full lexical verb, it means ‘give’. As a

coverb, it can introduce a recipient NP, a benefactive NP, and a locative NP, often

involving serial verb constructions (SVCs). Besides, as a coverb, it can also serve as

a causative marker, a permissive marker, and a passive maker in the language. In

particular, ti plays an essential role in forming the passive construction in Tunxi Hui.

1
 This chapter aims to provide some background information about Tunxi Hui

and this study. Section 1.1 introduces the background of Tunxi Hui, an understudied

variety of Sinitic languages. Section 1.2 shows the aims of the study. Section 1.3

deals with the representation of language data used in this thesis. Section 1.4

provides an overview of the chapters in this thesis.

1.1 Research Background

Tunxi Hui, or commonly known as ‘Tunxihua 屯溪話’, is a variety of the Hui

dialects spoken in the city of Tunxi, Anhui Province of China. The Hui group is one

of the ten ‘dialect groups’1 of the ‘Sinitic Stock’ under the ‘Sino-Tibetan Phylum’,

according to Zhongguo Yuyan Dituji ‘Language Atlas of China’ (1987). Diagram 1

(Zhongguo Yuyan Dituji 1987: Map A2) shows a map of Sinitic languages. The Hui

dialect group is circled in red.

1
The other nine groups are the ‘Mandarin supergroup’, the ‘Jin group’, the ‘Wu group’, the ‘Gan
group’, the ‘Xiang group’, the ‘Min supergroup’, the ‘Yue group’, the ‘Hakka group’ and the
‘Residual’, in line with the Language Atlas of China (1987).

2
 Diagram 1: Language Map of Sinitic Languages (the Language Atlas of China 1987: Map A2)

It is not until the publication of this Atlas that the Hui group has ever been

recognized as an independent regional dialect group. Before that, the Hui dialects

used to be grouped under the ‘Wu dialects’, for example, in Li Fang Kuei’s Hanyu

Fangyan Gaiyao (1937), and this classification was generally accepted by many

Chinese dialectologists, although at times doubted by some, for instance, Chao Yuen

Ren in his Jixi Lingbei Yinxi (1962). Within the Hui group, five subgroups have been

identified, namely ‘Jingzhan 旌占’, ‘Jishe 績歙’, ‘Xiuyi 休黟’, ‘Qide 祁德’ and

‘Yanzhou 嚴州’. Differences within the Hui group are substantial, evidenced by the

fact that languages within this group are mutually unintelligible, especially across

subgroups. The target language of this study, Tunxi Hui, belongs to the Xiuyi

3
subgroup, an indigenous Hui dialect. Diagram 2 (Zhongguo Yuyan Dituji ‘Language

Atlas of China’ 1987: Map B10) provides a close-up of the five subgroups of Hui

dialects (In brown). The city of Tunxi Hui is highlighted in blue rectangular.

Diagram 2: The Hui Dialects (Zhongguo Yuyan Dituji ‘Language Atlas of China’ 1987: Map B10)

The number of speakers of the Hui ‘dialect’ group as a whole is approximately

3.2 million, according to the Language Atlas of China (1987). Tunxi Hui, in

particular, has only 200 thousand speakers (Tunxi Shizhi 1990), which is quite a

small number. Language endangerment will also be an issue in the foreseeable future.

The younger generation of the city of Tunxi no longer speaks much Tunxi Hui.

4
Instead, they speak Mandarin2 or a Mandarinized Tunxi Hui, as a result of language

planning, education policy and population migration. In many ways, Mandarin is a

more preferred, ‘privileged’ language to be spoken. Therefore, we are in urgent need

of documenting and preserving indigenous language data of Tunxi Hui. At the lexical

level, for example, the locative marker ti in this study is gradually losing ground to a

borrowed Mandarin morpheme tə. At the syntactic level, some constructions in Tunxi

Hui begin to show hybrid characteristics with Mandarin, for instance, some

constructions in the language which have a different word order with parallel Mandarin

constructions also allow an alternative Mandarinized word order now. In light of this, it

is hoped that this study can contribute to the language documentation and preservation

of Tunxi Hui, and provide authentic language data for further linguistic analyses.

1.2 Aims of Study

The aims of the study are three-fold. Firstly, we will explore the

polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui. Secondly, since it is hard to

investigate the ti construction without knowing much about the syntax of Tunxi Hui,

we will give a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui in the first place. Thirdly, we will

examine the north-south division of passive markers (Hashimoto 1988), particularly

2
Unless otherwise specified, ‘Mandarin’ refers to Modern Standard Mandarin, i.e. Putonghua, which

北京話
is not equivalent to any variety of the ‘Mandarin supergroup’ languages, not even to the closest
affiliated Beijing Mandarin or ‘Beijinghua ’.

5
in respect to languages in Anhui Province. After that, we will show the type of

passive markers that the Tunxi Hui ti belongs to, and the properties of the ti-passive

construction.

To sum up, this study aims to address the following questions:

(i) What is a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui like?

(ii) What are the multiple uses of the morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui? How are they

related to each other?

(iii) How is the North-South division of passive markers relevant to languages of

Anhui Province? What properties does the Tunxi Hui ti passive construction have?

1.3 Romanization

When Tunxi Hui data are presented, we use the International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA) as a method of Romanization. Tones are included only when necessary. The

font we employ is IpaPanNew, a Unicode font adapted for East Asian languages and

Chinese dialects, co-developed by Pan & Li (2006). All data in this thesis are

represented in three lines:

Line 1 Phonetic transcription

Line 2 Word-for-word gloss
Line 3 Free translation in English

When data from other varieties of Chinese are shown, e.g. Mandarin, Cantonese,

Shanghainese, Changsha Xiang, they are presented in the following ways.

6
Language Romanization

Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音

Cantonese Jyutpin 粵拼
Shanghainese Shanghaihua Pinyin Fang’an by Zhu (2006)

Data from Cited work Same as the source

1.4 Organization of Thesis

The remainder of the thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 2 provides a sketch

of the syntax of Tunxi Hui. Five major syntactic categories will be examined, and

they are: nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs and prepositions. Next, we will investigate

the basic word order of Tunxi Hui. Word orders in declarative sentences and

questions will also be given. As for the tense and aspect system, we will know that

Tunxi Hui is not a tense language, but an aspect language. We will examine how

temporal relationships are expressed, and how different aspect values are coded in

Tunxi Hui.

Chapter 3 investigates the multiple uses of the morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui both as

a lexical verb and as a coverb. As a lexical verb, it appears in a double object

construction. As a coverb, it can serve as a recipient marker, a benefactive marker

and a locative marker, or render a permissive, causative and passive reading to the

7
construction in which it appears.

Chapter 4 further narrows down the scope to one of the uses of ti, i.e. the ti

morpheme as a passive marker. The first half of this chapter gives an overview of the

types of passive markers in Sinitic languages. The second half of this chapter shows

how the ti-passive construction is formed, and the properties of the ti-passives in

Tunxi Hui.

The last chapter of this thesis, i.e. Chapter 5, summarizes this thesis and points to

possible directions for further research.

8
 Chapter 2 A Sketch of the Syntax of Tunxi Hui

As a variety of Chinese, Tunxi Hui shares many morphological and syntactic

properties of Mandarin Chinese, to which extensive attention has been drawn. It is an

isolating SVO language like Mandarin Chinese. Many of the words in Tunxi Hui are

monosyllabic or monomorphemic. As a morphologically poor language, words are

arranged in a comparatively fixed order in a sentence. Particles play an important

role in the syntax of Tunxi Hui as well. This chapter will commence with an

overview of the basic syntactic categories in Tunxi Hui (section 2.1), followed by the

issue of word order, where the basic word order of Tunxi Hui and other variations

will both be covered (section 2.2). Finally, a brief introduction of the tense and aspect

system will be given, in which the particles play an essential part (section 2.3).

2.1 Basic Syntactic Categories in Tunxi Hui

Syntactic categories of Tunxi Hui comprise nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,

prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, onomatopoeic words, etc. A comprehensive

description of each one of them would merit a full dissertation. Therefore, we will

only introduce the five basic categories in this section, namely nouns (section 2.1.1),

verbs (section 2.1.2), adjectives (section 2.1.3), adverbs (section 2.1.4) and

prepositions (section 2.1.5).

9
2.1.1 Nouns

Nouns are one of the most basic categories in every language. In Tunxi Hui,

nouns often co-occur with classifiers.

2.1.1.1 Nouns and Classifiers

At its simplest, a noun is made up of one morpheme in Tunxi Hui. Words of this

kind represent the most essential daily elements of the language, for instance:

(1) ian
person
‘a person or people’

(2) ʨiu
dog
‘a dog or dogs’

(3) pi
quilt
‘a quilt or quilt’

(4) tiɛ
sky
‘the sky’

(5) u
house
‘a house or houses’

(6) miɛ
noodle
‘the noodle’

(7) xolopian
cobblestone
‘a cobblestone/cobblestones (especially those by the river)’

10
 Nouns do not inflect for number in Tunxi Hui, or for gender or case. For example:

(8) a. i ka ian
one CL person
‘one person’

b. liau ka ian
two CL person
‘two people’

Nouns can be formed by derivation and compounding in Tunxi Hui. Derivation

is restricted to a few morphemes, such as the nominal suffix -le, -lə and -ʦɿ. The suffix

-le is used to derive nouns from verbs/verb compounds. The suffix -lə is employed to

derive nouns from verb/verb compounds or nouns. The suffix -ʦɿ is used to derive

nouns from mostly adjectives.

The nouns derived after suffixing -le, -lə or -ʦɿ differ in meaning. Nouns ending

with -le suggest a group of people with a specific occupation, e.g. (9), while nouns

ended with -lə imply a person/people who is characterized by doing sth or being

someone, and they always bear a negative meaning, e.g. (10) and (11). Nouns suffixed

with -ʦɿ also entail people characterized by a particular property, e.g. (12), but the

implication is often a neutral one, unlike those ended with -lə.

(9) tʰi-tiu-le
le,
le
raze-head-LE
‘the barber’

(10) xə-ʨʰi-llə,
love-eat-lə
‘the glutton’

11
(11) ɕiauxuːə-llə,
Shanghai-lə
‘the Shanghainese’

(12) ŋa-ʦɿ
ʦɿ
short-ʦɿ
‘the dwarf’

Unlike derivation, compounding is a farily productive process in forming nouns.

For example:

(13) muːə-ʨio,
horse-leg
‘horse leg’

(14) ɕɿ-kau
poo-jar
‘toilet’

(15) ia-fuːə
night-rice
‘dinner’

An important syntactice property of nouns in Tunxi Hui is that most nouns, if

not all, can be preceded by a numeral and a classifier.

(16) sɔ ʨau pi
three CL quilt
‘three quilts’

(17) liau tau u

two CL house
‘two houses’

(18) n̩ ʦan ʨɿ
five CL paper
‘five pieces of paper’

12
 Given the right context, nouns may occur alone.

(19) Q: ia-fuːə ɕɿ laka lən ka?

Night-rice COP who make Part.
‘Who made the dinner?’

A: ʦə ɕɿ a ɕo ka, fə ɕɿ kʰə lən ka.

Dish COP 1.SG cook Part. rice COP 3.SG make Part.
‘It was me who cooked all the dishes (vegetables/meat), and it was him/her
who prepared the rice.’

After a general introduction of nouns, we will look at a subtype of nouns, i.e.

pronouns.

2.1.1.2 Pronouns

Due to limited space, in the following paragraphs, we will mainly consider a

most important variety of pronouns, i.e. personal pronouns in Tunxi Hui. Personal

pronouns in Tunxi Hui inflect for person and number, but not for gender. Plural

personal nouns are formed by adding the suffix –ian ‘person/people’ to a singular

personal pronoun. The pronominal system of Tunxi Hui is summarized as follows:

Person Number Singular Plural

1st Person a/ale a-ian

2nd Person n̩/n̩le n̩-ian

3rd Person kʰə/kʰəle kʰə-ian

Table 1 The Pronominal System in Tunxi Hui

13
 When in the singular form, the personal pronouns may appear in one of the two

forms, with or without the suffix –le. Sentences (20a) and (20b) below are equally

good, syntactically and semantically:

(20) a. kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti a i pɛ ɕy.

3.SG yesterday give 1.SG one CL book.
‘He gave me a book yesterday.’

b. kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti a-le i pɛ ɕy.

3.SG yesterday give 1.SG one CL book.
‘He gave me a book yesterday.’

Nevertheless, there are cases where one form is preferred to the other one

intuitively. Although there is nothing wrong semantically with (21b), it is not

acceptable by native speakers.

(21) a. Q: laka a?
which/who PART(Q)
‘Who (is there)?’
A: ale.
1.SG
‘Me’

b. Q: laka a?
which/who PART(Q)
‘Who (is there)?’S
A: *a.
1.SG
.

In a sample of 55 sentences of colloquial Tunxi Hui collected by Qian (1997), the

singular pronominal forms with –le (ale, n̩le and kʰəle) occur 3 times out of a total of

37 times (a/ale, n̩/n̩le and kʰə/kʰəle). The distribution of the singular personal pronouns

14
a/ale, n̩/n̩le and kʰə/kʰəle is listed in detail:

Singular Personal Pronouns in Tunxi Hui

1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person

a ale n̩ n̩le kʰə kʰəle

Fq. 13 1 12 2 9 0

SUB OBJ SUB OBJ SUB OBJ SUB OBJ SUB OBJ SUB OBJ

Fq. 12 1 0 1 12 0 0 2 7 2 0 0

Table 2 Distribution of the singular personal pronouns

From this list, some generalizations can be made:

A. On the whole, the forms without the suffix -le (a, n̩ and kʰə) outnumber those with

the suffix -le (ale, n̩le and kʰəle) in terms of frequency.

B. The forms without suffix -le prevail as the subject in a simple sentence.

C. When the forms with -le is used, it is used predominantly as the object and is often

found in a complex predicate3 (either as the object of a verb or a preposition). Please

see below.

The three ‘rare’ cases with ale, n̩le or kʰəle are:

(22) pau4 mo ka məsɿ tɔ ti ale.

PAU that CL thing carry TI 1.SG
‘Pass that to me.’ (Qian 1997: 37)
3
A ‘Complex predicate’ is a predicate consisting of ‘more than one grammatical element’ and every
element ‘contributes a non-trivial part of the information of the complex predicate’ (Alsina, Bresnan
and Sells 1997).
4
Pau is a multifunctional morpheme. As a full lexical verb, it means ‘help’. As a coverb, it can serve
as a benefactive marker (section 3.3.2.2), or appear in a so-called disposal construction, introducing
the object of the sentence like in example (22).

15
(23) iɕiɛ ʨo n̩le to kʰuɛ kʰuɛ.
doctor ask 2.SG more sleep sleep
‘The doctor asked you to take more rest.’ (Qian 1997: 35)

(24) ʦʰɛ n̩le kau piɛ tʰiɛ.

please 2.SG speak time again
‘Would you please repeat? (Pardon me?)’ (Qian 1997: 34)

Judging merely from the data above, it is tempting to correlate the suffix -le with

the object marker or the accusative case affix. This view, however, will make the three

occurrences of the forms without -le functioning as objects inexplicable, as -le is not

reserved for objects only. Moreover, Chinese languages, including Mandarin Chinese

and other varieties of Chinese, do not mark case morphologically in general. Therefore,

from a typological point of view, it is too bold a correlation to make. More substantial

data is certainly needed before the function of the morpheme -le can be accounted for,

whether syntactically, semantically, or phonetically.

After the pronominal system in Tunxi Hui, we will turn to a particular nominal

suffix in Tunxi Hui, i.e. -le.

2.1.1.3 The Suffix –le

The suffix –le in Tunxi Hui has three major uses.

Firstly, it is a suffix that can be attached to singular personal pronouns to form

ale, n̩le and kʰəle, as have been analyzed in section 2.1.1.2.

Secondly, it is applied to terms of address as an indication of intimacy, e.g. (25a)

16
xua-le and (25b) xan-le. It roughly equals to the Mandarin prefix xiao- in Xiao-Ming

as a friendly term of addressing, or likewise, the Cantonese prefix a- in A-Tat. When

-le is used this way, the rule of thumb is that it is suffixed to the last syllable of a

tri-syllabic name. Otherwise, if the name of the target person is disyllabic, the last

syllable of his/her name will usually be repeated instead of the suffixation of –le. To

compare:

(25)

Full Name of People (Surname First) Potential Nickname

a. ɕy mɛ xua xua-le

b. ʨʰan yɛ xan xan-le

c. ɕy to to-to

d. ɕy liau liau-liau

Table 3 The suffix –le in friendly terms of address

Nevertheless, there are other ways to denote friendship and intimacy apart from

using –le, and the exact ways of addressing people vary from person to person, and

from occasion to occasion, too.

Thirdly, -le is also a key component in the nominalization of some V-N

compounds. Yet, not all V-N compounds can be nominalized this way. By suffixing

-le, the combination of [V-N-le] collectively signify an occupation, i.e. people who

17
do something as a living. It is exemplified below:

(26) tʰi-tiu-le
le,
le
raze-head-LE
‘the barber’

(27) ma-ʦʰə-le
le,
le
sell-vegetable-LE
‘the vegetable seller’

(28) sɔ-ʨy-le
le
kill-pig-LE
‘the butcher’

Only on very rare occasions will the –le be suffixed to a verb alone.

(29) pau-le
help-LE
‘babysitter’ (Qian 1997: 21)

However, the use of example (29) is gradually losing ground to a borrowed term

from Mandarin, i.e. pəmu ‘babysitter’, as a result of constant contact with Mandarin

especially among the younger generation of Tunxi Hui speakers.

Now that we have had a glimpse of nouns in Tunxi Hui, next we will move on

to another category, verbs.

2.1.3 Verbs

Tunxi Hui is an isolating language and has little inflectional morphology. Verbs

do not agree with their arguments in gender, number or case. In this section we will

first consider the properties of a verb, and then the classification of verbs in Tunxi

18
Hui.

2.1.3.1 Definition

Chao (1968) and Francis & Matthews (2005) propose properties of verbs in

Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese respectively. With regard to Mandarin, Chao

(1968:33) summarizes two criteria and they are: (i) negation by bu ‘not’ or mei ‘not

yet’, and (ii) the word in question can function as the center of a predicate. As for

Cantonese, Francis & Matthews (2005: 273) suggest four properties of verbs and

they are: (i) ‘direct predication’, (ii) ‘negation’, (iii) ‘A-not-A question formation’

and (iv) ‘aspect marking’.

Likewise, we can set up similar criteria of Tunxi Hui verbs in line with Chao’s

(1968) and Francis & Matthews’ (2005) proposal:

A word is a verb if it can:

(i) act as the center of a predicate, AND

(ii) be negated by pu ‘not’, pu-ʦan ‘not yet’ or pan5 ‘not yet’, AND

(iii) occur in an A-NEG-A qestion, AND

(iv) inflect for aspect.

For example, ʨʰi ‘eat’ is a verb in Tunxi Hui because it satisfies all of the four

criteria above for verbs. It is illustrated with examples from (31a) to (31d).

5
‘Pan’ is the contraction of ‘pu’ (not) and ‘ʦan’ (ever). There are no differences in meaning between
‘pu-ʦan’ and ‘pan’. However, it is generally recognized that ‘pan’ is more colloquial than ‘pu-ʦan’ in
terms of register.

19
(30)
Criterion (i) act as the center of a predicate.
a. Siau ʨʰi ʦɔ.
PN eat tea
‘Siau drink tea.’

Criterion (ii) be negated by pu ‘not’, pu-ʦan ‘not yet’ or pan6 ‘not yet’.
b. Siau pu ʨʰi ʦɔ.
PN NEG eat tea
‘Siau does not feel like tea now.’ OR
‘Siau does not have the habit to drink tea.’

Criterion (iii) occur in an A-NEG-A question.

c. Siau ʨʰi pu ʨʰi ʦɔ?
PN eat NEG eat tea?
‘Does Siau drink tea?’

Criterion (iv) inflect for aspect

d. Siau ʨʰi ʦɔ liuʨʰio.
PN eat tea ANT
‘Siau has drunk tea.’

We will continue to investigate the classification of verbs in the next section.

2.1.3.2 Types of Verbs

According to their syntactic configurations, verbs in Tunxi Hui can be further

divided into seven types. They are intransitive verbs (section 2.1.3.2.1), transitive

verbs (section 2.1.3.2.2), ditransitive verbs (section 2.1.3.2.3), verbs with a sentential

complement (section 2.1.3.2.4), copular verb (section 2.1.3.2.5), coverbs (section

2.1.3.2.6) and stative verbs (section 2.1.3.2.7).

6
‘Pan’ is the contraction of ‘pu’ (not) and ‘ʦan’ (ever). There are no differences in meaning between
‘pu-ʦan’ and ‘pan’. However, it is generally recognized that ‘pan’ is more colloquial than ‘pu-ʦan’ in
terms of register.

20
2.1.3.2.1 Intransitive Verbs

Intransitive verbs cannot be followed by an object. The only argument they

require is the subject. See the following example:

(31) a. kʰə lə ʨʰio.

3.SG come PERF
‘He/She has come.’

b. *kʰə lə xotau
3.SG come school

Next, we will move on to another type of verbs, transitive verbs.

2.1.3.2.2 Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs obligatorily take an object. Altogether they subcategorize for

two arguments, a subject and an object. This is illustrated below:

(32) a. kʰə ta ale.

3.SG hit 1.SG
‘He/She hit me.’

b. * kʰə ta.
3.SG hit

After transitive verbs, we will see to ditransitive verbs in Tunxi Hui.

2.1.3.2.3 Ditransitive7 Verbs

As suggested by their name, ditransitive verbs are verbs which take two objects.

One object is associated with the theme role, while the other is linked to the recipient

or beneficiary role.The recipient/benefactive NP will precede the theme NP, thus the
7
Ditransitivity will be discussed in section 3.1.1 in detail.

21
linear order is realized as [Vditran NPRpt/Ben NPTh].

Typical ditransitive verbs in Tunxi Hui include ti8 ‘give’ and ko ‘teach’. It can

be seen as follows:

(33) Tunxi Hui GIVE

a. kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti ale liau ʨi pi.
3.SG yesterday give 1.SG two CL pen
‘He/She gave me two pens yesterday.’

b. *kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti liau ʨi pi ale.

3.SG yesterday give two CL pen 1.SG

(34) Tunxi Hui TEACH

a. Toto ko Liauliau ȵyuɛ
PN teach PN Chinese
‘Toto teach Liauliau Chinese.’

b. *Toto ko ȵyuɛ Liauliau.

PN teach Chinese PN

Sentence (33b) and (34b) are ungrammatical because they fail to observe the

linear order [Vditran NPRpt/Ben NPTh].

Verbs can take no object, one object or two objects. Besides, they can also take

a sentential element. We will next examine the type of verbs which require a

sentential complement in the following section.

2.1.3.2.4 Verbs with a Sentential Complement

Some verbs subcategorize for a sentential complement in Tunxi Hui.

8
There are cases where the morpheme ti does not constitute a full lexical verb, but rather functions as
a coverb. This will be covered in section 2.1.3.2.5 Coverbs.

22
(35) a. a pu ɕiti kʰəle ʨaxuɛ-liu ʨʰio.
1.SG NEG know 3.SG marry-ANT
‘I didn’t know he/she is married.’

b. *a pu ɕiti kʰəle.
1.SG NEG know 3.SG

Furthermore, while the counterpart sentence in English may take an optional

complementizer ‘that’, there is a lack of the category named complementizer in

Tunxi Hui.

Next, the one and the only one copular verb in Tunxi Hui will be introduced.

2.1.3.2.5 The Copular Verb

Copular verbs are linking elements between the subject and the complement.

The copular verb in Tunxi Hui is ɕi, which patterns with the Mandarin shi and the

English be. Like other verbs in Tunxi Hui, the copular verb ɕi does not agree with its

arguments in person, number or gender.

(36) Tunxi Hui copular verb ɕi

a. kʰəle ɕi a ka tʰielau.
3.SG COP 1.SG POSS brother
‘He is my brother.’

b. siau, xuale, siʨiau sɔ ka ian tə ɕi iɕiɛ.

PN PN PN three CL person all COP doctor
‘Siau, Xuale and Siʨiau, the three of them are all doctors.’

After the copular verb, we will deal with yet another subset of verbs, ‘coverbs’.

2.1.3.2.6 Coverbs

The categorization of coverbs in Chinese languages remains at issue. In this

23
thesis with regard to Tunxi Hui, we adopt the classification of coverbs as a subset of

verbs rather than as an independent category, in line with Ross’ (1991) analysis on

Mandarin, Matthews and Yip’s (1994) and Lam’s (2004) analyses on Cantonese.

Coverbs in Tunxi Hui exhibit an array of verbal properties like lexical verbs, which

distinguish themselves from prepositions. For example:

Firstly, they can act as the center of the predicate:

(37) Locative coverb ɕi9 ‘be at’

Siʨiau ɕi ʦʰəxɔ.
PN ɕi kitchen
‘Siʨiau is at kitchen.’

Secondly, they can be negated by ‘pu’, ‘pu-ʦan’ or ‘pan:

(38) Locative coverb ɕi ‘be at’

a. ləɕy ɕi kɔ li.
PN ɕi home inside
‘Ləɕy is at home.’

b. ləɕy pu ɕi kɔ li.
PN NEG ɕi home inside
‘Ləɕy is not at home.’

(39) Comitative coverb kə ‘to, with’

a. a kə kʰə kau.
1.SG kə 3.SG talk
‘I will tell him/her.’

b. a pu-san kə kʰə kau.

1.SG NEG kə 3.SG talk
‘I haven’t told him/her yet.’

9
The locative coverb ɕi24 ‘be at’ shares exactly the same form with the copular verb ɕi24 ‘be’ (section
2.1.3.2.5), including the tones. To avoid confusion, the coverb ɕi24 ‘be at’ is glossed as ɕi, while the
copular verb ɕi24 ‘be’ is glossed as COP.

24
(40) Locative coverb ti ‘to, towards’
a. kʰəle ti mopiɛ kʰə ʨʰio.
3.SG TI there go PERF
‘He/She went there.’

b. kʰəle pan ti mopiɛ kʰə

3.SG NEG TI there go
‘He/She hasn’t gone there yet.’

Thirdly, coverbs can readily appear in A-NEG-A questions.

(41) Locative coverb ɕi ‘be at’

ləɕy ɕi-pu-ɕɕi kɔ li?
PN ɕi-NEG-ɕi home inside
‘Is ləɕy at home?’

Fourthly, coverbs in Tunxi Hui can also take aspectual markers. Here is an

example from Qian (1997:72), in which the coveb tə ‘to, facing with’ takes a

progressive aspectual marker:

(42) coverb təə ‘to, facing with’

siau ɕi mole tə ʨʰio ɕy fuːə-tɔ.
PN ɕi there tə PROG book idle
‘Siau is day-dreaming with a book.’

The above examples demonstrate the verbal properties of ‘coverb’ in Tunxi Hui.

Hence, in this study they are treated as a subset of verbs, instead of prepositions.

As a matter of fact, ‘coverbs’ in general, are so named owing to the fact that

they often co-exist with another verb (Matthews and Yip 1994: 60). ‘Coverbs’ in

Tunxi Hui are no exception, and they generally co-occur with another verb.

(43) Coverb ti ‘to’

ləɕɿ san-ʨʰio
san sɔ pɛ cy ti ale.
teacher bestow-PERF three CL book TI 1.SG
‘The teacher gave me a book as the present.’

25
(44) Coverb ɕi ‘be at’
xuale ɕi ʦə xɔ lən fuːə.
PN ɕi stove below make rice
‘Xuale is cooking at the kitchen.’

(45) Coverb pau appears in a disposal construction in (45a), or serves as a benefective

marker ‘for’ in (45b)
a. pau ʦɔ pən tɔ ko lə
PAU tea cup take over come
‘Pass the teacup to me.’

b. kəya ma pau aian lən fuːə.

tonight mom PAU 1.PL make rice
‘Mom will cook for us tonight’

(46) Coverb tə ‘to, facing with’

si-au ɕi mole tə ʨʰio ɕy fuːə-tɔ.
PN ɕi there tə PROG book idle
‘Siau is day-dreaming at the book.’ (From Qian 1997: 72)

(47) Coverb kə ‘to, with’

n̩le kə kʰə kau.
kau
2.SG kə 3.SG talk
‘Please tell him (about it).’

All the above Tunxi Hui coverbs, except for kə ‘to, with’, may occur alone as a

main verb. They are shown below:

(48) kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti ale liau ʨi pi.

3.SG yesterday give 1.SG two CL pen
‘He/She gave me two pens yesterday.’

(49) kʰəle ɕiɛʦʰə ɕi kansi.

3.SG now be at office
‘He/She is in the office now.’

(50) ale pau n̩le

1.SG help 2.SG
‘Let me help you.’

26
(51) a ko li ka kanʦʰau tə ʨʰy kanyɛ.
1.SG home inside POSS window face RVC park
‘The window at my house is facing the park.’

(52) *n̩le kə kʰə.

1.SG kə 3.SG

Now that we have dicussed the categorization of ‘coverbs’ in Tunxi Hui and

their uses both as a main verb and a coverb, the major coverbs in Tunxi Hui are

summarized below:

Morpheme Meaning The possibility

As a Main Verb As a Coverb to occur alone

ti ‘give’ recipient marker, benefactive

marker, locative marker,

causative marker, permissive

marker or passive maker

pau ‘help’ benefactive marker ‘for’ or in

a disposal construction

ɕi ‘be at’ locative marker ‘at, in’

tə ‘face with, face to’ locative marker ‘to’

kə - comitative marker ‘with, to’ 

Table 4 Coverbs in Tunxi Hui

In some circumstances, the coverbal use of a coverb is not restricted to one

27
function. For instance, it is observed that the morpheme ti can readily serve as a

recipient marker, a benefactive marker, a locative marker, a causative marker, a

permissive marker and passive marker. The polyfunctionality of the coverb ti will be

investigated in Chapter 3. We will now look at yet another controversial group of

verbs named ‘stative verbs’ in the next section.

2.1.3.2.7 Stative Verbs

The distinction between adjectives and verbs in Mandarin Chinese is sometimes

blurred. Consider the following sentence taken from Chao (1968: 699):

(53) Mandarin

ni de biao man le.

2.SG POSS watch slow PERF
‘Your watch is too slow.’

Here is the dilemma: semantically, the morpheme man manifests a quality of the

watch, i.e. ‘slow’, whereas syntactically, the same morpheme takes an aspectual

marker which will eventually qualify itself as a verb. To solve this problem, Chao

(1968) and many others coined the term ‘stative verbs’ to refer to a group of

predicative adjectives in Mandarin as well as other varieties of Chinese, e.g.

Cantonese (see Matthews & Yip 1994, Lam 2004 etc.) , which behave much like

verbs in many aspects. ‘Stative verbs’ in Tunxi Hui, likewise, demonstrate a number

of syntactic features of verbs. These include:

(i) They can be negated by the general negation marker of verb ‘pu’; AND

28
(ii) They can appear in an A-NEG-A question; AND

(iii) Some of them can take aspectual markers, or verbal particles.

These are exemplified below:

(54) Preceded by the negation marker pu

kʰə pu pʰau.
3.SG NEG fat
‘He/She is not heavy.’

(55) A-NEG-A question

ŋy xɔ pu xɔ?
fish salty NEG salty
‘Is the fish (dish) too salty?’

(56) Followed by an aspectual marker or a verbal particle

a. with an aspectual marker
kʰə miɛʦi xan ʦʰio.
3.SG face red PERF
‘He/she blushed.’

b. with a verbal particle

n̩le tʰala si ʨʰio!
2.SG dirty PART PERF
‘How filthy you are!’

Given the verbal properties of these predicative adjectives, they are hence

classified as stative verbs, a subset of verbs.

In this section we have examined the category of verbs in Tunxi Hui. Tunxi Hui

verbs are characterized by four properties: (i) they can act as the center of the predicate,

(ii) they can be negated by pu ‘not’, pu-ʦan ‘not yet’ or pan ‘not yet’, (iii) they can

occur in an A-NEG-A question, and (iv) they can inflect for aspect. Besides, verbs in

29
Tunxi Hui can be further divided into seven subcategories, namely intransitive verbs,

transitive verbs, ditransitive verbs, verbs with a sentential complement, the copular

verb, coverbs and stative verbs.

Next, we will move on to another category, adjectives.

2.1.4 Adjectives

Adjectives in Tunxi Hui can be classified into two sub-types according to their

syntactic behaviors. One is attributive adjectives, serving to modify a noun phrase,

the other is predicative adjectives, which can function as the predicate of a sentence

without a copular verb. Predicative adjectives are also called ‘stative verbs’, as seen

in section 2.1.3.2.7. Predicative adjectives or ‘stative verbs’ satisfy some or all the

three syntactic features of verbs as listed in section 2.1.3.2.7. Due to the limits of

space, in this section, emphasis will be placed on attributive adjectives in Tunxi Hui.

An attributive adjective must precede the noun it modifies, and follow the

classifier if there is any.

(57) i ʦiɛ xan iɕiau

one CL red clothes
‘a red coat’

Alternatively, attributive adjectives can occur before the classifier in some

occasion. If this is the case, they opt to modify the classifier, rather than the noun.

Compare:

30
(58) a. liau to siau pɛko
two big CL (box) apple
‘two big boxes of apples’

b. liau siau to pɛko

two CL(box) big apple
‘two boxes of big apples’

The relative order of the adjective and the classifier will affect the modified

nouns the adjective modifiers. It can be further tested in example (59a) and (59b).

(59) a. i sin tau ɕy

one small CL(pool) water
‘a small pool of water’

b. *i tau sin ɕy
one CL(pool) small water

Examples (59a) and (59b) testify the fact that in each case, the adjective is

modifying the classifier that immediately follows it, as in example (59a), or the noun

that immediately follows it, as in example (59b). The ungrammarticality of example

(59b) is due to the semantic incompatibility between the adjective sin ‘small’ and the

noun ɕy ‘water’. Otherwise, the example will be perfectly grammatical, e.g. (58b).

After looking at adjectives, we will examine adverbs in Tunxi Hui.

2.1.5 Adverbs

Adverbs can modify adjectives, verbs and other adverbs. Examples of adverbs

include lə ‘so’, ɕiɛ ‘too’, itau ‘immediately’, ʨʰiɛɕi ‘loudly’, to name a few.

31
(60) Modifying an adjective
a. a ʦʰoȵi ma ka li lə tʰo.
1.SG yesterday buy PART pear so big
‘The pear that I bought yesterday is so big.’

b. ka31 ka42 iauko ɕiɛ xɔ.

this one pickled cowpea too salty
‘The pickled cowpea is too salty.’

(61) Modifying a verb

a. kʰəle tɛ-ʨʰio itau pan.
3.SG hear-PERF immediately run
‘He/she ran away immediately after he heard about it.’

b. Liauliau ɕi mole ʨʰiɛɕi

ɛɕi kʰu.
PN ɕi there loudly cry.
‘Liauliau is crying like crazy.’

(62) Modifying an adverb

kʰəle kəȵie lə ʦə ʦʰələ-ʨʰio.
3.SG today very early rise-PERF
‘He/She got up very early today.’

Most of the time, adverbs occur immediately before the words they are modifying.

Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, where a few adverbs have to appear after the

words they modify. For example:

(63) xuɛ ‘very’

a. kəȵie ka ȵiu44ȵiu11 ɕiɛ xuɛ ʨʰio.

today POSS beef raw very SFP
‘The beef today is too raw (to eat).’

b. *kəȵie ka ȵiu44ȵiu11 xuɛ ɕiɛ ʨʰio.

today POSS beef very raw SFP

32
(64) tʰiɛ ‘once more’

a. ʨʰi uːə fə tʰiɛ!

eat CL rice once more
‘Have one more (bowl of rice)!’

b. *tʰiɛ ʨʰi uːə fə!

once more eat CL rice

(65) ʨʰi ‘first’

a. aian kʰə42 ʨʰi, kʰə44le ŋo tin lə.

1.PL go first, 3.SG late a little come.
‘Let’s go first, he/she will come a bit later.’

b. *aian ʨʰi kʰə42 , kʰə44le ŋo tin lə.

1.PL first go 3.SG late a little come.

After a glimpse of adverbs, let us have a look at the category of prepositions in

Tunxi Hui.

2.1.6 Prepositions

Prepositions are a closed syntactic category. There are a very limited number of

prepositions in Tunxi Hui. The word ʦʰan ‘from’ is a typical example.

(66) ʦʰan ‘from’

a ʦʰan tuːəʨiɛ lə.

1.SG from Tunxi come
‘I come from Tunxi.’

Next, we will look at other categories in Tunxi Hui.

33
2.1.7 Others

Apart from the basic categories mentioned above, there exist several other

grammatical categories such as classifiers, conjunctions and particles etc. However,

due to the constraints of space, they will not be further discussed in this thesis. For a

general introduction to the other parts of speech in Tunxi Hui, see Qian (1997). We

will now examine the word order of Tunxi Hui in the next section.

2.2 Word Order

Word order, or constituent order, has been a subject of great interest to linguists.

Based on the linear order of the subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) in a clause,

languages in the world can be classified into six logical types, namely, SVO

languages, SOV languages, VSO languages, VOS languages, OVS languages and

OSV languages (Comrie 1989, Whaley 1997 etc.). In the following section, the basic

constituent order of Tunxi Hui will be investigated. We will also have a look at how

declarative sentences and questions are arranged.

2.2.1 Basic Constituent Order

The basic constituent order in a language may not be as obvious as it seems to

be. More than one order may be allowed for a proposition. Based on Bickford’s (1998:

34
214-216) analysis and other studies on markedness, Kroeger (2005: 198-199) selects

five criteria to determine the basic constituent order of a language. These are:

(i) the basic word order is ‘the one that is used most frequently in discourse’.

(ii) basic sentences bear ‘neutral semantics and pragmatics’.

(iii) the basic word order should NOT be based on the order of pronouns.

(iv) ‘surbordinate clauses take priority’.

(v) basic sentences have ‘the widest distribution’.

Taking all the above criteria into consideration, here is an example from Tunxi

Hui:

(67) yanpɛ kau Toto ʦʰoȵie ma-ma-ʨʰio pɛ cy.

cy.
PN talk PN yesterday buy-PERF CL book
‘Yanpɛ said Toto bought a book yesterday.’

In order to best reflect the basic word order, in particular, we choose a positive

subordinate clause, which is declarative and active. It is not hard to tell that a basic

clause in Tunxi Hui has an SVO order.

In fact, the observation that Tunxi Hui is an SVO language may be supported by

conlusions from other typologically affiliated languages like Mandarin Chinese10

(Chao 1968, Li and Thompson 1981), Cantonese (Matthews & Yip 1994) and many

other varieties of Chinese, in which the basic word order is also SVO.

In the following section, we will then take a glance at how declarative sentences

10
Although there are still disputes among linguists on the basic word order of Mandarin Chinese, it is
generally accepted that Mandarin is an SVO language.

35
and questions are arranged in Tunxi Hui respectively.

2.2.2 Declarative Sentences

A simple declarative sentence in Tunxi Hui usually takes the word order of SVO.

It is the most frequently-used, unmarked utterance. For instance:

(68) siʨy xuːəɕɿ xuale.

PN love PN
‘Siʨy loves Xuale.’

(69) ʨyi kʰə-ko ɕiauxuə xala ʦʰi.

PN go-EXP Shanghai many CL
‘ʨyi has been to Shanghai many times.’

Examples (68) and (69) show that the SVO word order is quite common in simple

declarative sentences in Tunxi Hui. Occasionally, however, declarative sentences may

also be arranged in an OSV order by fronting the object (topicalization), e.g. (70):

(70) məfan, Kankan ʦə xuːəɕɿ.

green tea grandpa most love
‘Green tea Məfan, Grandpa loves the most.’

(71) kankan ʦə xuːəɕɿ məfan.

grandpa most love green tea
‘Grandpa loves green tea Məfan the most.’

Nevertheless, by comparing the topicalized example (70) with the ordinary one in

example (71), we find that example (70) is marked with an emphasis on the object

məfan ‘green tea Məfan’. More often than not, the change in word order from SVO in

example (71) to OSV in example (70) is accompanied by a short pause, signaled by the

36
comma after the topicalized object.

Therefore, the basic word order of a declariative sentence in Tunxi Hui is still

SVO. Topicalization, however, can serve as a word order changing device, which

may get us the word order of OSV. Next, we will examine how questions are formed

in this language.

2.2.3 Questions

Unlike in English, forming a question from a declarative sentence in Tunxi Hui

will not affect the word order of the original sentence. Questions can be further

divided into three sub-types, yes-no questions, alternative questions and

wh-questions. In the coming sections, yes-no questions will be dealt with in Section

2.2.3.1, alternative questions will be examined in Section 2.2.3.2, followed by

wh-questions in Section 2.2.3.3.

2.2.3.1 Yes-No Questions

Generally speaking, yes-no questions in Tunxi Hui can be formed by two

methods. The first method is by adding a general-purpose question particle ua to the

end of the declarative sentences. Questions formed by this method are called ‘particle

questions’. This is shown below:

37
(72) Particle Question

a. Siʨy xuːəɕɿ Xuale ua?

PN love PN PART(Q)
‘Does Siʨy love Xuale?’

b. ʨyi kʰə-ko ɕiauxuə ua?

PN go-EXP Shanghai PART(Q)
‘Has ʨyi been to Shanghai?’

A second type is the [V NEG V] question. In the case of a transitive verb, there

are two possible positions reserved for the object, either immediately after the first verb

and before the negation marker, i.e. [V O NEG V], or after the second instance of the

verb, i.e. [V NEG V O]. For example:

(73) a. [V O NEG V] Question

n̩ ʨʰi iɛ pu ʨʰi?
2.SG eat cigarette NEG eat
‘Do you smoke?’ (Qian 1997: 37)

b. [V NEG V O] Question

n̩ ʨʰi pu ʨʰi iɛ?

2.SG eat NEG eat cigarette
‘Do you smoke?’ (Qian 1997: 37)

The [V O NEG V] question seems to be an indigenous utterance of Tunxi Hui,

while the [V NEG V O] type is influenced by Mandarin. The [V O NEG V] type of

question is extremely marked in Mandarin, as shown in (74a).

38
Mandarin

(74) a. [V O NEG V] Question

?ni chou yan bu chou ?

2.SG pump cigarette NEG pump

b. [V NEG V O] Question
ni chou bu chou yan?
2.SG pump NEG pump cigaretter
‘Do you smoke?’

Next, we will move on to another kind of questions, namely alternative questions.

2.2.3.2 Alternative Questions

Alternative questions refer to the type of question in which a choice must be made

between two or more candidates. As far as Tunxi Hui is concerned, the word uːəɕi

‘or’ often signifies an alternative question:

(75) a. n̩le ʨʰi miɛ uːəɕ

uːəɕi
əɕi ʨʰi ʨiu?
2.SG eat noodle or eat porridge
‘Would you like noodles or porridge?’

b. Siliu xuːəɕi ʨiu uːəɕ

uːəɕi
əɕi mən?
PN like dog or cat
‘Does Siliu like dogs or cats?’

Aside from yes-no questions and alternative questions, we have a third kind of

questions in Tunxi Hui, wh-questions.

2.2.3.3 Wh-Questions

Wh-questions are formed with the help of ‘question words’. Like other varieties

of Chinese, question words in content questions remain in the same position as they

are in declarative sentences, i.e. they remain ‘in situ’. Let’s compare:

39
(76)
Declarative sentence (repeating example (68))
a. Siʨy xuːəɕɿ Xuale.
PN love PN
‘Siʨy loves Xuale.’

Wh-question
b. Siʨy xuːəɕɿ laka (a)?
PN like/love who (PART)
‘Who does Siʨy love?’

(77)
Declarative sentence
a. kʰəian ʦʰoȵie xɔn̩ sɔtiɛ ʦian tə ka.
2.PL yesterday afternoon three clock arrive PART
‘They arrived at 3:00 pm yesterday.’

Wh-question
b. kʰəian təmə -ɕikɔikɔ tə (a)?
2.PL what -time arrive (PART)
‘When will they arrive?’

c. kʰəian təmə-ɕikɔ
ikɔ tə ka?
ka
2.PL what -time arrive PART
‘When did they arrive?’

Two observations can be made based on the above examples.

Firstly, forming a wh-question does not change the basic word order in Tunxi Hui.

Wh-questions in (76b), (77b) and (77c) have the same relative word order as

declarative sentences (76a) and (77a).

Secondly, Tunxi Hui has two wh-question particles. When a wh-question is ended

with the particle ka, it is supposed to ask about a past event, e.g. (77c), and the

occurence of the particle ka is obligatory. Otherwise, when the particle a is used, the

40
question is asking about a current event, e.g. (76b) and (77b), and the occurrence of the

particle a is optional.

Apart from question particles, question words also play an important part in

forming wh-questions. Here is a list of the question words in Tunxi Hui:

la-
la-ka təmə təmə -ɕikɔ
ikɔ la-
la-li ɕi-ȵiau ʦo-təmə
Question
Words
Gloss which-one what what-time which-place how-way do-what
Translation ‘who ‘what’ ‘when’ ‘where’ ‘how’ OR ‘why’
[+human]’ ‘why’
OR ‘which
[-human]’
Table 5 Question words in Tunxi Hui

2.2.3.4 Section Summary

In this section, we focus on the word order of Tunxi Hui. Based on Kroeger’s

five criteria to determine the basic word order of a language, we observe that Tunxi

Hui is an SVO language, like Mandarin, Cantonese and many other Sinitic languages.

The SVO word order is also the default word order in declarative sentences in Tunxi

Hui. However, topicalization may bring about a change in the word order from SVO

to OSV by fronting the object. Still, the topicalized sentence is marked with an

emphasis on the fronted object, compared with its canonical declarative counterpart.

Questions in Tunxi Hui can be classified into yes-no questions, alternative questions

and wh-questions. Question words in wh-questions remain ‘in situ’. As a result, in

Tunxi Hui, forming a question from a declarative sentence will not affect its original

41
word order.

In section 2.1 and section 2.2, we have investigated the basic catogeries of the

language and its word order. In section 2.3, we will continue to examine another

significant aspect of the syntax of Tunxi Hui, i.e. tense and aspect.

2.3 Tense and Aspect

As far as tense and aspect are concerned, Tunxi Hui is an aspect language, not a

tense language. There is no grammatical tense in Tunxi Hui (see section 2.3.1).

Temporal relationships, instead, are expressed by means of ‘time words’. Aspect, on

the other hand, is encoded by aspectual markers or particles. The most common

aspectual markers are ʨʰio for the perfective aspect, ko for the experiential aspect,

ɕimole/ɕikale for the progressive aspect, and liuʨʰio for the perfect/anterior aspect.

Tense will be examined in section 2.3.1, while aspect will be investigated in

section 2.3.2.

2.3.1 Tense

Tense is defined as ‘the grammaticalization of location in time’ (Comrie 1985:

vii). Since there is no verbal morphology to encode temporal relationships in Tunxi

Hui, it can be said to have no grammatical tense as mentioned above. However, it

42
does not mean Tunxi Hui has no strategy to indicate time relationships. Like most

Sinitic languages, Tunxi Hui employs ‘time words’ to talk about what happened and

what is yet to happen.

Common time words include ʦʰoȵie ‘yesterday’, ȵieȵie ‘everyday’, mɛȵiɛ

‘next year’, sɔɕiia ‘Lunar New Year’s Eve’, puːəsɔȵiɛ ‘Year 1983’, lipaȵie ‘Sunday’

etc. For instance:

(78) lala ʦʰoȵie lə Uxu io.

Grandma yesterday come Wuhu SFP
‘Grandma came to Wuhu yesterday.’

(79) kʰə ȵieȵie

ieȵie ʨʰi ʦɔ.
3.SG every day eat tea
‘He/she drinks tea every day.’

(80) a mɛȵiɛ sɔɕɿ io.

1.SG next year thirty SFP
‘I will be thirty years old next year.’

In examples (78), (79) and (80), the semantic tenses of ‘past’, ‘present’ and

‘future’ are expressed respectively with the help of the time words ʦʰoȵie ‘yesterday’,

ȵieȵie ‘every day’and mɛȵiɛ ‘next year’.

Tunxi Hui is not a tense language, and temporal relationships are expressed by

means of time words. Next, let us examine how aspect values are encoded in Tunxi Hui.

2.3.2 Aspect

Aspect is a grammatical device that facilitates the speaker to conceptualize the

‘internal temporal makeup’ of an event (Whaley 1997: 204), and this is subjective.

43
Tunxi Hui employs a number of aspectual markers to code the different aspect values,

namely perfective (PERF), experiential (EXP), progressive (PROG), and anterior

(ANT)/perfect11 aspects. Table 6 shows the distribution of major aspectual markers

in Tunxi Hui:

Aspect Values Aspectual markers Distribution

PERF ʨʰio V ʨʰio (O)

EXP ko V ko (O)

ɕi-mole13 ɕi-mole V (O)

PROG12
ɕi-kale14 ɕi-kale V (O)

ʨʰio V ʨʰio (O)

ANT/Perfect liuʨʰio V (O) liuʨʰio

ʨʰio V (O) ʨʰio

Table 6 Aspectual markers in Tunxi Hui

The aspectual markers are illustrated in examples (81) to (84).

The perfective aspect suggests a ‘bounded’ event, as below:

(81) ləli ma-ʨ

ʨʰio ʨiɛ iɕiau ti kʰə lɛmən.
Mr.Li buy-PERF CL clothes ti 2.SG sister.
‘Mr. Li bought a coat for his sister.’

11
The perfect aspect is not to be confused with the perfective aspect. The perfective aspect treats ‘an
entire event as whole’, i.e. finished and bounded, whereast the perfect aspect implies that a past event
still has enduring influence over a specific temporal reference (Kroeger 2005: 158). Refer to Kroeger
(2005:158) for examples in English and Russian. In this study, we use the term anterior aspect (ANT)
instead of the perfect aspect to minimize the confusion.
12
Li & Thompson (1981) call it ‘durative aspect’. Except for subtle nuances in meaning, DUR and
PROG are both imperfective.
13
The marker ɕi-mole ‘be there’ has been grammaticalized into a progressive aspectual marker.
14
The marker ɕi-kale ‘be here’ has been grammaticalized into a progressive aspectual marker.

44
 The experiential aspect focuses on the experience of doing something:

(82) lala pan tʰəu-ko

ko ɕy.
Grandma not yet read-EXP book
‘Grandma has never been schooled.’

The progressive aspect is used for an ongoing event:

(83) a. ma ɕi-mole se iɕiau.

Mom PROG wash clothes
‘Mom is washing clothes.’
b. pa ɕiu li tɔ-ʨʨʰio ʨi ʦɔpən.
Dad hand in hold-PROG CL tea cup
‘Dad is holding a teacup in his hand.’

The anterior/perfect aspect is used when a past event still has its influence over

a specific temporal reference:

(84) a. a ʨʰi fuːə liuʨ

liuʨʰio.
io.
1.SG eat rice ANT
‘I have had my meal.’

b. kʰə ɕiau ka ɕi ʨʰio

ʨʰio,
io uːə pan xuːə lə.
3.SG go up street play ANT still NEG back come
‘He/She has gone in town, and he/she has not come back yet.’

We will summarize this chapter in the next section.

2.4 Chapter Summary

In this chapter, we have provided a sketch of the syntax of the Tunxi Hui, a less

studied variety of the Hui dialects spoken in the city of Tunxi.

In section 2.1, five major syntactic categories of Tunxi Hui are introduced,

namely nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. In particular, verbs in

45
Tunxi Hui can be subdivided into seven groups, namely intransitive verbs, transitive

verbs, ditransitive verbs, verbs which take a sentential complement, the copular verb,

coverbs and stative verbs.

In section 2.2, we investigated the basic word order of Tunxi Hui. According to

Kroeger’s (2005) five criteria for determining the basic word order of a language, we

find that Tunxi Hui is an SVO language like most Chinese languages. Declarative

sentences and questions in Tunxi Hui normally make use of the word order SVO.

Topicalization will bring about a change in the word order from SVO to OSV, but the

topicalized sentence is pragmatically marked compared with the canonical SVO

sentence.

Finally, in section 2.3, we surveyed Tunxi Hui from the perspective of tense and

aspect. Tunxi Hui does not have grammatical tenses. Temporal relationships are

encoded with the help of time words. Aspect, on the other hand, is realized by

aspectual markers/particles in Tunxi Hui. Four major aspects are found, and they are:

the perfective, the experiential, the progress and the anterior/perfect aspects. They

reflect how speakers see the event, as bounded, experienced, ongoing or completed.

After a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui, we will go on to analyze a

multifunctional morpheme in Tunxi Hui, together with the various constructions it

takes part in, namely, the ti morpheme and the ti construction.

46
 Chapter 3 The Syntax of the Ti Construction

After a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui, we will move on to a specific

construction in this language, namely the ti construction15. The morpheme ti

possesses an array of uses in Tunxi Hui. It can serve as a full lexical verb ‘give’, and

it can also function as a coverb marking the recipient NP, the benefactive NP or the

locative NP, or render a permissive, a causative, or a passive reading to the sentence

that it appears in.

However, the polyfunctionality of the ‘give’ morpheme seems more than a

coincidence. It is not only found in other Sinitic languages such as Hong Kong Yue,

Shanghai Wu and Mandarin (Chappell & Peyraube 2006), but also well observed in

some non-genetically affiliated languages like those spoken in Asia and West Africa

(Lord, Yap & Iwasaki 2002). Grammaticalization can explain in part the relationships

between the various functions of the GIVE morpheme, from a cross-linguistic point

of view.

This chapter is organized as follows: firstly, some key terms often related to the

word GIVE will be clarified in section 3.1. After that, the distribution of the ti

morpheme in Tunxi Hui, firstly as a full lexical verb, and then as a coverb will be

15
An earlier draft of this chapter was presented at the deparment seminar of the School of
Humanities (Linguistics). I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Stephen Matthews and Dr. Foong
Ha YAP for their helpful comments and suggestions in this seminar.

47
addressed in section 3.2. To facilitate the understanding of the multiple uses of ti in

Tunxi Hui, examples will also be drawn from Mandarin, Cantonese, Changsha Xiang

and Shanghainese for comparison. Finally, a tentative explanation will be given from

the perspective of grammaticalization to account for the relationships between the

distinct uses of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui in section 3.3.

3.1 On Terminology

Cross-linguistically, a number of terms are frequently found in discussions on

constructions in which the word GIVE plays an important role. These include

‘ditransitivity’ and ‘double object constructions’ (DOCs), and occasionally, ‘serial

verb constructions’ (SVCs). We will look at these terms one by one.

3.1.1 Ditransitivity and Double Object Constructions (DOCs)

As far as ditransitivity is concerned, Kittilä (2006) and Lam (2008), among others,

have differentiated ‘syntactic ditransitivity’ from ‘semantic ditransitivity’. In line with

their definitions, both a semantically ditransitive construction and a syntactically

ditransitive construction require a three-place predicate which subcategorizes for an

agent argument, a theme argument and a recipient argument. However, for a verb to be

syntactically ditransitive, the recipient argument it takes has to be realized by an object

48
NP, not by an oblique PP (Lam 2008: 35-36). To be specific, taking the English

example below, a double object construction (1a) and a prepositional dative structure

(1b) are semantically ditransitive, but only (1a) is syntactically ditransitive, according

to Kittilä’s (2006) and Lam’s (2008) definitions.

(1) a. Mick gave Lily a Teddy bear. (Double Object Structure)

b. Mick gave a Teddy bear to Lily. (Prepositional Dative Structure)

Bearing in mind the distinction between semantic ditransitivity and syntactic

ditransitivity, in this study, when the term ‘ditransitivity’ is used, we refer to

‘syntactic ditransitivity’ specifically.

After syntactic ditransitivity, Lam (2008) also gives a working definition for

double object constructions (DOCs). According to her, unless both of the two objects

in a DOC are encoded in the same way as the sole object in a monotransitive

structure, the structure cannot be said to be a DOC (Lam 2008:36-37). Therefore, the

ditransitive structure in (1a) is a true DOC.

There is another structure which often appears hand in hand with the double

object construction. It is the (prepositional) dative structure as in (1b). Together, they

form a ‘dative alternation16’. With reference to Sinitic languages, some scholars

consider Mandarin as having a dative alternation, pairing a DOC in (2a) and a

16
An ‘alternation’ is meant for a case in which more than one structures are employed to express
‘semantically equivalent’ propositions. (O’Connor et al. 2007 in Lam 2008: 30)

49
(prepositional) dative structure in (2b):

(2) a. Xiaohua song-le Wenwen liang ben zidian.

PN give-PERF PN two CL dictionary
‘Xiaohua gave Wenwen two dictionaries.’

b. Xiaohua song-le liang ben zidian gei Wenwen.

PN give-PERF two CL dictionary GEI PN
‘Xiaohua gave two dictionaries to Wenwen.’

There are generally two problems with this view. Firstly, example (2a) has yet

another ‘alternative’ besides (2b), as below:

c. Xiaohua song gei le Wenwen liang ben zidian.

PN give GEI PERF PN two CL dictionary
‘Xiaoming gave Wenwen two dictionary.’

Treating (2b) as an alternative of the double object construction in (2a) will

leave the equally widespread construction in (2c) unpatterned. Secondly, the

categorical classification of words like gei in (2b) still remains an open question.

With regard to Mandarin, both Ross (1991) and Huang & Ahrens (1999) argue

against the view that treats verbs like gei in (2b) as prepositions, given that they

exhibit a number of verbal features, making it hard to identify them as prepositions.

With respect to Cantonese, Matthews & Yip (1994) and Lam (2004) also advocate

that coverbs alike in Cantonese behave more like verbs, rather than prepositions. In

line with these, within the limits of this thesis, we will not consider words like gei in

(2b) as preopositions, but rather as coverbs, a subset of verbs. Likewise, the

construction in (2b) will not be seen as a prepositional dative structure, but a serial

50
verb construction in which a series of verbs together encode a single event.

3.1.2 Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs)

Long being a topic of great interest to many linguists, serial verb

constructions (SVCs) have not yet been given a consensual working definition

cross-linguistically. Nevertheless, scholars have endeavored to come up with a set of

working criteria with regard to SVCs in a specific language. Following Bodomo’s

(1997) observations on SVCs of Dagaare and Akan, Lam’s (2003) constraints on

Cantonese SVCs, Pan’s (2010) criteria for Qingzhou Zhuang SVCs and Li’s (1991)

analysis of Mandarin Chinese SVCs, within the extent of this study we hereby adopt

the following criteria for SVCs in Tunxi Hui:

(i) The verbs in an SVC are understood to be parts of a single event.

(ii) All the verbs in an SVC should be able to occur alone in another clause.

(iii) All the verbs in an SVC share the same polarity and aspectual value.

(iv) The same subject is shared by all the verbs in an SVC.

(v) Neither overt nor covert connectives are allowed in an SVC.

Here is an example of a Tunxi Hui serial verb construction, abiding to the above

criteria:

(3) Toto ɕiau ka ma məsɿ ʨʰio.

PN go up street buy thing ANT
‘Toto has gone shopping in town.’

Sentence (3) is a serial verb construction, because:

51
(i) The two verbs ɕiau ‘go’ and ma ‘buy’ collectively constitute a single event, i.e.

go shopping.

(ii) Both ɕiau ‘go’ and ma ‘buy’ are lexical verbs which can occur in isolation in other

clauses.

(iii) Both ɕiau ‘go’ and ma ‘buy’ are affirmative in polarity, and anterior/perfect in

aspect.

(iv) The proper noun Toto is the structural subject for both verbs.

(v) There is no overt or convert connectives in the sentence.

Having defined double object constructions and serial verb constructions, we

will start to invesitigate the various uses of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui.

3.2 Distribution of the Ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui

The ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui can occur as a lexical verb and as a coverb. As a

full lexical verb, ti serves as the predicate of a double object construction, while as a

coverb, ti often takes part in a serial verb construction. Section 3.2.1 will address the

first scenario of ti as a full lexical verb, and section 3.2.2 will deal with the second

scenario of ti as a coverb with various uses. To better understand the multi-uses of ti,

parallel examples from Modern Standard Mandarin, Hong Kong Yue/Cantonese,

Changsha Xiang and Shanghai Wu/Shanghainese will also be given in appropriate

52
places for comparison.

3.2.1 Ti ‘give’ as a Full Lexical Verb

The morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui can be analyzed as a full lexical verb ‘give’. The

verb ti ‘give’, based on our definition in Section 3.1.1, is a ditransitive verb which

obligatorily requires two NP objects, one associated with the recipient role, the other

with the theme role. The construction it appears in is a double object construction:

Tunxi Hui17

(4) a. Liauliau ʦʰoȵie ti-

ti-ʨʰio Xuale liau ʨi pi.
PN yesterday give-PERF PN two CL pen
‘Liauliau gave Xuale two pens yesterday.’

b. kʰə ʦʰoȵie ti-

ti-ʨʰio ale liau ʨi pi.
3.SG yesterday give-PERF 1.SG two CL pen
‘He/She gave me two pens yesterday.’

c. *Liauliau ʦʰoȵiɛ ti-

ti-ʨʰio liau ʨi pi Xuale.
PN yesterday give-PERF two CL pen PN

When ti appears in a double object construction, the relative order of the two

objects has to be [ti NPRpt NPTh]. The pronominality of the NPs will not affect the

linear order of the two NPs in this case. Sentence (4c) is ungrammatical as it fails to

observe this order.

Ti ‘give’ in Tunxi Hui loosely corresponds to the Mandarin gei ‘give’,

Cantonese bei ‘give’, Changsha Xiang pa ‘give’ or Shanghai Wu peq ‘give’.

17
Unless otherwise specified, all the examples listed here are all in Tunxi Hui.

53
Illustrations of each of the above GIVE morphemes in a double object construction

are as follows, assuming pronominality does not affect the linear order of the two

objects.
Mandarin
(5) a. ta shang xingqi gei-
gei-le wo yi ben shu.
3.SG last week give-PERF 1.SG one CL book
‘He/She has given me a book last week.’

b. *ta shang xingqi gei-

gei-le yi ben shu wo.
3.SG last week give-PERF one CL book 1.SG

Cantonese
(6) a. ngo bei-
bei-zo bun syu keoi.
1.SG give-PERF CL book 3.SG
‘I gave him/her a book.’

b. *ngo bei
bei-zo keoi bun syu.
1.SG give-PERF 3.SG CL book

Changsha Xiang
(7) a. tʰa pa-
pa-ta pen ɕy ŋo.
3.SG give-PERF CL book 1.SG
‘He/She gave me a book.’ (Adapted from Wu 2005:335)

b. tʰa pa-
pa-ta ŋo i pen ɕy.
3.SG give-PERF 1.SG one CL book
‘He/She gave me a book.’

Shanghainese
(8) a. xii peq-
peq-leq tsang tsirdeu ngu.
3.SG give-PERF CL paper 1.SG
‘He/She has given me a piece of paper.’ (Adapted from Zhu 2006: 137)

b. xii peq-
peq-leq ngu tsang tsirdeu.
3.SG give-PERF 1.SG CL paper
‘He/She has given me a piece of paper.’ (Adapted from Zhu 2006: 137)

54
 Although each of the GIVE morphemes in the five dialects/languages appears in

a double object construction which requires for two NP objects, one linked to the theme

role and the other to the recipient role, it should be noticed that the relative word order

of the two objects of the five GIVE morphemes are different. They fall into two

paradigms18:

Paradigm 1 (e.g. Tunxi Hui, Mandarin):

Vgive< NPAg <NPRpt<NPTh

Paradigm 2: (e.g. Cantonese)

Vgive< NPAg< NPTh <NPRpt

While Tunxi Hui and Mandarin allow only the word order in Paradigm 1, and

Cantonese adopts only Paradigm 2, Shanghainese and Changsha Xiang seem to accept

both patterns. In fact, as far as GIVE-DOCs are concerned, the majority of Chinese

languages prefer the Recipient NP before the Theme NP, i.e. Paradigm 1. Even among

the few19 where the canonical order of NPs in a GIVE-DOC is the theme NP before

recipient NP order, i.e. Paradigm 2, some have been affected by Mandarin, where the

recipient NP comes before the theme NP in a GIVE-DOC, i.e. Paradigm 1. As a result,

it gives rise to the acceptability of both patterns, like what happened in Changsha Xiang

and Shanghainese. Cantonese has somehow survived in the sense that there is not yet

18
Other variables like weight is not taken into account. This is to be dealt with in further research.
19
Mainly in varieties of Wu dialects, Yue dialects and Xiang dialects, for instance, Shanghai Wu,
Yiwu Wu, Fenghua Wu (Pan 1986, cited in Huang 1996), Hengyang Xiang (Li 1986, cited in Huang
1996), Haikang Yue (Lin 1992, cited in Huang 1996), Guangzhou Yue (Huang 1959, cited in Huang
1996), Yangjiang Yue (Huang 1966, cited in Huang 1996).

55
any sign of the acceptability of Paradigm 1.

To sum up, the relative order of the two objects in the GIVE-DOCs in Tunxi Hui,

together with those in parallel constructions in Mandarin, Cantonese, Changsha Xiang

and Shanghainese are listed below:

Paradigm 1 Paradigm 2

GIVE Rpt-NP before Th-NP Th-NP before Rpt-NP

Tunxi Hui ti


Mandarin gei


Cantonese bei 

Changsha Xiang pa

Shanghainese peq

Next, we will go on to look at the uses of ti as coverbs in section 3.3.2.

3.2
3.2.2 Ti as a coverb

As a helping verb, or so-called coverb, ti can occur in a number of distinct

situations, often involving a serial verb construction. It can precede a recipient NP or

a benefactive NP, or render a locative, a permissive, a causative or even a passive

reading to the sentence that it appears in. We shall start with a descriptive analysis of

ti marking the recipient role.

56
3.2
3.2.2.1 Ti as a Recipient Marker

Ti can be employed in a serial verb construction to mark the recipient role.

(9) a. a ɕiɛni mɛle san-ʨʰio liau pɛ ɕy ti20

ale.
1.SG birthday PN bestow-PERF two CL book TI 1.SG
‘Mɛle gave two books to me for my birthday.’

b. a ɕiɛni mɛle san ti ale liau pɛ ɕy.

1.SG birthday PN bestow TI 1.SG two CL book
‘Mɛle gave two books to me for my birthday.’

As a helping verb V2 taking a recipient NP, two positions are allowed: either after

the theme NP (9a.), i.e. [V NPTh ti NPRpt], or immediately following the main verb V1

and before the theme NP (9b), i.e. [V ti NPRpt NPTh].

But, if V1, i.e. the full lexical verb happens to be ti ‘give’, to avoid the occurrence

of two ti’s in a row, the utterance in example (10b) is abandoned. A GIVE-DOC like

(10c) is used instead:

An SVC:
(10) a. a ɕiɛni Xuale ti-ʨʰio liau ʨin ʦɔia ti ale.
1.SG birthday PN give-PERF two kilo tea TI 1.SG
‘Xuale gave two kilos of tea to me for my birthday.’

b. *a ɕiɛni Xuale ti ti ale liau ʨin ʦɔia.

1.SG birthday PN give TI 1.SG two kilo tea

A GIVE-DOC:
c. a ɕiɛni Xuale ti-ʨʰio ale liau ʨin ʦɔia.
1.SG birthday PN give-PERF 1.SG two kilo tea
‘Xuale gave two kilos of tea to me for my birthday.’

20
To facilitate understanding, ti is glossed as ‘give’ when it is used as a main verb. Otherwise, when it
serves as a coverb, it is glossed as TI.

57
 Similarly, the Mandarin gei, Cantonese bei, Shanghainese peq can serve as a

coverb marking a recipient, too.

Mandarin

(11) ta xie-le yi feng xin gei wo.

3.SG write-PERF one CL letter GEI 1.SG
‘He/she wrote a letter to me.’

Cantonese

(12) keoi lo-zo bun syu bei ngo.

3.SG bring-PERF CL book BEI 1.SG
‘He/She brought a book to me.’

Shanghainese

(13) xii song-leq paq tsaq ȵybin peq ngu.

3.SG bestow-PERF eight CL moon cake PEQ 1.SG
‘He/She gave eight moon cakes to me (as a present).’

Next, we will examine the constructions in which Tunxi Hui ti serves as a

benefactive marker.

3.2.2.2 Ti as a Benefactive Marker

Apart from being a recipient marker, ti can also serve as a benefactive marker in

a serial verb constructions as in (14a). When it does so, ti always comes as the

second verb21, and it has to take an NP and a V.

21
There are a few very limited circumstances in which the benefactive ti comes as the first verb in an
SVC. When it is the case, the sentence will be ambiguious between a benefactive and a pemissive
reading. Here is an example:
(14) c. ʦʰoya m̩ ti aian lən fə ʨʰi.
last night mom TI 1.PL make rice eat
‘Mom cooked dinner for us last night.’ OR
‘Mom allowed us to cook dinner last night.’

The permissive understanding is even clearer in the negative form of the sentence. Notice that the
benefactive reading is no longer avaiable in 14 (c’). (see next page)

58
 In (14a), the benefactive marker ti requires an NP and a V, i.e. [ti NP V].

Example (14b) is ungrammatical because what follows the benefactive marker ti is

not an NP and a V, but a simple noun phrase, i.e. [ti NP].

(14) a. ʦʰo ya m̩ lən fə ti aian ʨʰi.

yesterday night mom make rice TI 1.PL eat
‘Mom cooked dinner for us last night.’

b. *ʦʰo ya m̩ lən fə ti aian.

aian
yesterday night mom make rice TI 1.PL

The ti-SVC in which ti serves as a benefactive marker is quite productive:

(15) Siʨiau ma iɕiau ti ʨinsan ʨio.

PN buy clothes TI PN wear
‘Siʨiau bought clothes for ʨinsan to wear.’

(16) Tiɛtiɛ ʨʰiau ko ti Liauliau tʰɛ.

PN sing song TI PN listen
‘Tiɛtiɛ sang a song for Liauliau to listen.’

(17) Lala ɕio ɕy ti Toto seiu.

Grandma burn water TI PN shower
‘Grandma boiled water for Toto to take a shower.’

Aside from ti, there is another benefactive marker in Tunxi Hui, i.e. the coverb pau,

which shares the same form with the full lexical verb pau ‘help’ (Section 2.1.3.2.6).

examples of the pau-SVCs in which pau serves as a benefactive maker are illustrated

below:

(see previous page, footnote 21)

(14) c’. ʦʰoya m̩ pu ti aian lən fə ʨʰi.
last night mom NEG TI 1.PL make rice eat
‘Mom did not allow us to cook dinner last night.’
*‘Mom did not cook for us last night.’

59
(18) ʦʰoya m̩ pau aian lən fə.
last night mom PAU 1.PL make rice
‘Mom cooked for us last night.’

(19) Xuale pau Siʨy ʦʰə5ʨʰio ʦʰə11piun.

PN PAU PN exit.PERF money
‘Xuale paid the money for Siʨy.’

(20) kʰə lɛmən itau pau kʰəle kau uːə.

3.SG sister immediately PAU 3.SG speak word
‘His/her sister plead for him/her immediately.’

Unlike ti, when the coverb pau marks a benefactive role, it usually appears as the

first verb in the sequence. The ungrammaticality of (21b) is due to the occurrence of

pau as V2.

(21) a. ʦʰoya m̩ pau aian lən fə. (repeating (18))

last night mom PAU 1.PL make rice
‘Mom cooked for us last night.’

b. *ʦʰoya m̩ lən fə pau aian.

last night mom make rice PAU 1.PL

From the examples above, we observe that ti as a benefactive marker diverges

from pau in two respects:

(i) With regard to the order of verbs, pau predominantly serves as V1 preceding

another verb/other verbs, while ti often serves as V2 following V1.

(ii) With regard to verb subgategorization, pau requires an NPBen, while ti

subcategorizes for an NP and a V.

Like the Tunxi Hui ti, the ‘give’ morphemes in Mandarin, Shanghainese and

Cantonese can also mark a benefactive NP, for example:

60
Mandarin gei

(22) Tiantian tiaowu gei Liangliang kan.

PN dance GEI PN see
‘Tiantian danced for Liangliang to watch.’

Shanghainese peq

(23) ngna ma-leq pen sir peq ngu khoe.

grandma buy-PERF CL book PEQ 1.SG see.
‘Grandma bought a book for me to read.’

Cantonese bei

(24) aamaa zing-zo faai daan gou bei ngo sik.

mom make-PERF CL cake BEI 1.SG eat
‘Mom made a cake for me to eat.’

From section 3.3.2.1 and section 3.3.2.2, we know that the coverb ti can mark the

recipient role and the benefactive role in an SVC. Ti can occur in a third kind of SVCs,

in which ti marks the locative role, as we will see in section 3.3.2.3.

3.2.2.3 Ti as a Locative Marker

3.2.2.3 Marker

Besides marking the recipient and the benefactive roles, ti can also be employed

to introduce a locative role. When it does, a serial verb construction is also involved:

(25) kʰə ti mopiɛ kʰə ʨʰio.

3.SG TI there go PERF
‘He went there.’

(26) iaufun tiɛ ti ko xɔ kʰə ʨʰio.

handkerchief fall TI floor down go PERF
‘The handkerchief fell downstairs.’

(27) n̩ ti mole tɛ ixɔn.

2.SG TI there wait a while
‘Please wait there for a while.’

61
 Unlike the ‘give’ morpheme as a recipient marker or as a benefactive marker,

the ‘give’ morpheme as a locative marker is quite uncommon as it is seldom found in

other varieties of Chinese, including Shanghainese, Cantonese, and (Modern

Standard) Mandarin, etc. One such example, interestingly, is found in Harbin

Mandarin22:

Harbin Mandarin (a variety of Northeastern Mandarin)

(28) ni gei naer qu le?
2.SG GEI where go PART
‘Where did you go?’

One factor that may be relevant to the gradual extinction of the morpheme as a

locative marker which shares the same form with GIVE, is the spread of Modern

Standard Mandarin. Taking Tunxi Hui as an example, with the emerging influence of

Mandarin, the locative use of ti in Tunxi Hui is losing ground to a more general

morpheme tə ‘arrive’, borrowed from the Modern Standard Mandarin dao ‘arrive’. For

instance, the proposition in (25) can be put in another way by replacing ti with tə

without changing the meaning, i.e. in (29). The younger generation living in the city

nowadays tend to use tə more than ti as a locative marker, as a result of constant contact

with Mandarin Chinese.

Tunxi Hui tə ‘arrive’

(29) kʰə tə mopiɛ kʰə ʨʰio.

3.SG arrive there go PERF
‘He went there.’

22
I owe my sincere thanks to Jerome Zhang for providing this example.

62
 Compare with Modern Standard Mandarin dao ‘arrive’:

(30) ta dao chengli qu le.

3.SG arrive city go SFP
‘He/She went to the city.’

After examining ti as a recipient marker, a benefactive marker and a locative

marker in serial verb constructions, we shall move on to other uses of the coverb ti,

which do not involve an SVC but a pivotal construction23. These uses are ti as a

permissive marker, a causative marker and a passive marker.

3.2.2.4 Ti as a permissive marker

Besides serving as a recipient marker, a benefactive marker and a locative

marker, the morpheme ti can also render a permissive meaning. Here are two typical

examples:

(31) tɕiɛ lə ȵa yo, apa pu ti5 ti42

ti a tsʰə kʰə ka.
so very late PART Dad NEG will TI 1.SG out go SFP.
‘It is too late now. Dad won’t let me go out. ’

(32) Q: laka ti n̩le ʨiɛɕin ko ka?

Who TI 2.SG this way do SFP
‘Who allows you to do it this way?’
A: m̩.
Mom
‘Mom’

The above examples in which ti serves as the permissive marker are not

qualified as Tunxi Hui SVCs, as they fail to observe the subject sameness criterion

23
A ‘pivotal construction’ (Chao 1968: 124-129, Li 1981: 607, among others) is defined as a
construction that ‘contains a noun phrase that is simultaneously the subject of the second verb and the
direct object object of the first verb’. (Li & Thompson 1981: 607)

63
and the polarity and the aspect sameness crieterion in section 3.1.1. Instead, they are

pivotal constructions in which the object of V1 is the subject of V2.

Parallel with the Tunxi ti, the ‘give’ morphemes in Mandarin, Shanghainese and

Cantonese can also give a permissive reading. Examples from each language are

shown below for comparison.

Mandarin gei
(33) mama zhongyu gei wo xue jita le.
Mom finally GEI 1.SG learn guitar SFP
‘Mom finally allows me to learn to play the guitar.’

Shanghainese peq
(34) xii veq peq ngu chiq sjiicae.
3.SG NEG PEQ 1.SG eat western-style meal
‘He/She does’t allow me to have western-style meals.’

Cantonese bei
(35) aamui m bei ngo zau.
Sister NEG BEI 1.SG go
‘My sister won’t let me go.’

Next, we will observe another ti-pivotal construction, in which ti renders a

causative meaning.

3.2.2.5 Ti as a causative marker

Ti also serves as a causative maker in Tunxi Hui. For example:

(36) n̩ ti a xa si ʨʰio.
2.SG TI 1.SG frighten death SFP
‘You made me frightened to death./You frightened me to death.’

Likewise, sentence (36) is not a SVC mainly because the two verbs ti and xa

‘frighten’ do not share the same structural subject. Rather, it is a pivotal construction

64
based on Chao’s (1968) and Li & Thompson’s (1981) definitions.

With respect to parallel constructions in Mandarin and Cantonese, Xu (1994)

gives some examples of the Mandarin gei serving as a causative marker. Please refer

to Xu (1994) for details. Cantonese, on the other hand, cannot use its ‘give’ morpheme

bei as a causative marker.

Now, let us have a look at the last use of ti as a passive marker.

3.2.2.6 Ti as a passive marker

Ti can also function as a passive marker in Tunxi Hui. Here are two examples:

(37) iau ti lau ʨʰi tɔ ʨʰio.

sheep TI wolf eat RVC SFP
‘The sheep was eaten by the wolf.’

(38) mo ʨi ʦɔpən ti kʰəle ta tʰɔ ʨʰio.

That CL teacup TI 3.SG break RVC SFP
‘That teacup was broken by him/her.’

Detailed analyses of the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui will be given in Chapter 4.

Like the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui, the ‘give’ morphemes in Mandarin,

Shanghainese and Cantonese can also serve as a passive marker. They are illustrated

below for comparision.

Mandarin gei

(39) yang gei lang chi le.

sheep GEI wolf eat PERF
‘The sheep was eaten by the wolf.’

65
Shanghainese peq

(40) ngu xeq tisjin peq xii chiq theq leq.

1.SG POSS snake PEQ 3.SG break RVC PERF
‘My snacks were eaten by him/her.’

Cantonese bei

(41) ngo bei jan haa.

1.SG BEI person bully
‘I was bullied by someone.’

We will summarize the various uses of the morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui in the next

section.

3.2.
3.2.3
2.3 Section Summary

This section has provided a general idea on the functions of the ti morpheme in

Tunxi Hui. However, the functions will make more sense if we compare these with the

results from genetically affiliated languages like Mandarin, Shanghai Wu and

Cantonese. Below is a summary of the various uses of the morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui,

compared with the uses of ‘give’ morphemes in Mandarin gei, Shanghai Wu peq and

Cantonese bei:

66
 Main Coverbs
The Verb
‘give’
SVCs Pivotal Constructions
morpheme

‘give’ Recipient Benefactive Goal/Locative Permissive Causative Passive

Tunxi Hui







ti
Mandarin






gei24
Shanghai



?

Wu peq
Cantonese





bei

Table 1 Distribution of the ‘give’ morpheme in varieties of Chinese

The results seem to be suprisingly similar. Two observations can be made from

the above table:

(i) As far as SVCs are concerned, the ‘give’ morpheme in each language can be

readily used as a recipient marker and a benefactive marker.

(ii) The ‘give’ morpheme functioning as a locative marker is only found in Tunxi

Hui.

(iii) As far as pivotal constructions are concerned, all the ‘give’ morphemes in each

language can give a permissive and a passive reading. While the Tunxi Hui ti

and the Mandarin gei can also render a causative reading, the Cantonese bei

cannot serve as a causative marker.

24
For the Mandarin ‘give’ morpheme gei as a causative marker, refer to Xu (1994).

67
 In fact, the polyfunctionality of the ‘give’ morpheme in Tunxi Hui, Mandarin,

Shanghai Wu and Cantonese is by no means a coincidence. It is also cross-linguistically

common, as observed in some African languages and Southeast Asian languages other

than Chinese25. Many linguists have endeavored to explain the relationship between the

multiple uses of the ‘give’ morpheme from the perspective of grammaticalization. In

the following section, we will diccuss the possible explanations for the

polyfunctionality of the ‘give’ morpheme.

3.3 Grammaticalization - towards an Explanation

The term ‘grammaticalization’ refers to ‘the development from lexical to

grammatical forms, and from grammatical to even more grammatical forms’ (Heine

and Kuteva 2002: 2). In this section, we will offer a tentative explanation for the

polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui from the perspective of

grammaticalization.

This section is organized as follows. In section 3.3.1, we will introduce the

plausible grammaticalization pathways of the ‘give’ morpheme hypothesized by Lord,

Yap & Iwasaki (2002) and Chappell & Peyraube (2006). After that, we will try to

explain the polyfunctionality of the ti ‘give’ morpheme in Tunxi Hui according to these

25
Readers may refer to Lord, Yap and Iwasaki’s (2002) work for details of the languages and the
distribution of the ‘give’ morpheme in these languages.

68
pathways.

3.3.1 Cross-linguistic Grammaticalization Pathways

Many linguists have made an effort to construct a universal rule governing the

polyfunctionality of the morpheme meaning ‘give’ from the perspective of

grammaticalization. In this section we will focus on two studies in particular, which are

concerned with Sinitic languages.

Based on their survey on eighteen African and Southeast Asian languages

(including varieties of Chinese), Lord, Yap & Iwasaki (2002) observe two separate

grammaticalization pathways from the lexical verb ‘give’ to the passive marker:

(42) a. lexical verb -> goal/benefactive

‘give’ ‘to’/’for’

b. lexical verb -> permissive -> causative/passive

‘give’ ‘allow’ ‘make’/’by’

With regard to Sinitic languages, Chappell & Peyraube (2006) also advocate a

similar two-fold pathway of grammaticalization/polygrammaticalization.

(43) a. lexical verb -> dative

‘give’ ‘to’ or ‘for’

b. lexical verb -> causative -> passive

‘give’ ‘make’ ‘by’

Despite discrepancies in some of the terms, for example, ‘benefactive’ versus

69
‘dative’, or ‘permissive’ versus ‘causative26’, Chappell & Peyraube (2006) and Lord,

Yap & Iwasaki (2002) seem to agree with each other on the development of the two

pathways.

Next, we will explain the polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui from

the perspective of grammaticalization.

3.3.2 Plausible Grammaticalization Pathways of Tunxi Hui ti

In line with the analysis of Lord, Yap & Iwasaki’s (2002), and Chappell &

Peyraube’s (2006) hypotheses, the polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui

can be explained from the perspective of grammaticalization:

Plausible grammaticalization pathways of ti in Tunxi Hui

(44) a. lexical verb ti -> recipient/benefactive marker ti

‘give’ ‘to’/’for’

b. lexical verb ti -> permissive/causative marker ti -> passive marker ti

‘give’ ‘allow’ ‘by’

In particular, if we look at the second pathway, i.e. presented in (44b), there are

intermediate cases in which both a permissive/causative and a passive reading are

possible, i.e. ‘bridging contexts27’ are found:

26
As pointed out by Dr. YAP Foong Ha in a seminar given by the author, the causative sense can be
said to subsume the permissive sense.
27
This term is coined by Evans & Wilkins (2000) and used in Matthews, Xu and Yip (2005) to refer
to the compatibility of two interpretations of the ‘give’ morpheme in Jieyang Chaozhou Min.

70
(45) siʨiau ti xuale iɛ ʨʰio.
PN TI PN win PERF
Interpretation 1: ti = PASS ‘Siʨiau was won by Xuale.’
Interpretation 2: ti = PERM ‘Siʨiau let Xuale win.’

(46) yanpɛ ti toto xa sɿ ʨʰio.

PN TI PN frighten dead PERF
Interpretation 1: ti = PASS ‘Yanpɛ was (almost) frightened to death by Toto.’
Interpretation 2: ti = CAUS ‘Yanpɛ caused Toto to be (almost) frightened to
death.’

In example (45), the utterance is ambiguous between a permissive reading and a

passive reading, while in example (46), either a causative or a passive reading is

possible. These two examples may be deemed as intermediate cases in the development

of the ti morpheme from the permissive/causative marker to the passive marker in

Tunxi Hui.

3.4 Chapter Summary

In this chapter we have surveyed an array of distinct functions of the morpheme

ti in Tunxi Hui. As a main verb, ti means ‘give’. As a coverb, ti can appear in SVCs

marking a recipient NP, a benefactive NP, or a locative NP. Besides, as a coverb, ti can

also serve as the permissive marker, the causative marker and the passive marker in

pivotal constructions.

The polyfunctionality of the ti ‘give’ morpheme is not uncommon. It is also found

71
in other varieties of Chinese like in Mandarin, Shanghai Wu and Cantonese, as well as

non-genetically affiliated languages such as African languages and Southeast Asian

languages. We try to construct the relationships between the various uses of ti from the

perspective of grammaticalization, in line with Chappell & Peyraube’s (2006), and

Lord, Yap & Iwasaki’s (2002) two-way hypotheses. It is very likely that the recipient

and benefactive use of ti are grammaticalized from the lexical verb ti ‘give’. The

passive marker ti, on the other hand, may have been grammaticalized from the lexical

verb ti ‘give’, by way of the permissive/causative use of ti.

Since we have examined the various uses of ti, in the next chapter, we will narrow

down our discussion to one specific use of ti -- ti as a passive marker.

72
 Chapter 4 The Ti-passive Construction in Tunxi Hui

In Chapter 3, the polyfunctionality of the morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui has been

discussed with examples. Ti can be a full lexical verb, meaning ‘give’, and it can also be

used as the passive marker. Nevertheless, it is beyond coincidence that the GIVE

morpheme shares the same form with the passive marker. Apart from Tunxi Hui, there

are many other varieties of Chinese, mainly in the southeastern parts of China where the

passive markers appear to have been grammaticalized from the full lexical verb ‘give’.

However, in the literature, while extensive work has been done on the passive

marker bei 被 in Modern Standard Mandarin (Wang 1957, Tang 1987, Zhang 1994,

among others), not much attention has yet been paid to the give-type passive marker, let

alone the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui. Therefore, in this chapter we will begin with an

overview on the types of passive markers in Sinitic languages and their geographical

distribution in section 4.1. After that, we will pin down a specific give-type passive

construction, namely the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui in section 4.2. A summary will be

given thereafter in section 4.3.

4.1 The Typology of Passive Markers in Sinitic Languages

Whenever there is a discussion on Chinese passive constructions, one morpheme

73
that inevitably comes to mind is bei 被 ‘suffer’. Nevertheless, bei is by no means the

the only passive marker, not even in Mandarin Chinese. In Northern Mandarin dialects,

we have passive markers jiao 叫/教 ‘cause’ and rang 让 ‘allow, let’, derived from a

causative meaning (Hashimoto 1988, Chappell et al. 2007, among others). In some

Xiang dialects as well as in a few Min dialects, the etyma of the passive marker are

verbs with a meaning of ‘suffer’ other than bei 被, for example, ʦau 遭 ( in

GH28-Guigong Xiang dialect, Wu 2005: 192), ʦʰɪ 吃 (in Longhui Xiang, Wu 2005:

192) and ioh 著 (in Hainan Min dialect, Lee 2010: 765). In many Southeastern Sinitic

languages, like the Min dialects, Wu dialects, Yue dialects, Gan dialects, Hakka

dialects, Hui dialects and even Jianghuai Mandarin dialects, the passive markers by

and large share the same form with the GIVE morpheme in the dialect in question.

In this section, we will examine the above three types of passive markers in

Sinitic languages from a typological perspective. Section 4.1.1 will deal with the

‘suffer’ type of passives, with bei as a most typical representative. Section 4.1.2 will

examine the causative passives jiao and rang. Section 4.1.3 will explore the

give-passives. Finally, section 4.1.4 will see to yet another common characteristic of

Chinese passives, i.e. ditaxia, in which there are sometimes more than one passive

marker in a single dialect, an indigenous one and a borrowed one from the Mandarin

bei.
28
GH is short for ‘Gan and/or Hakka speaking area’ (Wu 2005:xxi)

74
4.1.1 The ‘Suffer’ Type of Passive Markers

In this section, we will mainly talk about two passive makers, bei 被 and zhuo 著

together with their counterparts in different dialects, which are generally believed to

have been derived from verbs meaning ‘suffer’. It must be noticed that in terms of

etymology, neither bei or zhuo commenced as a morpheme meaning ‘suffer’. For bei,

it originated as a noun meaning ‘cotton-padded quilt’(Zhang 1994), and zhuo started

meaning ‘attach’ (Mei 1988, Cao 1995, among others). But, acquiring the ‘suffer’

meaning was vital for bei and zhuo29 to be finally grammaticalized into the passive

markers in modern days. Therefore, in this thesis, both bei and zhuo are classified

under the ‘suffer’ type of passive markers.

4.1.1.1 The Passive Marker Bei 被

Even if bei is not the only passive marker, it is undoubtedly the most

wide-spread and recognizable one in Sinitic languages.

Diachronically, the semantics of bei has experienced several major stages of

development (Wang 1957, Tang 1987, Zhang 1994, among others). It started as a

noun ‘quilt’, and evolved to a physical verb ‘cover’ around B.C. 770 (Wang 1980:

29
Jiang (2009) argues that there could be two pathways for zhuo to be finally grammaticalized into a
passive marker. One is from the ‘suffer’ meaning, and the other is from a causative meaning. Li (2006)
further points out that the passive markers zhuo in southern Sinitic languages was grammaticalized
from a ‘suffer’ meaning, while the passive markers zhuo in northern Sinitic languages was
gramaticalized from a causative meaning.

75
430, in Zhang 1994). It then began to mean ‘suffer’, a mental verb, and finally

grammaticalized into a passive marker in about B.C. 100 (Wang 1980, in Zhang

1994).

Synchronically, bei is the dominant passive marker in both Modern Standard

Mandarin and written Chinese, and sometimes the ‘borrowed’ passive marker in

varieties of Chinese dialects, for example in Hong Kong Yue (Cantonese) and Hainan

Min, where the indigenous passive marker is not a variant of bei (see section 4.1.4

for details).

Bei diverges from the rest of the passive markers in Sinitic languages in

syntactic configurations. Bei allows for both agent and agentless passives, whereas it

is generally not possible for the causative passive markers jiao or rang, and the

give-passives to appear without the occurrence of an agent phrase.

Adversity is also a well-discussed characteristic of bei-passives (Li &

Thompson 1981, Hashimoto 1988, among others), but it has to be admitted that the

non-adverse use of bei is also gaining prevelance in both written Chinese and spoken

Mandarin, probably due to growing influence of English via translated works (Chao

1968). Here are two examples in Mandarin:

(1) wo jintian bei kua le ne.

1.SG today PASS praise PERF Part
‘I was praised today.’

76
(2) ta laogong bei laoban tiba le.
3.SG husband PASS boss promote PERF
‘Her husband was promoted by the boss.’

Finally, another noteworthy development concerning the passive marker bei in

recent-year cyber language is the quirky use of bei with intrinsically intransitive

verbs/verb compounds, like shizong ‘missing’, zisha ‘commit suicide’, zengzhang

‘increase’, jiuye ‘land a job’, juankuan ‘donate money’, just to name a few:

(3) Jiangzemin bei shizong le.

PN PASS missing PERF.
‘Jiangzemin (former president of PRC) was made to look like he was missing.’
(Source: Qi 201130)

(4) Zibo zhangdianqu jinrongban zhuren bei zisha.

Zibo Zhangdian district finance department head PASS suicide
‘Head of the finance department in Zhangdian district of the Zibo City was
made to look like he had committed suicide.’
(Source: Sun 201131)

(5) Jiating shouru bei zengzhang le.

Home income PASS increase PERF
‘Household income was made to look like it had increased.’
(Adapted from Lang 2011:2)

By passivizing the non-passivizable intransitive verbs, the above bei passive

constructions imply that the truth values of the propositions are false.

30
Qi, Zhifeng. 2011. Shijie meiti kan zhongguo: Jiangzemin bei shizong. In VOA News in Chinese.
Available online at
<http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110706-World-Press-Coverage-on-China-125085594.html
>. Last retrieved on Aug. 29, 2011.
31
Sun, Qi. 2011. Zibo zhangdianqu jinrongban zhuren bei zisha. In Chen, Li (ed.), Jinrongjie.
Available online at <http://finance.jrj.com.cn/people/2011/06/22112610266977.shtml>. Last retrieved
on Aug. 29, 2011.

77
4.1.1.2 The Passive Marker zhuo 著

Apart from bei, the passive marker zhuo and its counterparts in varieties of

Sinitic languages also appear sporadically in Southern China, mainly in Jianghuai

Mandarin dialects, Southwestern Mandarin dialects, Xiang dialects and Min dialects.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the zhuo passive markers found in the literature:

Locality Province Dialectal Group Romanilization Sources

(City/County)

zhuo32 著
Liu 1983,
Suixian Hubei Jianghuai Mandarin
in Huang
1996

ʦʰɔ324 著
Xie 1996,
Chenxi Hunan Xiang
in Wu 2005

ʦʰo35 著
Southwestern Li 2002, in
Jishou Hunan
Mandarin Wu 2005

ʦʰo45 著
Cui 1998,
Yiyang Hunan Xiang
In Wu 2005

ʨiau44 著
Southwestern Peng 1957,
Heqing Yunnan
Mandarin in Huang
1996
Lee 2010
Hainan Hainan Min ioh44 著

Table 1: zhuo passive markers in the literature

A few examples of the counterparts of the zhuo passives in some dialects are

illustrated below:

32
The romanization of the passive marker in Suixian, Hubei Province is not mentioned in the source.
Therefore we use Hanyu Pinyin as a way of transcription.

78
Yiyang Xiang (Cui 1998: 140, in Wu 2005:194)
(6) xa tai ləulɔ̃ ʦʰo45 kau ŋa ka i kʰau
3.SG at road PASS dog bite PERF one bite
‘He was bitten by a dog on his way.’

Jishou Southwestern Mandarin (Li 2002: 324 – 325, in Wu 2005: 193)

(7) y ʦʰo35 mau ʨʰi liau lə.

fish PASS cat eat RVC PERF
‘The fish was eaten by a cat.’

(8) səu ʦʰo35 xua lə ko kʰəuʦɪ.

hand PASS scratch PERF CL gap
‘The hand was cut.’

Hainan Min (Lee 2010: 767)

(9) lau di ioh33 *(ɦ5ia ko) phah la.

young brother PASS elder brother hit PERF
‘The younger brother was hit by his elder brother.’

It is worthwhile to notice that, although the agent phrase in Hainan Min is

obligatorily required, it is optional in Jishou dialect (e.g. (8)), a Southwestern

Mandarin dialect. Wu (2005) points out that the zhuo passives in Mandarin dialects

allow for the omission of the agent phrase (e.g. (8)), while the agent phrase in the

zhuo passives in Xiang dialects is obligatory.

After the bei passives and the zhuo passives, we will move on to another type of

passives, the causative passives.

4.1.2 The Causative Type of Passive Markers

By ‘causative’ passive markers, we primarily refer to jiao 叫/教 ‘ask, let’ and

79
rang 讓 ‘allow, yield’, the generally-considered colloquial alternatives of the literary

bei in Modern Standard Mandarin. Besides, they are also the indigenous passive

markers in many northern varieties of Mandarin dialects, such as in Jiaoliao

Mandarin dialects, Zhongyuan Mandarin dialects and Lanyin Mandarin dialects,

according to the map by Hashimoto (1988:346, also see below) and the linguistic

documentation in Huang (1996). Hashimoto (1988: 348) uses the word ‘domination’

to describe the geographical distribution of the passive markers jiao and rang, which

were directly derived from the causative verb in ‘the heartland of the Central Plains’

in northern China.

The distribution of the causative-derived passive markers will be seen more

clearly if compared to that of the passive markers grammaticalized from the full

lexical verb ‘give’.

4.1.3 The Give Type of Passive Markers

The ‘give’ type of passive markers will be better undertood if compared with the

causative-passives. In section 4.1.3.1, we will look at Hashimoto’s (1988) hypothesis

on the north-south divions of passive markers in China, i.e. the northen

causative-passives versus the southern ‘give’-passives. In section 4.1.3.2, we will

propose a revision on the north-south division of passive markers, with respect to

80
languages spoken in Anhui Province.

4.1.3.1 Hashimoto’s (1988) North-South Division of Passive Markers in China

Many linguists, Zhan (1981), Hashimoto (1988), Xu (1994) and Matthews, Xu

& Yip (2005), among others, have been aware of the close relationship with the

GIVE morpheme and the passive marker in Southern China.

Among these language data and observations, Hashimoto’s (1988) work is

significant in the sense that he made an innovative attempt to explain the north-south

distinction of causative-passives versus give-passives from a typological perspective.

According to him, the northern Chinese languages are dominated by the passive

markers derived from verbs with causative meanings, believed to be influenced by

Altaic languages, while in Southern Chinese languages, the majority of the passive

markers are presumably related to the ‘give’ morpheme, with the influence of Tai

languages further to the south. A ‘line’ drawn by Hashiomoto (1988: 346) to show

the division between the causative area and the ‘give’ area is shown in Diagram 1.

81
 Diagram 1: The north-south Division of Passive Markers in Sinitic Languages
(Map directly taken from Hashimoto 1988: 364)

Hypotheses on the north-south, i.e. Altaicization-Taicization contrast is not new.

Hashimoto (1976, 1986) lists a number of comparative features, phonological,

82
morphological and syntactical ones, from northern groups of Sinitic languages and

southern groups of Sinitic languages to show this. Norman (1988) generally agrees

with this north-south division, though he further suggests a third area, the central

‘transitional zone’ (Norman 1988: 198), including the Wu dialects, Gan dialects and

Xiang dialects, where mixed features of the northern Sinitic languages and the

southern Sinitic languages are found.

Leaving aside the doubts and critiques on the north type versus south type of

Chinese, and hypotheses on Altaicization versus Taicization (e.g. Bennett 1979), we

generally agree that there is indeed such a north-south division, at least in terms of

the forms of passive markers, by evidence from previous language documentations

and field work (e.g. Zhan 1981, Xu 1994, Matthews and Yip 1994). However, our

data from some of the Hui dialects and the Jianghuai Mandarin dialects show a trait

that is different from Hashimoto’s (1988) division. This difference primarily lies in

the ‘transitional zone’, and this especially affects the Hui dialects.

Next, we will discuss our proposed revision on Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south

division of passive markers, particularly with respect to languages in Anui Province.

4.1.3.2. Our Proposed Revision

Diagram 1 above shows Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south division. Anhui

Province is circled in red. For a clear picture, Diagram 2 below shows Hashimoto’s

83
(1988) north-south division (in black line) in Anhui Province. We notice that,

according to Hashimoto (1988), many Hui dialects, e.g. Xiuning Hui, Yixian Hui,

together with Jianghuai Mandarin dialects and some Gan dialects, e.g. Taihu Gan and

Huaining Gan in Anhui Province, have been classified as having a causative passive,

which is not the case.

Diagram 2 Hashimoto’s (1988) division in Anhui Province

(Map taken directly from Anhui Shengzhi Fangyanzhi: Language Map of Anhui Province)
Black line: Hashimoto’s (1988) division. Dotted line: Our proposed revision

In fact, in most Hui dialects, as well as many Jianghuai Mandarin dialects, Wu

dialects and Gan dialects in Anhui province, the passive marker shares the same

form with the lexical verb ‘give’. They are listed below:

84
 Locality Dialect Group Lexical verb Passive Source

‘give’ Marker

Jianghuai
Wuhu kei313 kei313 this study
Mandarin
Jianghuai
Hefei kei24 kei24 Meng (1997)
Mandarin
Jianghuai
Shucheng33 gei gei Cheng (2010)
Mandarin

Tunxi Hui ti42 ti42 this study

Xiuning Hui te53 te53 Meng (1997)

Yixian Hui pei53 pei53 Wu (2000)

Shexian Hui xe31 xe31 Meng (1997)

Jixi Hui xã35 xã35 Zhao (2000)

Taihu Gan tʰai tʰai Meng (1997)

Huaining34 Gan gei gei Meng (1997)

Tongling Wu kei312 kei312 Miu (2007)

Table 2 Passives makers in languages spoken in Anhui Provinces

Therefore, we propose a revision of Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south division of

passive makers, i.e. the causative passives versus the ‘give’-passives, particularly

with respect to languages in Anhui Province. Based on data listed in Table 2, our

proposed revision of the north-south division of passives marker, with respect to

33
Romanization is not shown in the source, so we use Hanyu Pinyin as a way of transcription.
However, it does not necessarily represent the exact pronunciation of the morpheme.
34
Ditto.

85
languages in Anhui Province, is shown in dotted line in Diagram 2.

After types of passive markers, we will move on to a particular phenomenon

called ‘ditaxia’ in the next section.

4.1.4 Ditaxia

In the previous sections, we have seen three major types of passive markers in

Sinitic languages, namely the suffer type of passives, the jiao/rang passives and the

‘give’-passives, together with their geographical distribution. But, it should be

pointed out that, when it comes to a specific Chinese dialect, it is not uncommon for

it to have more than one passive marker. It is quite usual to find two, sometimes three

in a dialect. This phenomenon is a clear case of ‘ditaxia’, according to Matthews’

(1996):

‘The term ditaxia is intended to refer to the co-existence of two syntactic alternatives, stratified

by register and by social variables.’ (Matthews 1996:1275)

As a matter of fact, linguists have been well aware of ditaxia with regard to

Chinese passive markers, e.g. Matthews (1996), Matthews and Yip (1994) on the

indigenous Cantonese passive marker bei2 and the borrowed passive marker bei6,

and Lee (2010) on the indigenous Hainan Min passive marker ioh and the borrowed

passive marker ɓi respectively.

86
 Our survey on a few Sinitic languages also reveals such a trend: in Chinese

dialects where the indigenous passive marker is not bei or its counterparts, there

sometimes exists a borrowed form of passive marker, cognate with the Mandarin bei.

Very often, the indigenous passive marker and the borrowed form of bei are stratified

by register. While the indigenous passive marker is the most frequently used form in

colloquial language, the borrowed variants of bei always appear in higher registers,

e.g. in news reports, formal conversations, etc. The borrowed passive marker differs

from the indigenous ones in syntactic configurations, too. The indigenous passives

generally disallow agentless passives, whereas the borrowed passive markers, by and

large, allow both agent passives and agentless passives.

Here is a list of both indigenous and borrowed passive markers in Dalian and

Wuhu from our data, combined with research from previous works in the literature:

87
 Passive Marker Etymon Agentless passives

Dalian Jiaoliao jiao (indigenous) ‘cause’ 

Mandarin35 gei (indigenous, less ‘give’ 

frequent)

bei (borrowed) ‘suffer’

Wuhu Jianghuai kie313 (indigenous) ‘give’ 

Mandarin bei (borrowed) ‘suffer’

Hong Kong Yue bei2 (indigenous) ‘give’ 

(Cantonese) bei6 (borrowed) ‘suffer’

(Matthews 1996)

Hainan Min (Lee ioh (indigenous) ‘attach’ 

2010) ɓi (borrowed) ‘attach’

Table 3 Indigenous versus borrowed passive markers in some Sinitic Languages

Next, we will conclude this section.

4.1.5 Section Summary

In this section, we have surveyed three major types of passive markers in Sinitic

languages as well as their geographical distribution. The predominant passive

35
Hanyu Pinyin is used as a way of transcription. However, it does not represent the exact
pronunciation of the morpheme.

88
markers in northen China is bei, derived from ‘suffer’, and jiao ‘ask, let’/ rang ‘allow,

yield’, which have a causative meaning. The passive markers in southeastern Sinitic

languages, however, are often related to the lexical verb ‘give’ in the dialect. The

passive marker zhuo ‘attach’ is also found sporadically in southern China. Here is a

summary of the major passive markers in Sinitic languages from a typological

perspective:

Geographical Agent Passives Agentless Passives

Distribution

bei-passives Northern China

causative passives Northern China


‘give’-passives Southeastern China


zhuo-passives Southern China

/

Besides, it has to be pointed that there is sometimes more than one passive

marker in dialects where the indigenous passive marker is not bei. The indigenous

passive marker and the borrowed variant of bei are stratified by register. Very often,

while the indigenous passive marker obligatorily requires an agent phrase, the other

borrowed passive maker allows the agent phrase to be omitted, as is the case in

Modern Standard Mandarin.

After a glimpse at the distribution of passive markers in Sinitic languages in

89
general, we will now turn to a specific give type of passive marker, i.e. the

ti-passives in Tunxi Hui.

4.2 The Passive construction in Tunxi Hui

In this section we will focus on a specific give-type passive construction,

namely the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui.

To date, not much research has been done on Tunxi Hui. Previous studies on

Tunxi Hui passive constructions are even harder to find. In light of this, a descriptive

analysis on the properties of Tunxi Hui passives will be given in this section.

4.2.1 An overview

Passive constructions in Tunxi Hui are much less preferred to its active

counterparts. Unless necessary, speakers will not use a passive construction.

Passive constructions in Tunxi Hui are typically formed with the presence of the

passive marker ti, which is followed by an agent phrase and a transitive verb, i.e.

[NP1 ti NP2 Vtrans]. NP1 is often linked to a patient role or experiencer role, and NP2

is associated with the agent role. Here are a few examples:

(10) ʨie ti *(auɕylau) ʨʰi tʰɔ ʨʰio.

chick PASS yellow weasel eat RVC PERF
‘The chick was eaten by a yellow weasel.’

90
(11) ʦɔ-pən̩ ti *(Liauliau) ta tʰɔ ʨʰio.
tea-cup PASS PN break RVC PERF
‘The teacup was broken by Liauliau.’

(12) kʰə ka ləʦɿ ti *(kʰəle) ʨʰi sɿ ʨʰio.

3.SG POSS father PASS 3.SG angry dead PERF
‘His/her father was made extremely angry by him/her.’

From the above passive sentences in Tunxi Hui, some preliminary observations can

be made on the properties of Tunxi Hui passives.

(i) Only agent passives are allowed. Agentless passives are not acceptable.

(ii) Adversity or unpleasantness is always implied.

Noteworthily, Tunxi Hui generally forbids the so-named ‘indirect passives36’,

whereas indirect passives are well-accepted in counterpart languages like Mandarin

and Cantonese. For example:

Mandarin:
(13) ta bei ren qiang-zou-le zui zinzi de wanju.
3.SG PASS person rob-go-PERF most favorite POSS toy
‘He/She has his/her favorite toy robbed.’

Cantonese:
(14) ngo pei jan to-zo gaa ce.
1.SG PASS person tow-PERF CL car
‘I got my car towed away.’ (Adapted from Matthews & Yip 1994: 151)

If there is the need to express a similar proposition, Tunxi Hui opts to employ a

simple passive like example (16), or even an active sentence, e.g. in example (17).

Tunxi Hui:

36
Matthews & Yip (1994:151) borrowed this term from similar constructions in Japanese to refer to a
type of passive in Cantonese in which the subject of the passive sentences is not the same as the direct
object of the corresponding active sentence.

91
(15) *a ti iankɔ ʦʰiau-ʨʰio pu ʨʰa.
1.SG PASS person steal-PERF CL car

(16) a pu ʨʰa ti iankɔ ʦʰiau-ʨʰio.

1.SG CL car PASS person steal-PERF
‘My car was stolen by someone.’

(17) iankɔ ʦʰiau-ʨʰio a pu ʨʰa.

person steal-PERF 1.SG CL car
‘Someone stole my car.’

We will now examine the two properties of Tunxi Hui one by one, namely the

mandatory co-occurence of an agent phrase and the implication of adversity.

4.2.2 Properties of the Tunxi Hui ti-passives

Tunxi Hui passives are characterized by the obligatoriness of an agent phrase

after the passive marker ti and the implication of adversity.

4.2.2.1 An Obligatory Agent Phrase

Like in most ‘give’-passives in southeastern Sinitic languages, the agent phrase

is obligatorily required in Tunxi Hui passives. In all situations, it has to be explicitly

expressed, as in (18a), (19a) and (20a). Sentences (18b), (19b) and (20b) are

ungrammatical due to the absence of the agent phrases.

(18) a. kʰə ka ɕiu ti oli

poli li pa ʨʰio.
3.SG POSS hand PASS glass cut broken PERF
‘His/Her hand was cut by the glass.’

b. * kʰə ka ɕiu ti li pa ʨʰio.

3.SG POSS hand PASS cut broken PERF

92
 c. kʰə ka ɕiu ti məsi li pa ʨʰio.
3.SG POSS hand PASS thing cut broken PERF
‘His/Her hand was cut by something.’

(19) a. kanʦʰau ti mo ka ȵiɛn ta pa ʨʰio.

window PASS that CL child hit broken PERF
‘The window was broken by that child.’

b. *kanʦʰau ti ta pa ʨʰio.
window PASS hit broken PERF

c. kanʦʰau ti iankɔ
iankɔ ta pa ʨʰio.
window PASS person hit broken PERF
‘The window was broken by someone.’

(20) a. iɔnle kəȵie ti ləɕɿ mə sɿ ʨʰio.

PN today PASS teacher scold dead PERF
‘Iɔnle was scolded by the teacher today.’

b. *iɔnle kəȵie ti mə sɿ ʨʰio.

PN today PASS scold dead PERF

c. iɔnle kəȵie ti iankɔ

iankɔ mə sɿ ʨʰio.
PN today PASS person scold dead PERF
‘Iɔnle was scolded by someone today.’

In cases where the agent, i.e. the doer of the action, is unknown, a

general-purpose noun has to be included after ti. Depending on the semantic features

of the agent phrase, the general-purpose noun could be, for example, məsɿ ‘thing’

[-human] (e.g. (18c)), or iankɔ ‘person’ [+human] (e.g. (19c) and (20c)).

The fact that the agent passives are not only the preferred, but the only

acceptable passive constructions in Tunxi Hui seems to contradict the generalization

made by Keenan (1985: 249), and subsequently Keenan and Dryer (2007: 330),

93
regarding the passives of the world’s languages:

G-2.1 If a language has passives with agent phrases then it has them without agent phrases.

In fact, the Tunxi Hui passives are neither the only, nor the first

counter-examples to Keenan (1985) and Keenan & Dryer (2007)’s generalization. Li

(1959), and Matthews (1996), Ting (1998), Matthews, Xu and Yip (2005) also

provide examples concerning Chaozhou kʰeʔ-passives, Cantonese bei2-passives,

Taiwanese Southern Min ho-passives and Jieyang kʰeʔ-passives, in which the agent

phrases are mandatory. However, previous counter-examples are predominantly from

southern Sinitic languages with ‘give’-passives, namely Min dialects and Yue dialects

in the south-most regions of China. With data from Tunxi Hui, we can conclude that

obligatory agent passives, i.e. the long passives, are found in southeastern Chinese

dialects also.

Moreover, compared to Cantonese, the prevalence of long passives with agent

phrases in Tunxi Hui can be more easily explained. Due to ditaxia, there is another less

used, more ‘formal’ passive marker bei6 被 in Cantonese borrowed from the

Mandarin bei4 被. Unlike the indigenous passive marker bei2畀, bei6被 allows both

agent passives and agentless passives, as does the Mandarin counterpart bei4. In light

of this, agentless passives cannot be said to be completely forbidden in Cantonese.

Tunxi Hui, on the other hand, have not yet shown any sign of a borrowed passive

94
marker apart from ti, thus it is safe to say that, contradictory to Keenan’s

generalization, the only possible passive constructions in Tunxi Hui are agent

passives, and no agentless passives are found in Tunxi Hui.

4.2.2.2 Adversity

Adversity is among the most discussed properties of Chinese passives in the

literature, in Modern Standard Mandarin in particular (Li & Thompson 1981,

Hashimoto 1988, etc.). It is also taken as one of the factors to account for the rarer

use of passives compared with its active counterparts. Li & Thompson (1981), for

example, attribute the rarer use of the bei-passive37 constructions than the active

constructions in Mandarin to adversity and topic prominence. Later works on

Cantonese by Matthews & Yip (1994) reveal a similar tendency: the use of

Cantonese bei2-passives are more often associated with an adverse meaning.

Li & Thompson (1981) and Matthews & Yip (1994), however, also agree that

the non-adverse use of passive constructions in colloquial Mandarin and Cantonese

respectively, are not absolutely impossible. For example:

Mandarin:
(21) xiaohua jintian bei laoshi biaoyang-le.
PN today PASS teacher paise-PERF
‘Xiaohua was praised by the teacher today.’

37
We limit our discussion to colloquial Mandarin, as bei-passives in written Chinese, a more formal
register, are influenced by Indo-European languages via the ‘translatese’ (Chao 1968, in Li and
Thompson 1981).

95
Cantonese:
(22) keoi neipai singjat bei ginglei zaan.
3.SG recently always PASS manager praise.
‘He/she is always praised by the manager recently.’

Hence, adversity is more of a tendency, rather than a strict requirement on

passives in Mandarin and Cantonese. In Mandarin and Cantonese when passives are

used, the implication is most likely an adverse one, but sometimes passives can also

be employed to express neutral or pleasant events.

As for Tunxi Hui, the adversity property of passive constructions, i.e. the

ti-passives, is even more apparent. Non-adverse uses of the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui,

are seldom found. For instance, the counterpart of the Mandarin example (21) and

the Cantonese example (22) is not possible in Tunxi Hui, because piu-iau ‘praise’

apparanetly indicates a pleasant event:

(23) *Toto kəȵie ti ləsɿ piu--iau ʨʰio.

PN today PASS teacher praise PERF

However, if we replace piu-iau ‘praise’ with muːə ‘scold’, e.g. (24), the sentence

is perfectly fine.

(24) Toto kəȵie ti ləsɿ uːə

uːə
muː ʨʰio i tuːə.
PN today PASS teacher scold PERF one CL
‘Toto was scolded by the teacher today.’

Evidence from earlier works also shows the adversity property of ti-passives in

Tunxi Hui. In Qian’s (1997) pioneer work on Tunxi Hui, there are only three

instances of ti-passive sentences and most of them, if not all, imply an adverse

meaning. These examples are illustrated as follows:

96
(25) ɕiu ti tə li pa ʨʰio.
hand PASS knife cut broken PERF
‘(My) hand was cut by the knife.’ (example from Qian 1997:63,
glossed and translated by the author)

(26) iɕiau ti fan ʨʰy xɔ kʰə ʨʰio.

clothes PASS wind blow down go PERF
‘The clothes were blown downstairs by the wind.’ (example from Qian
1997:77, glossed and translated by the author)

(27) kʰə ti iankɔ muːə ʨʰio i tuːə.

3.SG PASS person scold PERF one CL
‘He/She was scolded by someone.’ (example from Qian 1997:78, glossed and
translated by the author)

While examples (25) and (27) are clearly associated with adversity, whether (26)

is intrinsically associated with adversity is arguable. The event expressed in example

(26) alone could be an adverse one, or a purely neutral fact.

The active alternation of sentence (26) is actually used more frequently, which

expresses a neutral fact:

Active sentence:
(28) fan pau iɕiau ʨʰy xɔ kʰə ʨʰio.
wind PAU clothes blow down go PERF
‘The wind blew the clothes downstairs.’

In contrast, if a passive sentence is used, the implication is that the speaker is

unhappy with the consequences caused by the wind, therefore an adverse meaning is

entailed. Compare sentence (29) with sentence (28):

Passive sentence (repeating example (26)):

(29) iɕiau ti fan ʨʰy xɔ kʰə ʨʰio.
clothes PASS wind blow down go PERF
‘The clothes were blown downstairs by the wind.’

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 The implication of adversity associated with ti-passives in Tunxi Hui is clear.

Compared with Mandarin and Cantonese, the passive construction in Tunxi Hui is even

more strictly associated with adversity.

4.2.3 Section Summary

The focus of this section is the passive construction in Tunxi Hui. Passive

constructions in Tunxi Hui are much less preferred to active constructions. When

used, the basic constituent order of a passive construction in Tunxi Hui is [NP1 ti

NP2 Vtrans], with NP1 being associated with a patient or an experiencer role, and NP2

being linked to an agent role. Passive constructions in Tunxi Hui are also restrained

to the simplest. ‘Indirect passives’ which are acceptable in Mandarin and Cantonese

are not possible in Tunxi Hui.

Ti-passives in Tunxi Hui are also characterized by the mandatory appearance of

an agent phrase and their semantic association with adversity. The obligatory

presence of an agent phrase in Tunxi Hui ti-passives seems to be a counterexample to

Keenan’s (1985) generalization on passive constructions in the world’s languages.

Adversity is also a significant feature of Tunxi Hui passives.

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4.3 Chapter Summary

This chapter focuses on the passive constructions in Sinitic languages,

particularly on the passive construction in Tunxi Hui.

The first half of this chapter has provided an overview of the typological

distribution of passive markers in Sinitic languages. The passive marker bei ‘suffer’,

zhuo ‘attach’, jiao ‘ask, let’/rang ‘allow, yield’, and the morphemes bearing the

same form with the lexical verb ‘give’ in various dialects, are among the major

passive markers in Chinese languages. There also exists a north-south distinction in

the choice of passive markers (Hashimoto 1988). We propose a revision of

Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south division of passive markers, i.e. the causative

passives versus the ‘give’-passives, with repect to languages in Anhui Province.

The second half of the chapter has focused on a particular ‘give’-passive,

namely the ti-passives in Tunxi Hui. Being a less preferred construction to active

sentences, ti-passives have their own properties. The agent phrase is obligatorily

required in passives. Besides, the property of adversity is also expected in ti-passives

in Tunxi Hui. Compared with Mandarin and Cantonese passives, the implication of

adversity in ti-passives is even more obvious.

Next, we will conclude this thesis in Chapter 5.

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 Chapter 5 Conclusions

This thesis is devoted to the syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui, a Hui

dialect in the Sinitic family of languages. Unfortunately, the body of literature on the

target language of this study is very small. The two works on Tunxi Hui, i.e. Qian

(1997) and Meng (2005), do not provide much analysis of the syntax of this language,

let alone the syntax of a specific structure, the ti construction. To fill this research

gap, we have offered a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui, and have investigated the

syntax of the ti construction.

The ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui can occur in a number of constructions, as a

main verb ‘give’ or as a coverb, which can mark a recipient NP, a benefactive NP or a

locative NP, or render a permissive, a causative or a passive reading to the sentence

in which it appears.

There are several types of passive markers in Sinitic languages other than the

bei passives. We propose a revision of Hashimoto’s (1988) north-south division of

passive markers, with respect to Anhui Province. The Tunxi Hui ti as a passive

marker belongs to the ‘give’-passives. The ti passive construction in Tunxi Hui is

characterized by the obligatory occurrence of an agent phrase and the semantic

implication of adversity.

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5.1 Summary and Conclusions

Since not much work has been done on the syntax of Tunxi Hui in the literature,

in Chapter 2, we offer a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui in the first place. We have

examined its major syntactic categories, the basic word order and its tense and aspect

system. With regard to syntactic categories, we have investigated a subset of verbs,

namely ‘coverbs’, which often co-exist with another verb. It turns out that the ti

morpheme in Tunxi Hui can also serve as a coverb, apart from being a full lexical

verb. In respect to word order, we have found that Tunxi Hui is an SVO language

like most Chinese languages. As for the tense and aspect system, there is no

grammatical tense in Tunxi Hui. Instead, we make use of ‘time words’ to indicate

temporal relationships. Aspect, on the other hand, is coded by means of aspectual

markers/particles. Tunxi Hui encodes the perfective aspect, progressive aspect,

experiential aspect and anterior/perfect aspect.

Knowing that ti can function as a main verb and a coverb, we continue to

explore the polyfunctionality of ti in Chapter 3. When ti serves as a main verb

meaning ‘give’, the ti construction it appears in is a double object construction. The

two objects of the predicate ti ‘give’ are linked to a recipient role and a theme role

respectively. Moreover, the recipient NP has to precede the theme NP as far as the

linear order is concerned. The structures in which ti serves as a coverb can generally

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be classified into two scenarios. In the first scenario, ti is found in a serial verb

construction. The coverb ti in an SVC can serve as a recipient marker, a benefactive

marker or a locative marker. The morpheme ti as a locative marker is uncommon as

this use of a ‘give’ verb is seldom found in other Sinitic languages. In the second

scenario, ti takes part in a pivotal construction. The coverb ti in a pivotal construction

can give a permissive, a causative or a passive reading to the construction in which it

appears. The polyfunctionality of the ‘give’ morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui is not a

coincidence. It is also found in genetically affiliated languages like Mandarin,

Shanghainese and Cantonese, as well as some African languages and Southeast Asian

languages. Finally, we explain the relationship between the many uses of ti with

theories of grammaticalization. In line with Lord, Yap & Iwasaki’s (2002) and

Chappell & Peyraube’s (2006) hypotheses, we adopt two plausible grammaticalization

pathways of the ‘give’ morpheme ti in Tunxi Hui. One is from the lexical verb ti to a

recipient marker/benefactive marker, the other is from the lexical verb ti, to a

permissive/causative marker, then finally to a passive marker.

Chapter 4 focuses on a specific use of the coverb ti as a passive marker. But

before that, we first give an overview of the types of passive markers in Sinitic

languages from a typological perspective. Bei is the most well-known passive marker

in Chinese. Aside from bei, we also have passive markers jiao ‘ask, let’/rang ‘allow,

102
yield’ mainly found in northern Chinese languages, and zhuo ‘attach’ in some

southern Chinese languages. We also have passive markers which share the same

form with the main verb ‘give’ in southeastern Chinese languages. Hashimoto (1988)

is largely right about an overall north-south division of passive markers in Sinitic

languages. But his generalization classifies some Mandarin dialects, e.g. Shucheng

Mandarin, a few Wu dialects like Tongling Wu, some Gan dialects like Huaining Gan,

and many Hui dialects in Anhui Province as having a causative passive marker,

which is not the case. Therefore, we have proposed a revision of this north-south

division, i.e. the causative passives versus the ‘give’-passives, particularly in respect

to Anhui Province. After an overview of passive markers in Sinitic languages, we

have found that ti as a passive marker in Tunxi Hui, belongs to the give-type of

passive marker. The ti-passives in Tunxi Hui can be characterized by two significant

properties. One is the obligatory occurence of an agent phrase, and this is common in

many southeastern Chinese languages. The other is the semantic implication of

adversity. Compared with other varieties of Chinese like Mandarin and Cantonese,

the adverse reading of ti-passives in Tunxi Hui is even more strict. When a ti-passive

construction is used, it is explicitly associated with an unhappy or unfortunate

meaning. An active sentence is preferred otherwise.

In this study, we have provided a sketch of the syntax of Tunxi Hui, and a

103
descriptive analysis of the polyfunctionality of the ti morpheme and the syntax of the

ti construction. However, there is still much work left to be done in the future. It is

hoped that this thesis has shed some light on the structure of an understudied Hui

dialect of Chinese, especially with respect to the ti morpheme and the syntax of the ti

construction.

5.2 Implications for Future Research

Being a language that has only received very little attention, there are many

aspects of this language that might be of interest to linguists either from a typological

point of view, or from other functional or formal approaches. While the list could be

long, we will only point to a few directions for further research that are of particular

interest to us.

We have mentioned in Chapter 3 that the use of the ti morpheme in Tunxi Hui as

a locative marker is rare across Sinitic languages. But given the fact that the whole

Hui goup of dialects has not received much attention yet, chances are an

investigation into the surrounding Hui dialects as well as other genetically affiliated

Sinitic languages could be of help to find more evidence on the ‘give’ morpheme as a

locative marker. Hence, more authentic data, both synchronic ones and diachronic

ones, are certainly needed to give a more comprehensive picture.

104
 Regarding passives in Chinese, the passive marker bei has received much

attention. But there are still other passive types apart from the bei passives, like the

zhuo ‘attach’ passives, and the give-passives. They all deserve more attention.

Moreover, there is often more than one passive marker in a Sinitic language. What is

the distinction between them? How are they stratified? These questions cannot be

answered without future research.

We hope that this thesis has contributed to the understanding of the various uses

of the ti morpheme and the syntax of the ti construction in Tunxi Hui, and has

provided authentic data that can be of use for further linguistic analyses.

105
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