Attitudinal nominalizer(s) in Chinese: Evidence of recursive grammaticalization and pragmaticization

Abstract

This paper examines the life-cycle of versatile nominalizers in Chinese, with special attention to how they develop into attitudinal stance markers. Based on cross-dialectal and diachronic data, we first identify a wide range of extended uses of nominalization constructions within the Sinitic language family, among them relativizing and subordinating uses, then trace how these dependent nominalization constructions are reanalyzed as independent finite structures. Our analysis reveals a series of semantic and syntactic scope expansions that paves the way for nominalization constructions to be extended from referential uses to attitudinal uses. Our findings highlight the robustness of an (inter)subjectification process whereby nominalizers often combine with other particles at the right periphery to form complex sentence final mood particles, which have valuable implications for cartographic studies in diachronic syntax and also for diachronic pragmatics studies that focus on the interface between grammar and discourse—not only for Chinese, but for other languages with attitudinal nominalizers as well.