Exploring Colligation Diversity and Grammaticalization in Chinese: An Entropy-Based Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the process of grammaticalization unfolds, it remains to be determined whether a word could co-occur with more words in contexts or would be restricted to fewer words. Based on the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese (LCMC), this study examines the differences in colligation diversity between lexical and grammatical words in Chinese by using entropy, aiming to explore how the colligational behaviour of the left and right sides of Chinese words changes accordingly with increasing grammaticalization. The comparisons of colligation diversity between two sides and across word categories reveal that lexical words show quite similar levels of colligation diversity on the left, which makes them significantly different from grammatical words. More category-specific observations are disclosed by entropy-based approach. In the case of grammaticalization, an increase in entropy values denotes more types with a more uniform distribution, which is suggested to be the manifestation of semantic bleaching. Conversely, a decrease in entropy values may be an indicator of an increasing bondedness. The discussion on how grammaticalization affects the colligational behaviour of words should be based on the specific pathways of grammaticalization concerning word categories, as well as specific sides of words.