Reinforcement by realignment in diachronic construction grammar

Abstract

AbstractThis paper suggests thatxiē‘some’ in Mandarin Chinese originated as a quantifier but became a classifier in theyi‘one’ construction viarealignment, orchange in inheritancein diachronic construction grammar. This change has createdyi xiē, semantically equivalent toxiē, therefore it is also a case of reinforcement in the sense of Jespersen’s Cycle. However, this study argues thatyi xiēhas not necessarily undergone grammaticalisation. Generalising the analysis, two types of reinforcement are proposed: reinforcement by innovation and by realignment. The former involves grammaticalisation, but the latter may not. The study highlights the importance of higher-level generalisations in language change.