Semantic evolution and a sense network model of polysemous adverbs in Chinese: The case of CAI and JIU.

摘要

CAI and JIU are prototypical Chinese polysemous adverbs that can be used as references to time, quantity, degree, and speakers' attitude and opinions, in addition to serving as linguistic cohesive and modality markers. Categorizing these seemingly diversified and discrete senses has become an intricate, if not impossible, task, and often results in inconsistency and overlap, as exemplified in the classic dictionaries.;These phenomena are studied from both cognitive- and historical-linguistic perspectives by examining data collected from both diachronic and synchronic sources. The semantic changes are traced to their etymological roots and indicate that their synchronic variants are not discrete entities as commonly stated; rather, they are internally related in the way of family resemblances, such that it is possible to form a single unified network. In this prototype network model, the core meanings of CAI and JIU serve as a superschematic center that not only links the historical and synchronic senses, but also connects all four of their basic synchronic variants: connective, temporal, modality, and limiting.;In contemporary Chinese, the basic function of CAI and JIU is to express a subjective evaluation toward a proposition via a presupposed expectation, but with distinct pragmatic implicatures. CAI expresses the sense of '(just) occurred not until', with a more demanding implicature in the actuation of an event/situation, whereas JIU conveys the sense of 'immediacy', but with a less demanding implicature.;Etymologically, CAI and JIU, though distinct in their source meanings, share the same SOURCE-PATH-GOAL image schematic axis, but with opposite reference endpoints. CAI refers to the inceptive endpoint, expressing 'just occurred', while JIU is associated with the terminal endpoint, conveying a sense of 'imminent to occur'. It is this inherent semantic nature of CAI and JIU that establishes a basis for their core meaning. It is also their similar and different semantic components that predetermine their becoming a pair of both antonyms and synonyms.