Revisiting the Grammaticalization of Verbs in Chinese: A Perspective Inspired by Ma Beijia

This paper offers an insight on the approach to verbal grammaticalization in Chinese in the volume Hanyu dongci yufahua 汉语动词语法化 (Grammaticalization of verbs in Chinese), by Ma Beijia 马贝加. The innovative aspects of this study are highlighted in comparison with a previous study by Janet Xing on the same topic. While Xing emphasizes syntactic reanalysis and semantic abstraction within serial verb constructions, focusing on Classical Chinese texts, Ma broadens the scope of analysis by integrating standard and dialectal data. Her approach combines cognitive, syntactic, semantic, and typological perspectives, examining the changing combinability of verbs and nouns to explain the process of their transformation into grammatical markers. The comparison highlights the value of dialect data in tracing grammaticalization processes and suggests new directions for the study of grammaticalization in Sinitic languages.