A study on the semantic change of the Chinese negative adverb bùshèn ( 不甚 ) —— Xiao Han, Fangqiong Zhan City University of Hong Kong 28-31 May 2020
Outline 1. Introduction 2. The semantics of bùshèn 3. The semantics of bùshèng 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion
1. Introduction Aims • To account for the multiple interpretations of the Chinese negative degree adverb bùshèn ( 不 甚 ).
Multiple interpretations of bùshèn ( 不甚 ) Ø not very e.g. 不甚了然 ( Chongbian Guoyu Cidian (Revised Chinese Dictionary) , 2015) Ø very e.g. 不甚感激 CCL Modern Chinese corpus (Zhan, Guo & Chen, 2003) BCC Modern Chinese corpus (Xun, Rao, Xiao & Zang, 2016)
(1) 去美国前我对父亲的这句话不甚了然，三年 后从美国回来才真正理解它的含义。 “Before I went to America, I didn't understand my father's words very well. It is until I came back from America three years later that I understood its meaning.” ( Diwudai dianying dui Zhongguo dianying de zhuyao gongxian , 2005)
(2) 从这次事件当中，我进一步地了解了上帝对 我的恩惠，对于上帝对我的关怀我实在是不甚感 激啊！ “From this event, I have further understood God's kindness to me, and I really very appreciate God's concern for me!” Lubinxun piaoliu ji (n.d.)
Previous Literature: • Pronunciation of the finals: ‘n’ and ‘ng’ (Yuan, 1983) • a) Tone change of ‘ sheng 胜 ’; b) Dialects from specific areas. (Pan, 2017) • Redundant negation (An, 2019)
The problems of the previous accounts ： • If it was the pronunciation issue, there would be other words involving ‘n’ and ‘ng’ that have a similar phenomenon, not only confined to bùshèn and bùshèng . • If bù is a redundant morpheme, it does not explain why the interpretation of bùshèn as ‘very’ only occurs with adjectives or verbs that are common collocations of bùshèng .
Our argument • The semantics ‘very’ of bùshèn derives from the analogy to the usage of bùshèng ( 不胜 ) .
• Analogy: a process of pattern matching, has been recognized as a prime mechanism in language change and grammaticalization. • For analogy, the focus is on matching the original source with some extant structure that is considered to be similar in some respect, and is treated as an exemplar. (cf. e.g. Harris & Campbell, 1995; Fischer, 2007; Traugott & Trousdale, 2013) .
• In this case, language-users unconsciously match the usage of bùshèn with the pattern of bùshèng . • We propose that bùshèng is the extant exemplar that enabled the semantic change for bùshèn .
2. The semantics of bùshèn Ø The periodization for written Chinese adopted in the paper is as follows (Sun, 1996): • Old Chinese: 771 BCE to 220 CE • Middle Chinese: 220 CE to 960 • Early Modern Chinese: 960 to 1900 • Modern Chinese: 1900 to present
a) bù and shèn first co-appeared in Old Chinese → Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE-476 BCE) • Shèn following the negative morpheme bù was used as an adjective or a verb
• shèn used as an adjective (3) 上雨而不甚也。 “ It is a timely rain but not torrentially. ” Gongyangzhuan (657 BCE)
• shèn used as a verb (4) 虽古之所谓圣王明君者，其勤身而忧世不甚 於此矣。 “Even the ancient holy wise emperors, their hard work and worry for the country cannot be compared with him.” Hanfeizi (280 BCE-233 BCE)
b) bùshèn first used as a negative marker, see (5) → Hanshu (105) East Han Dynasty
(5) 吏卒起张掖，不甚远，然尚厮留甚众。 “ The officers departed from Zhangye. It is not a long way, but still a lot of people were left behind.” Hanshu (105)
• Limited cases that bùshèn is used as 'very' occurs in Modern Chinese, see (6)
(6) 八姑专爱钻戒，两弟则既爱财，又爱马，欲 念不甚大 “Bagu loves diamond rings especially, while the two brother love both money and horses. They have much desire.” Xinhai geming qianhou (1979)
3. The semantics of bùshèng • Original meaning of shèng → 'able to bear' ( 禁得起 ) a) bù and shèng first co-appeared, see (7) → Zhou Dynasty (1046 BCE-256 BCE) • Shèng was used as a verb and bù was a negative adverb
(7) 不胜而往，咎也。 “If a person is unable to do something but insists on doing it, it will cause disaster.” Zhouyi (1046 BCE-771 BCE)
b) Bù and shèng gradually condensed to the degree adverb bùshèng from a phrase through lexicalization process. (Han, 2012) • Bùshèng as an adverb conveys a positive degree, see (8)
(8) 猥蒙开示，深自庆幸，不胜欢喜，略附陈诚。 “I am grateful to you for enlightening me. I feel deeply rejoice and very delighted. I would like to express my sincerity here.” Guanghongmingji (664)
• Bùshèng can be followed by an adjective or a verb when it is used as an adverb. Ø By attaching to bùshèng , the emotional status of the adjectives is deepened or strengthened.
• bùshèng followed by an adjective (9) 说到最后一句，他猛把桌子拍了一下，露出 不胜愤慨的神气。 “Speaking of the last sentence, he slammed the table, revealing his indignation.” Shi (1930)
• bùshèng followed by a verb (10) 士会去秦三载，今日复进绛城，不胜感慨。 “Shihui went to the Qin state for three years. Today he reenters Jiangcheng with great emotion.” Dongzhou lieguo zhi (C.A. 1646)
• A few examples show that a noun can occur preceding bùshèng . (11) 心中却甜甜的喜悦不胜 “Her heart is full of sweet joy.” Shendiao xialü (1959-1961)
Summary • Bùshèng as a positive degree adverb usually modifies an adjective or verb to indicate the deepened emotional state of the subject. • Bùshèng occurs in the collocation where it is followed by an emotional adjective or verb.
4. Discussion • Bùshèng a) preceding an emotional adjective, see (8) → Around 664 CE b) preceding an emotional verb, see (10) → Around 1646 Ø [ Bùshèng +adjective/verb]
• Bùshèn • Earliest cases of bùshèn used as an adverb meaning 'very' → Modern Chinese Ø [ Bùshèn +adjective/verb]
[ Bùshèng + emotion adjective/verb] meaning deepened emotional status Analogy [ Bùshèn + emotion adjective/verb] meaning deepened emotional status
• We suggest that the partially identical forms by hypothesis enabled analogy to take place and resulted in the similar meaning.
• In other words, the analogy occurred when bùshèn as an adverb modifying an adjective or a verb, functioning to indicate the positive degree of emotion, such as (6) and (12).
(6) 八姑专爱钻戒，两弟则既爱财，又爱马，欲 念不甚大 “Bagu loves diamond rings especially, while the two brother love both money and horses. They have much desire.” Xinhai geming qianhou (1979)
(12) 心里早已是不甚感慨，说不出的唏嘘哀怨 “He has already been not very emotional and has unspeakable sighs and complaints.” Wanquan fangdao shouce (2005)
• Similar analogical used cases are not found when shèn is used as an adverb and bù functions as a negative prefix. • The negative degree adverbial use of bùshèn co-exist with its positive expression. • The negative bùshèn does not collocate with emotional adjectives/verbs, as in (13).
(13) 大概在外国住久了，我们中国人的人情礼俗， 他不甚了解。 “It is probably because he has been lived in the foreign country for a long time, he doesn't know much about our Chinese customs.” Liangfuyin (1967)
Summary • Bùshèng followed by an adjective or verb indicating emotions are the common collocations, which sets up an exemplar for bùshèn to match, resulting in the semantic change from ‘not very’ to ‘very’ in the cases of bùshèn conveying emotions.
5. Conclusion • Bùshèn has the potential to express positive degree 'very' when used to indicate the strong degree of emotion. • The semantic change was argued to have undergone through an analogy to the usage of the existing negative adverb bùshèng .
Reference List • An, H. M. (2019). “Bu + chengdu fuci + X” geshi de ruohua fouding yanjiu [ A study on the weakening negation of the format of “bu + degree adverb + X” ] . (Master's thesis). Available from China Masters' Theses Full-text database. • Fischer, O. (2007). Morphosyntactic Change: Functional and Formal Perspectives . Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Han, X. H. (2012). The development of the degree adverb 不胜 . Journal of Zhanjiang Normal College, 33 (4). 137-140.
• Harris, A., & Lyle, C. (1995). Historical Syntax in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. • Ministry of education mandarin language promotion committee. (2015). Chongbian guoyu cidian xiudingben . Retrieved from http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?ccd=Mj vCK9&o=e0&sec1=1&op=sid=%22Z00000021539%22.&v=-2 • Pan, Y. Y. (2017). “Bushen ganji” and “busheng ganji” [ “Not very grateful” and “very grateful” ]. Modern Chinese, 6. 32-34.
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