Opinion regarding the Syntactical Change Mechanism in the Grammaticalization of “Tah”

In order for new parts of speech and new meaning to be realized and perfected within the vocabulary structure of a language, semantic changes to the meaning need to take place under consistent mutual influence between each similar words within a single semantic category. It is by this process that new meaning is born and established. The word “Tah(stroke)” is no exception and it cannot be denied that changes to the meaning of “Tah” takes place under mutual influence between various elements of a noun and verb. In short a grammaticalization tendency occurs. Nevertheless, chances in meaning always derive from syntactic variations and thus study derives from this observation. As a result of conducting this study based on the motif that the grammaticalization tendency of “Tah” is preceded by changes to the syntactic location, I have come to the hypothesis that New-Jianyushi expression, which first appeared in the Weigin dynasty, acted as a catalyst for the grammaticalization of “Tah.” A totally new-Jianyushi form of “Tah+O+V” came into existence. This structure, as a result of influence of resultative complement, displaced the object “O” behind the “V” to form a “Tah+V+O” structure. With the natural trend to omit the “O,” the “Tah + V” structure came into being and, together with the diversification of the “V” element, the “Tah” grammaticalization came into existence. Semantics and syntax both have a great influence on the changes and development of internal structure of language regardless of their sequential order. However, existing literature on the grammaticalization of “Tah” tend to either overly emphasize the semantics or are based on the interpretation of individual words. Therefore, this study attempts to study the change mechanism in the grammaticalization of “Tah” from a syntactical aspect. As such, the contribution of this study lies in its attempt to break new ground by starting off from the premise that the change mechanism of “Tah” is deeply related to other grammaticaliztion of verbal expressions in the Chinese language.