Project on Linguistic Analysis

TO USE AND TO CAUSE: 使用 SHI-YONG "TO USE" AND THE DERIVATION OF INDIRECT
CAUSATION IN CHINESE / 使”和“用”：“使用”和汉语一种使成式的产生
Author(s): Chaofen Sun and 孙朝奋
Source: Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Vol. 33, No. 1 (JANUARY, 2005), pp. 140-163
Published by: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press on behalf of Project on
Linguistic Analysis
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TO USE AND TO CAUSE:使用•SH/ IYWG "TO USE” AND THE DERIVATION
OF INDIRECT CAUSATION IN CHINESE

Chaofen Sun

Stanford University

ABSTRACT

This paper is an effort to identify the etymology that makes possible for the

Early Modern Chinese verb zhuo, written as 著 or 着,to function as a causativ

verb in a serial-verb ( or periphrastic) construction. Although it is no longer

productive causative construction in modern standard speech, it is still widely used as

such in Early Modern Chinese and continues to be used in some formal writing in

modern time. The meaning of indirect causation is found to be derived from, or

related to, original, verbal meaning ‘*to place" in Old Chinese. Both
metonymization and metaphorization, as are defined within the theoretical framework

proposed by Traugott and Dasher (2002: 4), are involved in the relevant historical

changes. The former gives rise to the verbal meaning of <4to use" in Middle Chinese,

which, in turn, leads to a number of metaphorical processes that ultimately produce

the Early Modern Chinese causative meaning. The initial intuition for such a
hypothesis comes from a somewhat formal Modern Chinese verbal compound

shi-yong 使用 “to use", which is comprised of two morphemes shi ‘"to cause" and

yong "to use." The Chinese story reported here then adds to those observed by Heine

and Kuteva (2002: 328) still another lexical source, i.e., "to use," from which

meaning of causation may arise.

SUBJECT KEYWORDS

Zhuo shiyong causative semantic change history of Chinese

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 141

1. INTRODUCTION

This study is an effort to identify the etymology that makes possible for the verb

zhuo to function as a causative verb in Early Modern Chinese. Zhuo, written as 著

or 着 in historical texts and pronounced as zhe, zhuo, zhu, or zhao in Modem

Chinese depending on a given context, is perhaps one of the most interesting Ol

Chinese verbs that has been changed into various uses with diversified meanings and

grammatical statuses in Modern Chinese. However, previous studies (Mei 1988, W

1996, Sun 1998, etc.) mostly focus on its grammaticalization into verbal suffixes

indicating various aspectual meanings in different Chinese dialects, leaving totally

unexplained the derivation of its causative function in a periphrastic construction

such as the Early Modern Chinese1 zhuo's in (1) indicating causation. Although it

no longer a productive causative construction in modern standard speech, it is widely

used as such in Early Modern Chinese and continues to be used in some forma

writing in modern time.

(1) a.别离滋味濃 於酒，著人瘦 （張来：秋蕊香）

bieli ziwei nong yu jiu, zhuo ren shou
farewell tase strong than wine, made people thin

‘The taste of bidding farewell is stronger than (that of) wine, (it) makes

people lose weight.’

b. 你著一箇火伴，跟我去来 （老乞大諺解）
ni zhuo yi-ge huo-ban, gen woqulai
you make one campanion, with me go ASP

‘You get someone to go with me.’

The goal of this paper is to uncover how the meaning of causation

from, or related to, zhuo's original, verbal meaning 4<to place" in

section 2). Traugott and Dasher (2002: 4) observe that "peculiar cha

lexeme that is undergoing semantic change may derive from th

surrounding the actuation of the change in a speech community at a

In other words each lexeme considered on its own, has its own indivi

the macro-level, however, the direction of semantic change is often h

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142 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

not only within a language but also cross-linguistically." This paper establishes an

individual history at the micro-level along which zhuo develops into 还 causative. At

the macro-level, the change of the Old Chinese verb zhuo, meaning 4<to place," <4to

attach," or “to publish,” etc., into a causative in Early Modern Chinese is taken to be

a consequence of semantic processes of two types: metonymization that gives rise to

the meaning of "to use" in Middle Chinese, which, in turn, leads to 汪 number of

metaphorization processes that ultimately produce causative meaning in Early

Modern Chinese. Evidence will be presented to show how the meaning of 4<to use”

that becomes popular in Middle Chinese plays an important role in bridging its Old

Chinese meanings and some of its Middle Chinese innovations in 汪 periphrastic

construction, relating to the later derivation of causative, passive, and some other

meanings in Early Modern Chinese.

The initial intuition for such a hypothesis comes from a somewhat formal
Modern Chinese verbal compound shi-yong 使用 <4to use" (2a), which is made up of

two Modern Chinese free morphemes, shi "to make” and yong “to use.” Whereas

yong in (2c) means 4<to use，” shi in (2b) functions as a causative verb in a periphrastic

construction equivalent to the English make in make me laugh, in which the verbs,

make and laugh form a serial-verb construction in Chinese. In (2d) shi is simply

en^)loyed to express the idea of <4to use." The fact that shi and yong can be
synonymous and together are capable in forming a lexical verb (2a) is taken to be

evidence revealing that causation in Chinese can be in some way cognitively linked
to the verbal sense of "to use."

(2) a.美军使用 了很多新式武器

mei jun shiyong 一le henduo xinshi wuqi

US troop use ASP many new weapon

‘The US troops used many new weapons.’
b.他总是使我笑个不停
ta zongshi shi wo xiao ge bu ting
3rd always make me laugh Part. Neg. stop

‘He always made me laugh.’

c.他用钱来收买人心

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 143

ta yong qian lai shou-mai ren xin

3rd use money come collect-buy human heart

‘He used money to buy people's heart.'

d.您使劲 拉
ninshijing la
2nd use strength pull

‘You (should) pull with strength.’

e.他使叮我笑个不停
ta shi -le wo xiao ge du ting
3rd make Asp me laugh Part. Neg. stop

If the attempt to derive zhuo's causative meaning from a source that is consistent with

the relationship between shi and yong discussed above is correct, it should be
expected that cases of zhuo functioning as a verb meaning “to use" should exist in

Chinese history before it undergoes semantic change to indicate causation. Section 3

shows that that is precisely what happens in Middle Chinese.

The type of causative relevance to the etymological development of zhuo

pertains to a serial-verb construction in which there is at least a logical subject2
(causer), such as ta in (2b), d causative verb, such as shi in (2b), a causee，such as wo

in (2b), and a verb, such as xiao in (2b). In order to have an adequate account of the

causative of a language, both its syntax and semantics must be looked at carefully

(Comrie 1981). In this paper, the syntactic contexts from which the causative zhuo

arises are a serial-verb construction, or alternatively named as a periphrastic

construction in this paper. In a cross-linguistic study of causatives, Li (1991) observes

that there is a semantic continuum between two types of causatives: causer-controlled

direct causation and causee-controlled indirect causation. According to Li (1991:

346), characteristically causer-controlled direct causation has less control on the part

of the causee; causer directly is involved with physical manipulation likely; causee

can be either animate or inanimate; dependency between the two events is absolutely

necessary; and the causative markers are normally derived from intransitives. On the

other hand, causee-controlled indirect causation characteristically has less control on

the part of the causer; assistive in nature; causee usually is animate, and often human;

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144 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

dependency between the two events not absolutely necessary, and it usually indicates

indirect causation; and the causative markers are normally derived from transitives.

Mthin such a semantic framework outlined by Li, the Chinese causative under

investigation is treated as something closer to the causee-controlled indirect causation

of the continuum, as the causative verbs are all derived from transitives, with mostly

animate causees (features typical for causee-controlled indirect causation). The

exan^le in (la) with an animate causee people can be interpreted as people (a causee)

may lose weight driven by grief over parting. On the other hand, they do indicate a

certain degree of causer-controlled direct causation such as the one in (lb), in which

the causee is strictly sent by the causer. Therefore, this type of construction is treated

as closer to the indirect causation of the causative continuum. As a comprehensive

study of the history of the Chinese causative will take us far beyond the scope of the

current study, the Chinese causatives like the Modern Chinese shi and Early Modern

Chinese zhuo are simply treated as defunctive causative verbs3 because of its inability

to co-occur with a common verbal suffix like -le (2e) when marking causation.

Heine and Kuteva (2002: 328) find that cross-linguistically causative auxiliaries

may derive from verbs, meaning <4to do, to give, or to take." The Chinese story

reported in this paper then adds still another lexical source, i.e., "to use," from which

meaning of causation may arise. The remaining of the paper is divided into four
sections. Section 2 introduces various uses of the lexeme zhuo. Scetion 3 deals with

its Middle Chinese developments as the first verb in a serial-verb construction.

Section 4 discusses how the derivation of the periphrastic causative meaning should

be treated as 汪 process of metaphorization in light of a theory of semantic change.

Section 5 summarizes zhuo's historical developments in terms of regularity in

semantic change.

2. THE CHANGE OF THE CHINESE ZHUO

It has been widely observed (Norman 1988, Packard 2000, LaPolla 2003) that in

Chinese history, roughly 3,500 years ago, there was a gradual loss of the derivational

morphology characteristic of other Sino-Tibetan languages, and the overwhelming

majority of the Old Chinese morphemes are monosyllabic. Nevertheless, in the last

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 145

two millennia or so, the coining of new words overwhelmingly yields forms that are

bisyilabic, leading to a new Modem Chinese morphology that is primarily

multi-syllabic in nature. Zhuo is an Old Chinese verb that starts to show signs of

grammaticalization (Sun 1998) in Middle Chinese as a result of a highly productiv

word forming strategy at the time, i.e., serial-verb compounding (see below). As

matter of fact, it is peiiiaps the oldest surviving Chinese verbal suffix indicating

primarily imperfective meaning (Smith 1991) in Modern Chinese, such as the one

pronounced as zhe in (3a). Furthermore, in Modern Chinese it can also b

pronounced as zhao postverbally when forming a lexical resultative compound
exe叫)lified by the sentence in (3b). However, as a free morpheme, it can be realize

as zhuo meaning ‘to wear’ in (3c) as a more formal expression in Modern Chinese.

(3) a.门ロ 围 着一群人

men-kou wei -zhe yi -qun ren
door-mouth surround-IMP one-CL people

‘A big crowd gathered around the gate.’

b.我们总算 找着他了
wo-men zongsuan zhao-zhao ta le

1"-PL finally look-find 3riASP

‘We finally found him.’

c.他身着绿色军大衣
tashen zhuo lu _se jun da-yi
3rd body wear green-color army big-clothes

‘His body covered with a green-colored army jacket.'

In different modern Chinese dialects, zhuofs cognates can carry diversified aspectual

meanings (Teng 1979, Yang 1992, Sun 1998)4. For instance, the examples in ⑷ are

Wu, Shanghai dialect to be exact, sentences corresponding to the Modern Chinese

examples in (3).

(4) a.门ロ 围 仔一群人

men-k'y ho -tsi i? -dzyn in
door-mouth surround-IMP one-CL people

‘A big crowd gathered around the gate.’

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146 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

b.阿•拉总算寻着依了
a -la tsongs0 9in-za? i le

1st -PL finally look-find 3ri ASP

‘We finally found him.’

c.依身着绿色军大衣
i sin za? lo2sa? tcyn ta-i
3rd body wear green-color army big-clothes

‘His body covered with the green-colored army jacket.，

Just like their counterparts in Modem Chinese, zhuo's cognates are phonetically

distinct in Shanghai depending on a specific function. In Modern Chinese, as a verb it

is pronounced as zhuo (3c), and as a formant of a lexical resultative compound

pronounced as zhao (3b), and as 狂 bound morpheme pronounced as zhe (3a). In
Shanghai dialect as part of a lexical compound its pronunciation is identical with that

of its verbal use, such as zaP in (4b) and (4c). Its grammaticalized cognate
indicating aspectual meaning is realized as tsi, such as the one in (4a). It shows that at

the phonetic level, in both Shanghai and Modem Chinese, the grammaticalized
zheAsi has a life of its own distinguishable from its cognates at the lexical levels of

the Chinese lexicon. Lexical con^x)unding and grammaticalization are two different

processes that can happen at the same time, evolving along different paths.

Mei (1998) demonstrates how all of these cognates of zhuo in various modern

Chinese dialects, as diversified as they may be semantically, can be phonetically

derived from a common source in Old Chinese. It thus follows that its various uses

should be semantically connected at various points of their historical developments

either metonymically or metaphorically. In this paper, the focus of investigation will

be on the semantic links between various uses of zhuo in Chinese history.

According to Karlgren (1957: 31), the oldest Old Chinese form for 著 should be

tio meaning 4<to place," or “to be visible.” But, also according to Karlgren, in Old

Chinese there should already be two phonetic derivates, tiak meaning "to place, to

put, to apply, to publish, etc." and diak “to attach." The examples in (5) are some late

Old Chinese instances taken from Shiji to exemplify some of its uses at the time, such

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 147

as “to attach" (5a), ‘"to wear" (5b), “to publish" (5c), "to be visible" (5d) and et

⑶a. 其陰-賊著與心 （史记：游俠列傅）

qi yin -zei zhuo yu xin
3rd sinister evil attach with heart

Wickedness is (always) on his heart.’

b.相如身著犢鼻禅 （史记：司馬相如列傅）
xiangru snen zhuo dubkun

Name body wear shorts

'Xiangru wears shorts.’

c. 二君之所稱 _頌，可著 廊-廟（史记：張釋之馮唐

er jun zhi suo cheng song, ke zhu lang -miao 歹！]傳
two lord Rel Pron praise laud, may publish corridor-shrine

'The eulogies of the two lords may be inscribed (onto) the imperial cou
d.此其尤 大彰明 較著者也（史记：伯夷列傅）
ci qi you da zhang-ming -jiao-zhu zhe ye
Dem 3rd special big clear bright visible one Part
‘The is the one that is most conspicuous."

The polysemous Old Chinese meanings of zhuo in (5) can conceiv

in the following manner. ‘To attach" in (5a) is semantically not ver

original veibal meaning "to place," and, thus, they can be taken as

connected. The meaning of ‘to wear1 exemplified by (5b) can easily

meaning of 4tto attach to the body." Furthermore, heroic stories of g

that need to be made known to all for the generations to come cann

place to be displayed as some texts other than the imperial court. Fro

placement, the meaning of ‘visible’ and ‘to publish’ may also occur. Mo

meanings actually survive into Modern Chinese as part of dif

compounds in some of zhuoys cognates, such as those pronounced as z

(6) a•著名 b.著作

zhu -ming zhu -zuo
visible-name visible write

‘famous’ ‘publications’

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148 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

Although Modern Chinese, as a variety of northern Chinese, no longer

commonly uses zhuo to express the idea of ‘to place’ or ‘to wear,' it is common in

various southern Chinese dialects. For example, in Shanghai dialect, ‘to wear' is
still the Old Chinese cognate z\2 (7a). Furthermore, ‘to play chess’ in Shanghai

dialect is literally to place chess (on the chess-board) (7b).

(7) a.著衣裳 b.著棋

za? i -za za? dzi

wear clothes place chess

‘to put on clothes' ‘to play chess’
But the challenge for the current study is that none of the above meaning

obviously related to the meaning in a periphrastic causative. As a matter of

Old Chinese similar periphrastic causative construction is expressed through d

lexemes which bear no direct etymological connection with the Old Chine

zhuo. At the time such a construction is primarily associated with two oth

such as shi 使 in (8a) and ling 令 in (8b) that are followed by a causee,
qihou in (8a) and jun in (8b).

(8) a. 使其後掌之 （左傅:莊公⑶

shi qi hou zhang zhi
make after have it

'(Someone) made his descendents to have it.’

b.令君無疾而死 （左傅:哀公26)
ling jun wu ji er si
make lord Neg ill and die

‘(Someone) made the lord die without any illn

In the next section we will discuss some of zhuo,s M

ultimately lead to its widespread causative uses in Ea

3. ZHUO'S MIDDLE CHINESE INNOVATIONS: VERB ‘TO USE” AND

MODAL USAGE

In Middle Chinese, zhuo acquires, as compared to previous times, at least three

new functions, all of which are contextually-induced from its older meanings. The

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 149

Middle Chinese examples in (9b) and (9c) are simply continuation of their older
usages. The example in (9a) shows that zhuo at the time is also used as a
preposition-like locative marker (Mei 1988) which may be grammaticalized from its

verbal meaning ‘to place, in postverbal position.

(9) a.輒含 飯著兩頰 邊 （世説：德行）

zhe han fan zhuo liang jia bian
then contain rice in two cheek side

'Then, (he) keep the rice on the sides of his mouth.’

b.著重服 （世說：徳行)
zhuo zhong fu

wear heavy clothes

'(Someone) wear mourning clothes.’

c. 刘伶 著酒德颂 （世說：文學）
liu -ling zhu jiu de song
name-name write wine virtue hymn

‘Liu ling wrote the Hymn of the virtue of wine.’

However, more relevant to the current study are the two new innovations
demonstrated by the two examples in (10), such as the verbal meaning ‘to use’ in

(10a) and the later modal use in (10b).

(10) a•在意 著心勤 守護 （變文：雙恩記）

zai vi zhuo xin qin shou -hu
be-at attention use heart deligent protect-guard

‘intentionally use (one's) brains in deligently guarding against

(something).'

b,著 通我天衣 （變文：搜神記）

zhuo huan wo tian-yi

should return 1st sky-clothes

‘(You) should return my heavenly robe.’

Wu (1996: 187) observes an Old Chinese verbal use o

4<to use” in pretty much the same way as that in (10a),

Old Chinese usage. However, this kind of use before

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150 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 ( 2005 )

if it does exist. For example, in Shiji, which is a late Old Chinese test with 106 cases

of zhuo found, not a single case can be interpreted as meaning 4<to use." Therefore, in

spite of its earlier accidental occurrences, zhuo*s meaning <4to use" is treated

primarily as a Middle Chinese innovation as it truly becomes popular at this historical

period.

(11)惟著意而得之 （楚辭：九辯）
wei zhuo yi er de zhi
only apply will and obtain it

‘only determine to have it.’

The accidental occurrence of zhuo, on the other hand, interestingly reveals that, given

the way it is used in Chinese circumstances, it is quite natural for the meaning of "to

use" to grow out of its original meaning ‘‘to place." It follows that the meaning of "to

use" comes from contexts like those in (10a and 11)，when zhuo <(to place" is used

figuratively. The Modern Chinese examples in (12) also reveal that the hypothetical

derivation of "to apply", and then "to use," from "to place" is quite plausible. For

example, in Modern Chinese "to pay attention" can be synonymously expressed by

either a verb fang 放 meaning "to place" in (12a) or the verb yong 用 ‘‘to use’’ in
(12b).

(12) a. 把工作放在心上
ba gongzuo fang zai xin shang
Prep, work place on heart up
‘work deligently’

b.用心工作
yong xin gongzuo
use heart work

'work deligently'

Instances like zhuo xin in (10a), literally in Chinese 4<to place something on (one's)

heart," provide a context from which the meaning of 4<to apply one's heart," or more

idiomatically translated into English "to use one's brains," can naturally emerge.
Zhuo yi (11) and zhuo xin (10a), in which zhuo together with a following noun like

‘heart’，or "will" designates a mental activity of employing a hypothetical physical

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 151

organ, constitute the context from which the sense of l4to use" arises. Such
transition, therefore, is at the same time a figurative use of the language, i.e., to plac

something onto one's heart is an action that can possibly occur only imaginatively

In the real world, such an action can never occur physically in the same manner like

eating an apple, riding a bicycle, placing a book on the bookshelf, etc. that can
actually be seen or experienced by all. Whereas sentences in (13a) and (13b) ar
additional Middle Chinese examples of zhuo functioning as a verb meaning "to use,

sentence (13c) is a case showing that zhuo at the time still carries the original sens

<4to place," meaning 4<to place a physical organ to a specific location."

(13) a.著甚言詞祈備 （變文：無常講經文）

zhuo shen yanci qibei

use what word prepare

‘to prepare with what kind of words?,

b.為他著力 （變文••伍子胥）
wei ta zhuo li

for him use strength

‘to put forth (one's) strength'

c.著金邊(鞭)至坏 角 （變文：太子成道）
zhuo jin -bian zhi huai jiao
place gold-staff to broken corner

‘to place the penis to the vagina.

Theoretically, the kind of figure of speech is taken to be a process of

which is construed by Traugott and Dasher (2002: 29) to be “a conc

by which invited inferences in the associative, continuous stream o

come to be semanticized over time, In this case, the invited infer

is semanticized over time from its contextual association, in

something in the heart" brings forward the sense of "applying o

power," and thus "to use one's brains."

It is also hypothesized in this paper that the innovation of "to

makes it possible for zhuo to take on the modal meaning "sho

preverbal position, which happens to be the syntactic slot for

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152 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

auxiliaries in general. In other words, the verbal zhuo begins to be grammaticalized

into an auxiliary verb indicating modal meaning at the same syntactic slot of the

continuous stream of speech/writing. The plausibility for such lies in the fact that

ever since Middle Chinese verbs like yong, whose original meaning is "to use," has

been commonly employed to indicate modal meanings, but no modal auxiliary has

been changed into a verb meaning "to use." While the examples in (14) are Middle

Chinese uses of yong as a modal, the one in (15) is a case of its modal use in Modern
Chinese.

(14) a.不用將心怨阿郎。 （變文：醜女緣起）

bu yong jiangxin yuan a- lang
Neg use take heart blame Pref man
‘(You) should not blame the young man at heart.’

b.不用苦切悲啼。 （變文：盧山逮公話）
bu yong ku -qie-bei -ti

Neg use bitter-cut-sad-cry

‘(You) should not cry out loud so sadly.’

(15)你不用説了
ni bu yong shuo le
you Neg use say ASP
‘You should not say anymore.’

Chronologically, it appears that after zhuo's function to expre

popular in Middle Chinese, the modal usage of zhuo then become

Modern Chinese, as is exemplified by the sentences in (16).

(16) a. 亦著下獄使錢 （朱子語類17)

yi zhuo xia yu shi qian
also should down jail use money

‘(One) should also go to the jail house to bribe.’

b..固著 逐一理 會 （朱子語類18)

gu zhuo zhu -yi li -hui
thus should chase-one understand-meet

‘(One) should therefore comprehend (them) one by one.’

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 153

c•須 著如此改 （朱子語類24)

xu zhuo ru ci gai

should should like this change

‘(One) should correct (them) like this.’

Pertaining to the theory of semantic change, such a process sho

metarphorization, another common mechanism governing sem

addition to metonymization discussed above. According to Tra

(2002: 28), metarphorization is primarily an analogical princ

"conceptualizing one element of a conceptual structure Ca in term

another conceptual structure Cb. Since it operates 'between domai

19; italics original) processes said to be motivated by metaph

conceptualized primarily in terms of comparison and of ‘sour
indifferent (and discontinuous) conceptual domains, though
paradigmatic relationships of sames and differences." Veibs like

common paradigmatic relationship in the same syntactic slot wi

served as a model for the latter to emulate and thus ultimately lead

change into a modal auxiliary.

4. DERIVATION OF ZHUO'S CAUSATIVE MEANING

In line with the above discussion, the innovation for zhuo to acquire the

meaning of “to use" is taken further to be 狂 most important step in its derivation of

the causative meaning in a serial-veiわ construction. It was noted above that

periphrastic causative exists in Old Chinese, a time when the linguistic form zhuo still

has nothing to do with causation yet. However, after zhuo becomes commonly used

to indicate the meaning 4<to use" in Middle Chinese, it starts to show up as a causative

and passive in Early Modern Chinese as well. Note that the Middle Chinese zhuo as a

verb meaning “to use’’ in a serial-verb construction also bears a paradigmatic

relationship with the causative verb shi. For example, whereas shi in (17a) functions

as a verb expressing the idea of ‘Rising one's mind", it, in (17b), marks causation in a

serial-verb construction. Therefore, it is hypothesized that zhuo's causative meaning

is possibly acquired through its interaction with the causative verb shi as a process of

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154 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

metaphorization in Early Modern Chinese.

(17) a. 防禍 幻(患）使心神 (祖堂集：仰山和尚）

fang huo -huan shi xin -shen

guard disaster calamity use heart spirit

To guard against disasters, (one should) use (one's) mental power."

b.必使天龍 開道眼 （變文：維摩詰經講經文）

bi shi tian-long kai dao yan
must make sky dragon open CL eye

‘Must make the heavenly dragon to open an eye.’

Additional evidence for such a hypothesis comes from examples like those

given in (18), in which shi and zhuo share still another paradigmatic link when they

both can signify the meaning of "to send," which is really more original for shi. For

the latter, it is then an innovation that does not follow from any of its Old Chinese

meanings, thus pointing to a conceptual link between the two that may have
motivated such a meaningful change.

(18) a.著人 遂向外 國請轚 人（變文：搜神記）

zhuo ren sui xiang wai guo qing yi -ren
send person then toward outside state invite medical person

"Send someone, then, to find a doctor from other States."

b.便使嬪 -妃， 相随至舍(變文歡喜國王緣）

bian shi bin -fei, xiang sui zhi she
then send attendant cucubine together follow arrive lodging

"Then send the court ladies to follow (him) to (his) residence.’’

c.逢著目連 （變文••大目乾連冥間救母）
feng zhuo mulian
meet ASP Name

‘(Someone) runs into Mulian.’

It might be worth noting that the verb 4<to send" frequently co-occurs with an animate,

and often human objects, thus creating a desirable context from which an animate

causee may emerge. However, in Middle Chinese, as is exemplified by the text of

Dunhuang bianwen, zhuo is not commonly used as a causative. As a matter of fact,

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 155

among the eighty-three noun phrases immediately following the lexeme zhuo, there

are only ten (about 12%) animate objects. Moreover, in my analysis, none of the

animate objects is like the one in (18a) that can be interpreted as a causee. As a matter

of fact, although the zhuo, meaning "to send,"in (18a) is close to the causativ
meaning, it is not in construction of a serial-verb construction expressing periphrastic

causative with the following verb qing ‘"to invite" because they are separated by an

adverb sui and a prepositional i^irase in (18a). Therefore, it should be more

adequately treated as two disjunct clauses and, thus, not forming a more closely

linked periphrastic construction. The other animate objects found following zhuo are

like the one in (18c) that functions as a verbal suffix indicating aspectual meaning in

postverbal position, thus not the kind of serial-verb construction that should concern

us in this study.

As is noted above, zhuofs 著 use in the periphrastic causative becomes

common only in Early Modern Chinese, such as the examples in (19) that are
selected from a Korean Chinese language textbook characteristic of the language

spoken in northern China during the Yuan Dynasty. Please note that in Early
Mandarin, in addition to its causative function (19a), it also expresses permissive

meaning (more see below).

(19) a. 著這老的看著 （老乞大諺解）

zhuo zhe lao -de kang zhe5
let Dem old Rel see Part

'Make the old one look after (them).’ Or ‘Let the old one look after

(them).’

b.著我宿一夜 （老乞大諺解）
zhuo wo su vi ye
let 1st stay one night

‘Let us spend the night (here).’

c. 著馬吃 （老乞大諸解）
zhuo ma chi

make horse eat

‘Make the horses eat.’

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156 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

In this type of sentence, there is a clear causee that is animate and most

frequently human. Such a change is indicative of a process of metaphorization,

whereby zhuo acquires its periphrastic causative function through comparing to shi

that has been used as 狂 periphrastic causative verb ever since Old Chinese. In Chinese

languages, markers of this type of causation are commonly used interchangeably with

a passive marker like bei in (20c). For example, Modern Chinese rang 讓 is a
commonly used periphrastic causative such as the one in (20a). But it is, at times,

ambiguous in Modern Chinese with three possible interpretations as is exemplified

by the sentence in (20b): it can have causative, permissive, or passive reading

depending on a given context.

(20) a. 他讓我都吃了
ta rang wo dou chi le

3rd let Ist ail eat Asp

'He made me eat ail of it.’

b.他讓我打了
ta rang wo da le

3rd let I* hit Asp

‘He made me hit (someone).’ or

‘He allows me to hit (someone).’ or

‘He was hit by me.’

c.他被我打了
ta bei wo da le

3^ Pass 1st hit Asp

'He was hit by me.’

Wthout talking about zhuo's function in marking causation, Wu (1996: 189)

attributed the source of zhuo*s passive function in Early Modern Chinese, similar to

the one in (21a), to its Middle Chinese meaning <4to attach" like the one in (21b).

Following Wu's claim, zhuofs grammaticalization into a passive marker in Early

Modern Chinese zhuo, such as the one in (21a), should then be treated as a process of

metonymization as it must be taken as a case of contextually-induced change.

However, in Middle Chinese zhuo's passive uses are rare, if possible at all. Even

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 157

though Che one in (21b) is a rare Middle Chinese example and occurs in two matc

lines contrasting with 狂 seemly passive marker bet", it is probably still used as a

meaning something like 4<to come into contact/to attach," but not as a passive m

Furthermore, bei in (21b) can also be interpreted as a verb with its more ori

meaning "to suffer from." Although the parallel function between zhuo and

(21b) that can be interpreted as passive appears to lend some support to Wu's c

no explanation about its links with causative meaning, the instrumental v

meaning, modal uses, the meaning of “to send," etc. would follow from
hypothesis.

(21) a. 兩鬢 青青，盡著吳霜偷換（袁去華：雨中花）
liang bin qing qing，jin zhuo wu shuang tou huan
two sideburns dark dark, all Pass Wu frost secret change

‘The dark sideburns were secretly transformed the frost in Wu.’

b. 行 即著 网，坐即被彈 (變文：鵞子賦）
xing ji zhuo wang, zuoji oei dan
move then attach net, sit then Pass shoot

‘It will run into a net, if it moves; it will suffer from shooting, if it stays

(on a branch).’

In contrast, the theory proposed in this paper can explain both the links between

zhuo's passive and causative uses in Early Mandarin and the links between its
causative usage and the meanings of 4<to use," as well as that of the modals. It is

therefore a more explanatory and, therefore, a superior solution that is fully supported

by evidence from historical texts.

Examples like (21a) also mark an important transition. Note that indirect

causation typically has an animate/human causee. This contrasts with the more

original verbal meanings of zhuo, "to place’’ and "to use,’’ that regularly take an

inanimate object such as words (13a), strength (13b), gold-staff (13c), etc.
Nevertheless, in (21a), the inanimate noun wu shuang "frost in Wu" is figuratively

treated as a volitional animate causee as is evidenced by the adverb tou "secretly."

Moreover, the derivation of causation for zhuo is not likely to be a metonymic

process for its lack of any semantic link with permissive function in Middle Chinese.

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158 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

Along Li's (1991) continuum of causative relations discussed in section 1, permissive

meaning is found to be closely linked to causec-controlled indirect causation

cross-linguistically. Yap and Iwasaki (1994) also observes that the derivation of the

causative meaning from GIVE in South East Asian languages follows such a path:

give > (permissive) causative > reflexive > passive,

in which permissive meaning appears to be prominently related to causative meaning.

But the Middle Chinese zhuo, instead of having any obvious permissive function,

most conspicuously acquires the meaning of “to use" and the modal meaning first,

and then the meaning of lo send.’，In the light of its paradigmatic relationship with

the commonly used periphrastic causative shi，which is, at the same time, a verb of

4<to use," the current study finds a metaphorization treatment to be much more

plausible than a metonymic hypothesis. Its Early Modern Chinese passive (21a) and

permissive (19b) meanings come as a rather general phenomenon in Chinese where

periphrastic causatives typically can carry permissive and passive meanings. In other

words, the passive and permissive meanings are acquired after zhuo changes into a

causative marker as another process of metaphoric extension. Therefore, a

non-metonymization hypothesis would not only go farther but also would provide an

explanation to the rather abrupt appearance of zhuo's permissive meaning in Early

Modern Chinese.

When discussing a hypothetical relationship between instrumental and

causative meanings in his cross-linguistic study of morphological causatives, Li

(1991: 355) noted that causation involves “a channeling of verbal event into a
particular path, onto a particular object. Obviously, this process of transferring the

event onto the object requires some sort of means. Therefore, to derive causative

meaning from an instrumental marker is relevant and possible." Chinese, then, may

have just provided a strong piece of historical evidence to support LTs hypothesis,

even though zhuo, at the time, is a verb meaning 4<to use" rather than a more

grammaticalized instrumental marker. In the history of zhuo, its semantic interaction

with shi, a verb that can mean 4<to send’’ or causative, enables its object functioning as

a causee, providing an animate means whereby a cause and effect relationship is fully

expressed.

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 159

5. SUMMARY

In short this study finds that the causative meaning of zhuo is not directly

derived from its original meaning such as “to place." It is only indirectly related to

its original meaning through a number of semantic changes. The key link is the

meaning of "to use" that entails a paradigmatic relationship with the lexeme shi

which functions as a verb embodying both meanings, “to use’’ and "to cause.’’

In summary, I will follow the latest insight from research on semantic change

that suggests that semantic change is regular and characterize the semantic changes

that zhuo has gone through in terms of such a framework. Traugott and Dasher (2002:

11) observes that "Every change, at any level in a grammar, involves not “A > B," i.e.

the simple replacement of one item by another, but rather "A > B - B" and then

sometimes alone. According to such a theory, polysemous meanings of a

lexeme can be changed after a period of co-existence. Traugott and Dasher also
schematize the accretion of meaning as is presented in (22).

(22) A> f } (>B)

The current study starts with the polysemous structure of the Old Chinese zhuo. Such

a polysemous structure is further enriched over times through a number of processes

in 汪 serial-verb construction that has been recapitulated by the flow chart in (23). The

chart here is by no means comprehensive and has purposefully left out some of many

polysemous uses of zhuo that are irrelevant in the current study. Meaning A "to

place" is taken to be the source for all of the diversified meanings including many

aspectual meanings in various modern Chinese dialects. But the meanings that are

most relevant in the current study are those that are closely associated with the

derivation of the causative and are, thus, marked by capital letters B, C, D and E.

Other meanings that do not follow from meaning B are not lettered as their changes

fall out of the scope of the current investigation.

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160 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 33, No. 1 (2005)

「D To send
• D To send > ] ETo cause

B To use > To use (passive and

Bib use:
[C modal > modal permissive)
(23) Alb place > r To put on

A To place >1 To place > other aspectual meanings

It is claimed in this paper that the process, whereby zhuo acquires meaning B

from A, is contextually-induced and thus one of metonymization. Its derivation of

meaning C from meaning B is, nevertheless, a process of metaphorization evidenced

by the paradigmatic relationship between verbs meaning “to use" and modal
auxiliaries. Meaning D is also metaphorically derived from B because of its
paradigmatic relationship between verbs of "to use" and 4<to send，’’ i.e., the
relationship between zhuo and shi that can mean “to send," 4<to use," or “to cause"

depending on a given context in Middle Chinese. It is, thus, hypothesized that zhuo's

meaning E, "to cause" is also metaphorically derived from its meaning D. Its passive

and permissive meanings follow from the meaning of periphrastic causative, also as a

process of metaphorization. The meaning of "to use" then constitutes the crucial link

between "to place’’ and "to send" that more directly contributes to the rise of its

causative meaning. This analysis not only establishes the etymology for zhuo*s

periphrastic causative but also its derivational history as a number of processes in

terms of regular semantic change.

* Different earlier versions of the paper were presented to the 2002 NACCL-15

conference in the University of Arizona, a lecture at the Institute of Linguistics of the

CASS in Beijing in the summer of 2002, and a 2003 conference at Columbia

University. I want to thank all of the participants at these meetings for their insightful

comments and suggestions, which made me recognize my sloppy thinking. I also

want to thank Professor Fengxiang Li for giving me a couple of valuable references.

Of course, all the possible errors in this paper are completely mine.

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 TO USE AND TO CAUSE 161

NOTES

1. Following Norman (1988), Sun (1996) and Chen (1999), the history of Chinese is

divided into four periods for the sake of convenience, Old Chinese (after 1000 BCE),

Middle Chinese (around 600 CE), Early Modern Chinese (around 1400), and Modern

Chinese (after 1800). In this paper the term Modern Chinese is also used to refer to

the standard dialect, known as putonghua 普通话 ‘common speech,, which is

primarily based on the language spoken in the capital city, Beijing.

2. Syntactically speaking, the subject position of a Chinese sentence can be empty

(Li & Thompson 1976).

3. Although many of the lexemes in preverbal position are full-fledged verbs

elsewhere, for the lack of distributional properties typical of a veib in this position,

many of the lexemes at this position are treated by many as coverbs or prepositions

(Li and Thompson, 1974,1981).

4. In Sun 1998, some Modern Chinese sentence-final zhe's are also treated as

cognates. However, Lu (1984), X. Sun (1997) and Wu (1996) argue that they are
derived from other sources unrelated to the Old Chinese zhe.

5. At this time, the character 著 is used to indicate a sentence final particle such as

the one in (19a). As it is not directly related to the derivation of causative meaning,

such a use, thus, falls out of the scope of the current investigation.

6. According to Tang (1988), at this time, bei is already commonly used to mark

passive in late Middle Chinese from its older verbal usage indicating “to suffer
from."

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“使”和“用”："使用”和汉语ー种使成式的产生
孙朝奋 美国斯坦福大学

提要

本文旨在调查"著”字在早期官话联动式中作使动动词有关的历史。"著”字这
样的非直接使动用法，虽然在现代汉语ロ语中几乎己经绝迹，在現代汉语书面
语中仍然经常可见。调查发现，该使动义与其古汉语中的放置义有着刀切莲藕
斯不断的关系。在历史演变中，Tiaugott和Dasher (2000: 4)理论框架里的两
个演变机制，语义引伸（metonymization)和隐喻（metaphorization)都起到了
很大的作用。首先，“著”字从较基本的动词性放置义引伸出中古的使用义，然
后又由于中古的“使”与“用”语义相通，“著”字又通过“使”而取得了使动
义。“使”和“用"在中古的内在连系还反映在现代汉语“使用”这个复合动词
上，本文的发现更为Heine and Kuteva (2002: 328)所列出的使动词可能源头又增
加了一个新的可能.

关键词著使用使動語義變化漢語史

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