Why Do You Put Something When You Say You Take It?

This paper explores the pathway in which a verb originally denoting a transfer event, a take-type verb, develops a construction denoting a generic relocation event in a Hmongic language, Lan Hmyo. The author illustrates the process in which the meaning of the transfer verb is bleached out and the verb comes to constitute a new construction that expresses the generic relocation meaning. This study explores a case in which a take-type verb has evolved into a put-type relocation construction, an underdescribed case in previous studies.