The Grammaticalization Chain: Causative > Comitative > Conjunction

The objective of this chapter is twofold. The first part provides cross-linguistic evidence, using data from 257 Chinese dialects, to support the claim that the coordinating conjunction han in Beijing Mandarin likely developed from huan喚. In the second part, it is revealed that all major lexical items of causative verbs (han, huan, huang, jiao, and eu) exhibit a consistent implicational relationship. Our investigation also uncovers that causative verbs in Chinese dialects undergo a process of polygrammaticalization. Specifically, a causative verb can directly undergo grammaticalization into a comitative preposition and/or an ablative preposition. Once a causative verb takes on the function of a comitative preposition, it can further undergo grammaticalization into a coordinating conjunction and/or an allative preposition. The validity of our reconstructed pathway is supported by parallel developments observed in non-Sinitic languages. This chapter provides insights into the semantic motivation and syntactic conditions that drive the aforementioned grammaticalization processes.