Grammaticalization Chain: TWO > Adverb > Comitative > Conjunction

This Chapter investigates how and why the [numeral + classifier] liangge ‘two’ in Chinese dialects spoken in Gansu-Qinghai and Hunan-Hubei areas is grammaticalized into a comitative marker / coordinating conjunction. Through comparison of 125 Chinese dialects, it is concluded that this diachronic development is both internally and externally motivated. The internal factor is that liangge in many Chinese dialects is denumeralized and acquires the function of an adverb meaning ‘together’, whereas the external factor is the language contact with local non-Sinitic OV languages. In the Gansu-Qinghai region, the local varieties of Chinese are influenced by Mongolian languages such as Bonan, Santa and Monguor, while in the Hunan-Hubei region, the grammaticalization of liangge is triggered by the prolonged contact between Chinese dialects and Tujia, a local Tibeto-Burman language (1While Tujia is left unclassified by many linguists, this book adopt the classification of Matisoff (Variational semantics in Tibeto-Burman: The ‘organic’ approach to linguistic comparison (OPWSTBL, 6). Institute for the Study of Human Issues, Philadelphia, 1978) and treat Tujia as a Tibeto-Burman language.).