The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese

• Published in: Languages (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 131
• Main Author: Zhan, Fangqiong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2025
• Subjects: Chinese languages; Chinese middle construction; constructional assemblies; diachronic construction grammar; Diachronic linguistics; frequency; Grammatical subject; Grammaticalization; Indo-European languages; Morphology; Predicate; Quantitative analysis; Semantics; Syntactic structures; Verbs; Voice (Grammatical); United Kingdom; China

The middle construction (MC) is a term originally used to account for derived intransitives in the generative tradition and is well-documented in many Indo-European languages. While diverse views exist on the Chinese MC, some scholars have argued that Chinese [patient-subj V-qilai AP] sentences shar...