Asymmetry in Grammaticalization – The Case of Directional Particles in Cantonese

Adopting a diachronic, discourse-pragmatic perspective, this study explores the grammaticalization of four pairs of directional particles in Cantonese: Iai4 'come' and heoi3 'go', ceotl 'move out' and jap6 'move into', hoil 'move away’ and maai4 'move towards’, and soeng5 'ascend' and lok6 'descend'. All of them are basically pairs of antonyms in the sense that they are identical in terms of semantics, only differing in the feature ‘direction’. Although parallelism between their grammaticalization paths is expected, this does not seem to be the case. Based on a close examination of a diachronic database reflecting the usage of Cantonese from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, it is found that none of the four pairs actually displays a wholly symmetrical relation in their evolutions; one member often goes farther in its path of grammaticalization and has a wider range of uses. This is what we label ‘asymmetry in grammaticalization'.

We might consider the grammaticalization of ceotl 'move out' and jap6 'move into' as an example. Upon its grammaticalization, ceotl can be used to express a more abstract kind of 'moving out’, showing that some features or intentions are uncovered and perceived, as in Ngo5 tai2 dakl ceotl nei5 hou2 tou5ngo6 1 see-able-ceofl you very hungry 'I can see that you are very hungry’ and NgoS tengl dakl ceotl neiS m4 hoilsaml 1 listen-able-ceotl you NEG happy 'I can hear that you are not happy'. Theoretically speaking, jap6, the counterpart of ceotl, could also have undergone a parallel development to become a particle meaning something is ‘covered’ and 'not seen’. However, the sentence *Ngo5 daap3jing3 sau2 jap6 go3 bei3mat6 I promise keep-Jap6 CL secret ‘I promise to keep the secret' makes no sense to speakers of Cantonese; jap6 has not grammaticalized in a parallel manner.

Besides ceotl and jap6, the other three pairs of particles have also displayed varying degrees of asymmetry. While Iok6 'descend' and maai4 'move towards’ have evolved into a marker of subjective conclusion and a marker of negative evaluation respectively via subjectification, their counterparts, soeng5 'ascend' and hoil 'move away’, have not gone that far in their grammaticalization and have not evolved into subjective markers of any kind. Even though lai4 'come' and heoi3 'go', as a pair of particles, have both developed into a purposive particle introducing the purpose of the action denoted by the host verb phrase, heoi3 is nevertheless always more restricted in use than lai4. It is found that there are many occasions where only Iai4 can be used to introduce the purpose, but not heoi3.

In this paper we will examine in detail the actual steps that are involved in the grammaticalization of these particles, and attempt to explain their asymmetric behavior. We will show that particles could have developed in a certain way, they just do not. In other words, there are always gaps in the development of grammatical items.