The Go-type and the Give-type indirect object markers in the Conghua dialect

There are two types of indirect object markers in Chinese: The go-type and the give-type. The former is performed by directional verbs such as 過in pre-modern Cantonese and 度in the Min dialects of Jinjiang 晉江 and Quanzhou 泉州. The latter is performed by double-object verbs such as 畀, 撥 and 給 in Cantonese, Wu and Mandarin dialects respectively. One key observation of the diachronic development of these two types of indirect object markers is that the go-type always predates the give-type. Therefore, it can be assumed that the use of the go-type marker in a dialect represents an earlier stage of the indirect object marker usage. Furthermore, we can hypothesize that a dialect that uses the go-type indirect object marker will gradually shift to use the give-type marker.
The Jiekou 街口 dialect of Conghua 從化 in Guangdong province is reported to use both 過 and 畀 as the indirect object markers. The latter is used more frequently by younger speakers who have more exposure to the urban dialects such as Hong Kong Cantonese. This paper reports on a recent field work with four native speakers of the Jiekou dialect in order to investigate the mechanism and conditions of the gradual shift from 過 to 畀 in this dialect.
漢語有兩類間接賓語標記︰「趨向類」和「給予類」。「趨向類」由趨向動詞擔任，如早期粵語的「過」、晉江閩語和泉州閩語的「度」。「給予類」由雙賓動詞充當，如現代粵語的「畀」、吳語的「撥」和官話的「給」。根據我們對這兩類間接賓語標記歷時發展的觀察，「趨向類」間接賓語標記總比「給予類」標記早出現。由此，我們可以假設，使用「趨向類」間接賓語標記的方言反映間接賓語標記的早期用法，這些方言甚至會逐漸轉用「給予類」間接賓語標記。
廣東省從化市的街口話同時使用「過」和「畀」兩種間接賓語標記。年青一輩由於多接觸香港粵語，所以他們使用間接賓語標記「畀」也特別多。本文透過近期從化街口話的調查，分析間接賓語標記由「過」轉換到「畀」的機制和條件。 Copyright © 2010 The Ng Tor-tai Chinese Language Research Centre, Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.