1. Introduction 3. Diachronic Accounts • It has long been observed that there is a path of Ø Previous account (Wang 2015): grammaticalization from ‘HOME’ to the attributive possessive Locative (at the home of X ) > Possessive (owned by X) marker in some African languages. • • Examples are Kabiye (Claudi & Heine 1989), Ngiti (Kutch Lojenga However, the development of HOME is more complex. 1994), Zulu and Xhosa (Güldemann 1999). Ø Alternative account • This path of grammaticalization is treated as an areal phenomenon (Heine & Kuteva 2002:175). • Interestingly, there is also a similar phenomenon found in Sinitic Noun Suffix ‘N1-HOME N2’ languages(=Chinese dialects), which are neither genealogically construcon • HOME （家） • added to person nouns or More frequently used related nor in close geographic proximity to African languages. • Family／house pronouns • HOME is sll a nominal aer Tang Dynasty, • meaning of ‘HOME’ is suffix however, this usage is • This study carries out a synchronic survey of , bleached • The construcon expresses lost in Mandarin possessive meaning Chinese. and tries to trace the path of grammaticalization and account for • only sporadic examples possible mechanisms. • The data are from individual descriptions of Chinese varieties, published in .

2. Synchronic Evidences u Different usages of the morpheme ‘HOME’ in ancient times • Chinese dialects display different degrees of grammaticalization. (Around 202 BCE): • The following examples illustrate the usage of the morpheme ‘HOME’ as an attributive possessive postposition. • A noun which means the place where people live, or family. • Kinship terms formed from ‘HOME’ used to refer to one’s own senior family members, showing modesty of the speaker .For (1) Zunyi (; Hu 2010: 417) instance, jia-fu (HOME-father) means ‘my mother’ in . Lifang tɕia nanren This mental relation between the morpheme ‘HOME’ and the Lifang POSS(HOME) husband possessive meaning already exists in ancient . ‘Lifang’s husband’ u The nominal sufix and N1-HOME N2 construction (2) Changzhou (Wu dialect; Wang 2013:54) • Time: Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 CE- 589 CE). ŋəu ku ku • The construction in which nouns with HOME as the sufix are 1SG POSS home juxtaposed with another noun, yielding a possessive meaning. ‘my home’ • The following example illustrates the construction of this period.

• By and large, possessors in this construction are more typically (3) 卿 家 痴 叔 死 未？ pronominal than nominal, and possessums are restricted to kinship qing-jia chi shu si wei? terms and property of the family. 2SG-HOME stupid uncle die not • The following table shows different restrictions in different varieties. In the Meixian and Hai’an dialect, the ‘HOME’ is a fossilized ‘Have your stupid uncle died or not?’ (Shi Shuo Xin Yu) morpheme in the possessive pronoun. u The Construction is used more frequently after Tang Dynasty (618 CE – 907 CE), and ‘HOME’ was reanalyzed as a possessive Language Classificaon Pronominal Nominal Kinship as Family Source marker. Possessors Possessors Possessums Property as Possessums Zunyi dialect Southwestern yes yes yes yes Hu 2010 u This usage is retained in some Chinese varieties. In Mandarin , the usage of ‘HOME’ as a possessive marker is lost. Wuhu dialect Lower yes yes yes yes Chen 2013 Mandarin Guanzhong Zhongyuan yes yes yes no Tang 2013 dialect Mandarin 4. Conclusions Guangshan Zhongyuan yes yes yes no Wang, Fang • The parallel development in Sinitic languages and African dialect Mandarin 2013 languages shows that the path of grammaticalization from ‘HOME’ Susong dialect Gan yes yes yes no Tang & Zhang 2004 to the attributive possessive marker is more than an areal Changzhou Wu yes no yes yes Wang,Minqin phenomenon. dialect g 2013 • The path of linguistic development in Sinitic languages is different Jizhou dialect Northern Mandarin yes（with no yes no Bai 2013 demonstraves） from the one in African languages. Shexian dialect Hui yes no yes no Huang,Boron • This study shows that different paths of grammaticalization may g 1996 lead to the same result, as if there were forces of ‘invisible hands’ Hai’an dialect Lower Yangtze yes（as part of no ／ ／ Zhang 2013 Mandarin possessive pronoun） driving to the same result state. Meixian dialect Hakka yes（as part of no ／ ／ Yan 1998 possessive pronoun）