The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese
Abstract
1. Introduction
(1) | 这首诗读起来很顺口 | |||||
zhe | shou | shi | du-qilai | hen | shunkou | |
this | CL | poem | read-up | very | easy | |
This poem reads very easily. |
2. The Properties of the Middle Construction (MC)
(2) | a. This oven cleans easily. |
b. The clothes iron well. |
(3) | French: se boutonner—“button one’s clothes”. |
Spanish: se peinar—“comb (one’s hair)”. | |
Turkish: giy-in—“dress (oneself)”. | |
German: sich hinlegen—“lie down”. | |
Hungarian: emel-ked—“get up”. | |
Guugu Yimidhirr: daga-adhi—“sit down”. |
(4) | German |
Der Stoff wäscht sich gut. | |
“The fabric launders well”. | |
(wäscht = “launders,” sich = middle marker) | |
(Fagan, 1992, p. 22) | |
French | |
Un veston de laine se lave facilement. | |
“A wool jacket washes easily”. | |
(se = middle marker) | |
(Wehrli, 1986, p. 266) | |
Russian | |
Dver’ legko otkryvaet-sja. | |
“The door opens easily”. | |
(-sja = middle marker) | |
(Greenspon, 1996, p. 24) | |
Icelandic | |
Bókin selst vel. | |
“The book sells well”. | |
(selst = verb with middle marker) | |
(Valfells, 1970, p. 556) |
(5) | Dutch |
Het brood snijdt gemakkelijk | |
“The bread slices easily”. | |
(Greenspon, 1996, p. 23) |
(6) | a. John cleaned the oven. |
b. This oven cleans easily. |
(7) | a. The ice breaks easily. |
b. *The Eiffel Tower sees easily. |
(8) | a. *Break easily, the ice! |
b. *The ice is breaking easily now. |
3. Previous Studies on the Chinese MC
3.1. Unmarked Passive Middles
(9) | 米饭煮焦了 | |||
mǐfàn | zhǔ | jiāo | le | |
rice | cook | burned | CRS | |
“The rice was cooked burned”. |
(10) | a. 门自动开了 | |||
mén | zìdòng | kāi | le | |
door | by-itself | open | CRS | |
“The door opened by itself”. | ||||
b. *米饭自动煮了 | ||||
mǐfàn | zìdòng | zhǔ | le | |
rice | by-itself | cook | CRS | |
“The rice cooked by itself”. |
3.2. Gei-Middles
(11) | 孩子给吃饱了 | ||||
háizi | gěi | chī | bǎo | le | |
kid | GEI | eat | full | CRS | |
“The kid was fed full”. |
3.3. Easy–Difficult Middles and Modal Middles
(12) | a. 这本书容易/好/难读 | |||||||||
zhè | běn | shū | róngyì/hǎo/nán | dú | ||||||
this | CL | book | easy/difficult | read | ||||||
“This book reads easily/difficultly”. | ||||||||||
b. 这个花瓶打得破 | ||||||||||
zhè | gè | huāpíng | dǎ | de | pò | |||||
this | CL | vase | hit | DE | broken | |||||
‘This vase can be broken”. |
- (a)
- The patient surfaces as the subject.
- (b)
- The verb does not carry a passive marker.
- (c)
- The agent does not appear in overt syntax but remains perceivable.
- (d)
- Such constructions represent generic statements, expressing an inherent property of the referent of the subject.
(13) | 这种水可以重复使用 | |||||
zhè | zhǒng | shuǐ | kěyǐ | chóngfù | shǐyòng | |
this | CL | water | can | repetitively | use | |
“This kind of water can be used repetitively”. |
- (a)
- The patient of Vt surfaces as the subject of the sentence.
- (b)
- The agent of Vt is not overtly realized but implied.
- (c)
- Vt does not bear passive morphology.
- (d)
- Such sentences are generic statements, ascribing some inherent property to the referent of the subject.
3.4. NP+V-qilai+AP Middles
(14) | a. 她笑起来挺好看 | |||||||||||||||||
tā | xiào-qǐlái | Tǐng | hǎokàn | |||||||||||||||
she | smile | Very | beautiful | |||||||||||||||
“She smiles very beautifully”. | ||||||||||||||||||
b. 这本书看起来不错 | ||||||||||||||||||
zhè | běn | shū | kàn-qǐlái | bùcuò | ||||||||||||||
this | CL | book | Look | good | ||||||||||||||
“This book looks good”. | ||||||||||||||||||
c. 这首歌听起来好听 | ||||||||||||||||||
zhè | shǒu | gē | tīng-qǐlái | hǎotīng | ||||||||||||||
this | CL | song | sound | beautiful | ||||||||||||||
“This song sounds beautifully”. | ||||||||||||||||||
d. 这首诗读起来很顺口 | ||||||||||||||||||
zhè | shǒu | shī | dú-qǐlái | hěn | shùnkǒu | |||||||||||||
this | CL | poem | Read | very | easy | |||||||||||||
“The poem reads very easily”. | ||||||||||||||||||
e. 这个字写起来不方便 | ||||||||||||||||||
zhè | gè | zì | xiě-qǐlái | bù | fāngbiàn | |||||||||||||
this | CL | character | write | not | convenient | |||||||||||||
“The character writes inconveniently”. |
(15) | a. [patient-subj AP V]/[patient-subj V de/bu A] (the easy–difficult MC, e.g., (12)).5 |
b. [patient-subj V-qilai AP] (the V-qilai MC, such as (14d–e)).6 |
3.5. Previous Research on the Development of the V-qilai MC
(16) | 公若知得放下不好,便提掇起来,便是敬。 | |||||
Gōng | ruò | zhī de | fàngxià | Bù | hǎo, | |
You | if | know | put-down | Not | good, | |
biàn | tíduō | qǐlái, | biàn | Shì | Jìng | |
then | lift | up, | then | COP | Respect | |
“If you know that putting it down is not good, then just lift it up; that is perfectly acceptable”. | ||||||
Zhuzi yulei (1270) |
(17) | 你不知道俺哥哥的名儿,若说起来,唬你八跌 | |||||
Nǐ | bù | zhīdào | Ǎn | gēge de | míngr, | |
you | not | know | my | brother’s | name, | |
ruò | shuō-qǐlái, | hǔ | nǐ | bā | Dié | |
if | say-up | scare | you | eight | Fall | |
“You don’t know my brother’s name—if I told you, it’d scare you so bad you’d fall eight times!” | ||||||
Nansong Huaben (ca. 1279) |
(18) | 三众前来,不上半日,果逢一座高山,说起来,十分险峻。 | |||||
Sān | Zhòng | qián | lái, | bú | shàng | |
Three people | front | come, | not | up to | ||
bàn rì, | Guǒ | féng | yī | zuò | gāo | |
half a day | as expected | come across | one | CL | high | |
shān, | shuō-qǐlái, | shífēn | xiǎnjùn. | |||
mountain, | say-up, | very | dangerously steep | |||
“The three people came, and within half a day, they came across a high mountain, which (come to think of it), was dangerously steep”. | ||||||
Xi Youji (1542) |
(19) | a. 说起来,我府中冠、服、衣、靴、履、袜等件,各自派一个养娘分掌。 | |||||||||||
Shuō qǐlái, | wǒ | fǔ | zhōng | guàn, | fú, | yī, | ||||||
Speak-up, | my | household | in | hat | robe | clothing | ||||||
xuē, | lǚ, | wà | děng | jiàn, | gè | zì | ||||||
boot | shoe, | sock | so on | CL | each | one | ||||||
pài | yī | gè | yǎngniáng | fēn | zhǎng | |||||||
assign | one | CL | nursemaid | individually | manage | |||||||
“Speaking of it, in my household, each item—hats, robes, clothing, boots, shoes, socks, and so on—is assigned to a separate nursemaid to manage individually”. | ||||||||||||
Yuandai Huaben (ca. 1368) | ||||||||||||
b. 看起来,这件事有点儿难。 | ||||||||||||
Kàn | qǐlái, | zhè | jiàn | shì | yǒu | diǎnr | nán. | |||||
Look-up, | this | CL | thing | EXIST | a bit | Difficult | ||||||
“It seems that this matter is a bit difficult”. | ||||||||||||
(Yang, 2021, p. 107) | ||||||||||||
c. 这个大棚搭起来很高。 | ||||||||||||
Zhè | ge | dàpéng | dā qǐlái | hěn | Gāo | |||||||
This | CL | greenhouse | set-up | very | Tall | |||||||
“This greenhouse sets up very tall”. | ||||||||||||
(Yang, 2021, p. 107); Yongzheng Jianxiatu (1920) |
4. Data and Framework
4.1. The Constructional Framework
(20) | a. The progressive construction [[BE Ving] * [ongoing activity]]; |
b. the verb [[GO] * [“go”]] construction; | |
c. the purposive construction [[to INF] * [intended activity]]. |
4.2. Data
5. The Development of the Chinese MC
5.1. The Origin of the V-qilai MC
(21) | 不觉朝已晏,起来望青天。 | ||||||||
Bù | jué | cháo | yǐ | yàn, | qǐlái | wàng | qīng | tiān | |
Not | notice | Morning | already | sunny, | get-up | look-at | blue | sky | |
“Before (I) noticed, it had been sunny, and (I) got up to look at the blue sky”. | |||||||||
Wei Yingwu (737–792) |
(22) | 见一星火,夹起来云:“这个不是火是什摩”。 | ||||||||||
Jiàn | yī | xīnghuǒ, | jiā-qǐlái | yún: | “Zhège | bù | shì | huǒ | shì | Shénmó”. | |
See | one | spark of fire, | pick-up | say | this CL | not | COP | fire | COP | what | |
“(The master) saw a spark of fire, picked it up and said, ‘if this is not fire then what is it?’” | |||||||||||
Zutang Ji (937–975) |
(23) | 颜子“克己复礼”工夫,却是从头做起来。 | |||||||||||
Yánzǐ | “kè | Jǐ | Fù | lǐ” | gōngfū, | què | shì | cóng | tóu | zuò-qǐlái | ||
Yanzi | restrain | self | Restore | ritual | effort, | but | COP | from | beginning | do | up | |
“Yanzi’s efforts on self-restraint and restoration to ritual nevertheless started from scratch”. | ||||||||||||
Zhuzi yulei (1270) |
(24) | a. 待得再新整顿起来,费多少力! | |||||||||||
Dàidé | zài | Xīn | zhěngdùn-qǐlái, | fèi | duōshǎo | lì! | ||||||
Then | again | Newly | rectify-up, | take | how much | effort | ||||||
“How much effort it will take to put ideas together again!” | ||||||||||||
Zhuzi Yulei (1270) | ||||||||||||
b. “师父!莫要问!说起来就活活羞杀人!” | ||||||||||||
Shīfu! | Mò | yào | wèn! | Shuō-qǐlái | jiù | huóhuó | xiū | |||||
Master | do | not | ask | say-up | just | utterly | embarrass | |||||
shā | rén! | |||||||||||
kill | people | |||||||||||
“Master! Please don’t ask! Just talking about it is utterly embarrassing!” | ||||||||||||
Xi Youji (1542) |
(25) | a. 这小梅说起来不是小家儿女 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Zhè | Xiǎoméi | shuō-qǐlái | bù | shì | xiǎo | jiā | ér | nǚ | |||||||||||||
This | Xiaomei | say-up | not | COP | small | family | son | daughter | |||||||||||||
“Xiaomei, spoken of, is not a typical young girl”. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Xue Yue Mei (1574) | |||||||||||||||||||||
b. 这话说起来且是长哩。 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Zhè | huà | shuō-qǐlái | qiě | shì | chǎng | lī | |||||||||||||||
These | words | say-up | truly | SHI | long | PTCL | |||||||||||||||
“This words when spoken of are rather long (to tell)”. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Sanbao Taijian Xiyangji (1597) | |||||||||||||||||||||
c. 这个杀人的, 看起来也不是图财害命。 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Zhè | ge | shā | Rén | de, | kàn-qǐlái | yě | bù | shì | tú | cái | |||||||||||
This | CL | kill | people | NOM, | look-up | also | not | SHI | seek | money | |||||||||||
hài | mìng. | ||||||||||||||||||||
kill | life | ||||||||||||||||||||
“This killer doesn’t seem to have done it for money either”. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Xianv Qiyuan (1821) |
(26) | a. 每句话说起来都很相投 | |||||||||
Měi | jù | huà | shuō-qǐlái | dōu | hěn | Xiāngtóu | ||||
Every | CL | word | Say | all | very | Agreeable | ||||
“Every sentence feels very agreeable”. | ||||||||||
Qi Hong Ting (1900) | ||||||||||
b. 这话说起来很长。 | ||||||||||
Zhè | huà | shuō-qǐlái | hěn | chǎng | ||||||
These | words | Say | very | long | ||||||
“These words speak long (it’s long to say these words)”. | ||||||||||
Laocan Youji (1904) |
(27) | 这手功夫说起来很容易,做起来很难。 | ||||||||
Zhè | shǒu | gōngfū | shuō-qǐlái | Hěn | róngyì, | zuò-qǐlái | hěn | nán | |
This | CL | skill | say | Very | easy, | do | very | difficult | |
“This skill speaks easily, but does difficultly (easy to say but difficult to do)”. | |||||||||
Yongzheng Jianxiatu (1920) |
5.2. A Constructional Model of the Development of the V-qilai MC
- (a)
- Qilai as a verb compound was used as the directional complement in a verb phrase denoting motion. It occurred in the initial part of a serial verb construction with an implicit agent subject, e.g., (22).
- (b)
- Semantic expansion refers to semantic shifts in Early Modern Chinese when motion and agency were reduced and sequence of actions changed into description of an action, e.g., (23, 24). This semantic expansion exemplifies the progression of the linguistic component from a tangible, spatial significance to increasingly abstract and adaptable applications. Such a phenomenon is not rare within languages, mirroring the dynamic evolution of linguistic systems over time, akin to the development seen in the English language with “Be going to (future)”.
- (c)
- Syntactic expansion: The patient-subject was no longer implicit, and it appeared with V-qilai as the topic, followed by the structure consisting of the copula and an adjective/NP, e.g., (25). This is an important stage because even though it may exhibit a predicate adjective structure, the three constructions were closely assembled, which sets an important context for it to change into a patient-subject V-qilai MC.
- (d)
- Further syntactic expansion occurred when the copula were no longer explicit and the three assemblies, [patient-subj], [V-qilai (action)], and [AP (descriptive)], were syntactically integrated into the subject–predicate structure, indicating a non-eventive, generic, habitual, potential interpretation of the action. As a result, the V-qilai MC was constructionalized, e.g., (26, 27).
- (a)
- [(agent-subj)], [V-qilai (motion)] [VP (action)] (ex. 22);
- (b)
- [(patient-subj)], [V-qilai (action)] [VP (descriptive)] (ex. 23, 24);
- (c)
- [patient-subj V-qilai (action)] [COP AP (descriptive)] (ex. 25);
- (d)
- [patient-subj V-qilai (action) AP (descriptive)] (ex. 26, 27).
5.3. Frequency
6. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | |
2 | In traditional grammar, verbs are typically classified into active and passive voices. The active voice highlights the agent or doer of the action, while the passive voice emphasizes the recipient or the outcome of the action. The middle voice, however, is distinct from both. |
3 | Yin (2006) and Tao (2010) propose a contrasting view, arguing that the “NP + V-qilai + AP” structure does not constitute an MC in Chinese. Taking this line of critique further, Yan (2011) asserts that there is no specific MC in Chinese at all. He contends that the MC is a term rooted in the analysis of Indo-European languages, and that identifying a Chinese MC stems from an ill-fitting attempt to apply Indo-European grammatical concepts to Chinese. While some V-qilai sentences may exhibit properties similar to those of the English MC, Chinese employs multiple strategies to convey middle semantics. As a result, there is no single construction in Chinese that can be considered equivalent to the English MC. |
4 | See J. Xiong (2017, pp. 180–184) for a detailed discussion of the tough construction. |
5 | Cai (2015) highlights that the V-qilai MC in Modern Chinese is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a broader network of the MC constructions, including variants such as V-lai MC, V-zhe MC and V-shangqu MC. These variants demonstrate functional overlaps and differences, suggesting a dynamic system of MCs evolving. This paper takes the V-qilai MC as the representative, and the relationship among these constructions warrants further investigation. |
6 | |
7 | The development of easy–difficult middles falls outside of the purview of this paper and necessitates a separate study for an in-depth exploration of its intricacies. |
8 | In addition to its function as a marker of the MC, V-qilai has been extensively discussed in the literature as a discourse marker or parenthetical element in Chinese. However, I argue that the development of V-qilai as a discourse device and its evolution into a marker of the MC follow distinct trajectories and are governed by different mechanisms, despite sharing a common origin as a directional verbal phrase. For a detailed account of the development of V-qilai as a discourse marker, see F. Zhan (2025). |
9 | A construction is represented schematically as [form]*[meaning] (Booij, 2010, p. 17), where * denotes the connection/mapping between form and meaning within a construction. |
10 | This paper adheres to the following timeline for written Chinese (see F. Zhan & Sun, 2022): Old Chinese: 771 BCE to 220 CE. Middle Chinese: 220 CE to 960. Early Modern Chinese: 960 to 1900. Modern Chinese: 1900 to present. |
11 | Chinese, since Old Chinese, has consistently exhibited topic-prominent characteristics, where the sentence-initial position is often implicit or occupied by elements other than the canonical subject—most notably, the patient or object of the verb. It is well-attested in historical texts that patients could occur in the sentence-initial topic position, allowing for constructions where the grammatical subject is backgrounded or omitted altogether. This topic–comment structure plays a crucial role in the development of the MC. What appears to be a shift in syntactic alignment—i.e., from a canonical SVO alignment to a structure where the object surfaces preverbally—can be better understood as a natural outcome of the reanalysis of topic constructions. Over time, with increasing frequency and entrenchment in specific discourse contexts (e.g., generic, evaluative, or agent-less situations), these topic constructions are reinterpreted as instances where the topic (originally a patient) assumes subject-like properties. |
12 | During the Ming and Qing periods, a broader discourse tendency toward a greater preference is observed for expressing evaluations without overt agents. This shift likely created fertile ground for the increased use of the [patient-subject V-qilai AP] pattern in evaluative and descriptive contexts—functions closely aligned with the semantics of modern MCs. Moreover, this rise in frequency suggests that the construction was in a stage of pre-constructionalization, where a recurrent usage pattern begins to stabilize and spread across lexical items and discourse contexts. It is during this phase that pragmatic and structural reanalyses accumulate, paving the way for a unified form–function mapping that eventually becomes the grammatical MC in Modern Chinese. |
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Time Period | [(Agent-Subj)] [V-Qilai] [VP (Action)] | [(Patient-Subj)] [V-Qilai] [VP/AP (Descriptive)] | Total Tokens of [(Subj)] [V-Qilai] [VP/AP] |
---|---|---|---|
10th c. (Tang and Five Dynasties) | 1 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 1 |
11th–13th c. (Song and Yuan Dynasties) | 43 (68.3%) | 20 (31.7%) | 63 |
14th–16th c. (Ming Dynasty) | 68 (33.3%) | 136 (66.7%) | 204 |
17th–1900 (Qing Dynasty) | 158 (21.5%) | 577 (78.5%) | 735 |
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Zhan, F. The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese. Languages 2025, 10, 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10060131
Zhan F. The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese. Languages. 2025; 10(6):131. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10060131
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhan, Fangqiong. 2025. "The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese" Languages 10, no. 6: 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10060131
APA StyleZhan, F. (2025). The Development of [Patient-Subj V-Qilai AP] as a Middle Construction in Chinese. Languages, 10(6), 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages10060131