@article{ART003341610},
author={Jung-Im Chang},
title={The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation},
journal={The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China},
issn={1738-0502},
year={2026},
number={80},
pages={129-153},
doi={10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005}
TY - JOUR
AU - Jung-Im Chang
TI - The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation
JO - The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 80
PB - Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
SP - 129
EP - 153
SN - 1738-0502
AB - This paper investigates the grammaticalization of 竊 qiè, originally meaning ‘to steal’, into a humbling adverb in Old Chinese, and traces this development through three distinct stages.
竊 was originally a lexical verb meaning ‘to steal’ and encoded the semantic feature [+secretly]. It grammaticalized into an adverb meaning ‘secretly’. This change was motivated by its semantic properties and followed a common grammaticalization path in Old Chinese, in which the first verb in Verb1+Verb2 construction acquired adverbial functions. Later, the meaning of 竊 broadened from ‘secretly’ to ‘privately’ and ‘personally’, and it was used as a humbling adverb meaning ‘I personally …’. This development is closely associated with discourse contexts in which a lower-status speaker addresses a higher-status interlocutor. In such contexts, 竊 frequently occurs with verbs expressing opinion, psychological state, seeing and hearing, and volition. Following Caffi(1999, 2007), the use of 竊 in these contexts is best analyzed as a hedge that downgrades the illocutionary force of the utterance. 竊 functions as a humbling adverb that mitigates the force of direct assertion, enabling the speaker to present opinions, psychological states, and related meanings in a polite and attenuated manner.
KW - Old Chinese;grammaticalization;humbling adverb;‘to steal’;‘secretly’;‘privately’;mitigation;hedge;politeness
DO - 10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
ER -
Jung-Im Chang. (2026). The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation. The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China, 80, 129-153.
Jung-Im Chang. 2026, "The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation", The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China, no.80, pp.129-153. Available from: doi:10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang "The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation" The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China 80 pp.129-153 (2026) : 129.
Jung-Im Chang. The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation. 2026; 80 : 129-153. Available from: doi:10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang. "The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation" The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China no.80(2026) : 129-153.doi: 10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang. The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation. The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China, 80, 129-153. doi: 10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang. The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation. The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China. 2026; 80 129-153. doi: 10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang. The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation. 2026; 80 : 129-153. Available from: doi:10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
Jung-Im Chang. "The Development of the Humbling Adverb 竊 qiè — A Case of Marking Politeness through Mitigation" The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China no.80(2026) : 129-153.doi: 10.16874/jslckc.2026..80.005
