Reconsideration of Ancient Chinese fu over fayuci

Abstract

The so-called fayuci (发语词) usage of the ancient Chinese word fu (夫) is derived from its referential use of distal demonstratives. Based on this function, fu (夫) was used as a topic marker, and it came to express pragmatic implications, such as the introduction of premise in the argument or speaker’s subjective assertions, due to the requirements of various contexts. Used repeatedly, these discourse marker functions were established as part of fu (夫). This process can be considered an expansion of meaning and function through pragmaticalization and not grammaticalization.