On historical semantic changes of the Thai morpheme Hâj

Abstract

The present paper investigates historical semantic changes of the Thai multifunctional morpheme hâj by analyzing actual tokens of hâj expressions in Thai inscriptions produced from the end of the thirteenth century1 through the twentieth century. Having examined the diachronic corpus data, I consider that the following grammaticalization pathway of hâj is most plausible: (a) verb for change of location (caused motion) > (b)verb for change of state (induced situation) > (c) complementizer preceding complement clause for either a non-volitional or volitional situation of irrealis2 (such as inducive and desiderative situations) > (d) complementizer preceding complement clause for volitional situation of irrealis (such as permissive and directive/coercive situations). On this basis, I assume that the notion of the event participant’s volition had nothing to do with early semantic changes of hâj constructions. Show more