A historical and comparative perspective on grammatical marking of past tense in Sinitic: on 来(着) lái(zhe) and related particles

In this paper, we propose an investigation of grammatical markers which may seemingly function as exponents of past tense in Sinitic. Specifically, we focus on markers which may be argued to be related to the Mandarin sentence-final particle 来(着) lái(zhe). After an overview of the main issues related to the encoding of temporality in Sinitic, we shall first discuss the use and functions of 来(着) lái(zhe) in Standard Mandarin and in premodern Chinese, presenting different hypotheses on the origins and on the pathways of grammaticalization of this construction. We shall then offer a comparative survey of particles seemingly related to 来(着) lái(zhe) in a small convenience sample of non-standardized Sinitic languages (i.e. the so-called ‘Chinese dialects’), which are divided into two sub-samples: the dialects spoken in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces, where these markers are said to be more widespread and more grammaticalized as tense markers, and dialects spoken in other regions of China, including the varieties of Fengtai, Lianjiang, Zizhong, and Cantonese. For each dialect, we consider the following aspects of the use of 来(着) lái(zhe)-type markers: actual temporal meaning, interaction with aspect, telicity, use with quantized objects, and obligatoriness/systematicity. We shall show how the meaning expressed by the markers surveyed here varies considerably in time and space, and that varieties spoken in South-Central and Southwestern China seem to preserve better historical uses, while Northern Sinitic shows more innovations. Also, we shall discuss the historical origins of this group of markers, arguing that they might actually derive from different items which shared an etymon (the verb 来 lái ‘come’).