Perfective ‘already’ in Cantonese-English bilingual children: A case of relabeling or grammaticalization?

Abstract

The emergence of perfective ‘already’ is attested in Cantonese-English bilingual children and a number of Southeast Asian contact languages. Analyzing the use of already in Cantonese-English bilingual children, we find that both the semantic and syntactic properties of the Cantonese [zo2 ... laa3 ] construction are mapped on already. While the emergence of perfective ‘already’ is usually discussed under the framework of grammaticalization (e.g., Matthews & Yip, 2009), this paper demonstrates that it should also constitute a case of relabeling. Based on our analysis, we will discuss the relationship between relabeling and grammaticalization, and argue that the two research frameworks are complementary instead of mutually exclusive.