清代吳語彈詞《三笑》中 “局” 的特殊用法及其演變

This paper explores the morpheme ju 局 in the famous piece of Suzhou Lyrics Sanxiao (Three Smiles, Wu Xintian,1801), a text which has been argued as a reflection of the Suzhou Wu Chinese spoken during the mid-Qing Dynasty. Our results show two special uses of ju. First, it can function as an affixoid and constitute a disyllabic noun or verb [X-ju]. X is attested to be a monosyllabic verb, adjective, or adverb. Second, ju can serve as a predicate. Three categories can be further identified:(ⅰ) an action verb, similar to modern Mandarin shuijiao ‘to sleep’, which however, must have a partner.  (ⅱ) a stative verb, equivalent to modern Mandarin tongyi ‘ to agree’, or used to give a response to the previous proposition.  (ⅲ) an adjective, equivalent to modern Mandarin hao ‘good’, dui ‘correct’. 
Furthermore, some of these special uses of ju in Sanxiao are still retained in different modern Wu varieties. For example, chi-ju is still used in the Changshu variety but with a narrower semantic meaning.kun-ju is kept in the old-fashioned Jinshan variety but with semantic attrition. The negative expression of the adjective ju (i.e.,wu-ju) can be found in both Changzhou and Jiangyin varieties. 
Besides, this paper tries to delineate the developmental trajectory of ju. We argue that the affixoid-ju in Sanxiao developed from the ‘party’ meaning of ju as a noun in Medieval Chinese. The use of action verb may come from a semantic merger of kun-ju, which further led to the uses of stative verb and adjective.