Abstract
This paper aims to tease out the paths of grammaticalization of Southern Min causative verbs, chhoa 7 kah 4 sai 2 kio 3 khit 4 and thoo 3 S. Their semantic extensions affect the interpretation of the pivotal construction which they all share. These causative verbs, at a light verb position, link two events which have leeway for reinterpretations. and go from dynamic causative to Stative causative. and are interpreted differently in different constructional types. As verbs of giving, they develop ditransitive construction, then permissive causative and finally passive. The lexical properties of these verbs endow the causative construction with new meanings.