This study systematically investigates the diachronic evolution and synchronic distribution of Chinese verbs denoting “affectionate care”, developing an integrated research framework of “diachronic sorting-synchronic comparison-motivational interpretation”. In the diachronic dimension, the semantic field exhibits distinct phased successions: During Archaic Chinese, it was centered on core verbs including ai (愛), ci (慈), and lian (憐); in Medieval Chinese, ai further consolidated its dominance while peripheral terms underwent gradual attrition; by Early Modern Chinese, tong (痛) and teng (疼) entered the semantic field, with teng eventually securing dominance—coupled with a prominent disyllabization trend. In the synchronic dimension, modern Chinese dialects form a distribution pattern characterized by the dual-core dominance of teng (疼) and tong (痛) and a north-south distributional contrast, supplemented by dialect-specific lexemes endowed with regional distinctiveness, such as xi (惜) and zhitian (值鈿). The research further reveals four key findings: First, dialectal lexical differences stem from the divergence of cognitive construal patterns. Second, their synchronic distribution constitutes the spatial superimposition of historical lexical layers in Chinese. Third, the primary categorization of lexical meanings and the evolution of hyponymic-hypernymic structures jointly drive the refinement of semantic representation. Fourth, dialectal diffusion paths align closely with historical transportation arteries such as the “Yangtze-Huaihe radiation route” and the “Grand Canal-Yellow River corridor”. This study not only advances the specialized research on the “affectionate care” semantic field but also offers new data and insights for research on Chinese lexical history, semantic field theory, and emotion verbs.

As a representative work of the mid-western Shandong dialect in the early Qing Dynasty, Liaozhai Folk Song Collectionpreserves a substantial number of dialectal words and syntactic structures from the Ming and Qing periods. It comprehensively reflects the linguistic characteristic of the this area in Shandong over three centuries ago, serving as a crucial research material of early modern Chinese, particularly the grammar of the mid-western Shandong dialect during the Ming and Qing eras. This paper provides a detailed and meticulous analysis of the comparative “比” constructions and the superlative “比” constructions in the 15 folk songs from Pu Songling’s Liaozhai Folk Song Collection. It also reveals the structural characteristics, semantic relationships, and pragmatic features of the “比” constructions, supplementing and revising the incomplete and inaccurate descriptions in the diachronic research of the mid-western Shandong dialect, while also presenting the author's own perspectives. Furthermore, from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, this study examines the increase and decline of this construction in the mid-western Shandong region, thereby clarifying the evolutionary trajectory and developmental patterns of the “比” constructions in the process of grammaticalization.

In this paper, the conceptual spaces of the diachronic semantic evolution of “Paste” semantic verbs are constructed through the diachronic literature surveys. In the history of Chinese language, the verb with the meaning of “Paste” was rarely used in literature before the Tang Dynasty, and it was not until the modern Chinese period that it gradually increased. In terms of activity, from the dominance of “膠” in ancient Chinese to the emergence of “貼” in medieval Chinese, and until modern Chinese, a situation where the three words “貼” “糊” and “粘 (黏)” went hand in hand was formed. The pattern of “粘” “帖”, and “膠” as marginal members greatly influenced the use of “Paste” semantic verbs in modern Chinese, and this pattern was generally continued in modern Chinese, At the same time, there are some differences in the use of words between WeiJin Dynasty

In this paper, the conceptual spaces of the diachronic semantic evolution of “gen” are constructed through the diachronic literature surveys, then the cross-dialect/language semantic maps are drawn as a tool to examine the rationality of the diachronic evolution. “Gen (跟)” is an action verb with the meaning of “following (跟隨)”, in Chinese history the dominant words with the semantic field of “following” have experienced the diachronic evolution of “cong (從)”, “sui (隨)” and “gen (跟)”. The development of these three words not only follows the law of parallel grammaticalization, but also each has its own feature. From the comparison diachronic and cross-dialect /language semantic map of the “following (跟隨)” meaning, it can be seen that, non-cognate words with family characteristics may also have the same semantic evolution. Some phenomena in the synchronic regional semantic maps that violate the “semantic map connectivity hypothesis”, may not be due to the complete lack of connection between the two nodes, but due to the choice of semantics of a specific symbolic form in the diachronic development.