What happened to the “TAKE” category?

Abstract Adopting a corpus-based multivariate approach, this study examines the diachronic development of the multifunctionality of the ná -construction ( ná ‘take’ NP VP). Based on the thematic roles assigned to the NP, eight functional uses have been identified, including patient, theme, companion, instrument, agent, manner, material and accord. Integrating Himmelmann’s context expansion with Hilpert’s constructional change, we establish a fine-grained analytical framework whereby the diachronic development of the ná -construction proceeds along four dimensions of context expansion — host-class, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic — offering empirical support for a context-driven account of constructional grammaticalization. Specifically, concurrent changes in both NP and VP slots reveal a semantic shift from the physical to the social, perceptual, and psychological domains. This study further proposes a three-pathway grammaticalization hypothesis of ná , challenging the canonical single-pathway view. Typologically, ná grammaticalizes into seven distinct prepositional markers, extending current accounts of the grammaticalization of the TAKE concept in Chinese.