Abstract:

Coordinate conjunction “jiang” in ancient Chinese originated from its verb usage by grammaticalization. The verb “jiang”，which means “lead or guide”，was between two nouns in the language of poetry，and was often followed by a stronger action verb. Therefore，the action meaning of the verb “jiang” would gradually weaken and in the end was grammaticalized into a coordinate conjunction by reanalysis. Poets then would consciously use the coordinate conjunction “jiang” with “yu” at the same time due to the innovative drive，so the use of “jiang” as a coordinate conjunction was enhanced in poetry writing. However，“jiang” was mainly used as a verb and adverb in ancient Chinese. Therefore，the coordinate conjunction usage of “jiang” did not take a dominant position. So in competition with other commonly used coordinate conjunctions，coordinate conjunction “jiang” gradually became a marginal component of the conjunction category，and eventually died out in modern Chinese.

Key words: ancient Chinese；conjunction；&ldquo, jiang&rdquo, ；grammaticalization；reanalysis.