Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale - Année 1994 - Volume 23 - Numéro 1 - Pages 265-277The disposal form is probably the most studied construction so far, either in synchrony or in diachrony. However, the problem of the origin of this form is still debated. The classical hypothesis on the origin of the disposal form is the following: В A (mainly jiang and ba) were verbs in Archaic Chinese; used in V1 position in serial verb constructions of the type VI + О + V2 since early medieval, they were grammaticalized and became prepositions some time between the 7th and 9th centuries. This classical analysis has been challenged recently in several ways. First of ally jiang and ba could come directly from yi - through an analogous process - by a single lexical replacement, without it being necessary to speak of any grammaticalization. The disposal forms could also come from subject-patient sentences to which one could add jiang or ba. This paper discusses these new hypotheses and concludes: 1) that the hypothesis of an analogous phenomenon with yi, which might have served as a model to jiang and ba, is worth maintaining; 2) that the hypothesis whereby the disposal sentences could have come from patient-subject sentences to which a jiang or ba word has been added is not motivated; 3) that one can reasonably suppose that the two joint processes of analogy (with yi forms) and grammaticalization (V > Prep.) did play a role in the appearance and development of disposal forms. 13 pages Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.