A Cognitive Study On The Emergence Of Mandarin Chinese Verbal Classifiers

The presence of classifiers constitutes an important feature distinguishing Sino-Tibet languages from Indo-European languages. Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese reflect the complexity of Chinese language to a great extent (Guo,1979, p.27). By revealing to a certain extent the grammatical nature and behaviors of classifiers, previous studies have promoted the research process and deepened our understanding of classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. Some of the major problems, however, still remain. On the one hand, most studies were descriptive in nature. On the other hand, noun classifiers (NCls) had received much more attention than verbal classifiers (VCls). As a result, many grammatical behaviors have neither been discovered nor been explored. It is not until the end of last century that this tendency has changed gradually. The particularity of VCls in Chinese grammar has attracted the attention of researchers due to their diversities in both form and meaning. Thus, the study on this linguistic phenomenon will not only contribute to the understanding of language universality, but also disclose individuality of the Chinese language.The present study is an attempt to explore from a cognitive perspective how VCls emerge from the mind and enter the natural language system. To reach this goal, several research questions are to be addressed:What is the cognitive process for VCls to emerge from the mind? What are the similarities and differences of sub-categories of VCls in the process of emergence? What cognitive nature of VCls is reflected by the emergence process of VCls?The above research questions are based on the cognitive interpretation and classification of VCls which are discussed in the first place. The questions are also intimately connected and the responses may jointly contribute to the research purpose of the present study.This study intends to adopt the cognitive approach and the method of abduction, supplemented by corpus research. It is true that many researchers have come to realize the advantages of interdisciplinary research on the interpretation of language problems. As for the present study, cognitive linguistics is taken as the principal approach, complemented by findings in the field of philosophy of mind. Within the paradigm of cognitive linguistics, different approaches are to be applied to interpret this linguistic phenomenon. However, studies from the cognitive perspective often receive some skepticism, for they are considered to be so heavily based on individual introspections. Therefore, empirical methods are essential for the settlement. The present study is designed to be a corpus-driven one. The corpus is important in that it does not only provide the actual uses of VCls but also offers evidence of usage frequencies. Based on the description of usages of VCls in the corpus, the study is to abduct the process of their emergence from the mind and to construct a theoretical framework, followed by detailed interpretations from the cognitive perspective. In order to deepen the exploration and reveal more aspects relevant to VCls, three sub-categories are selected for an exploration, namely human body part VCls, instrument VC1s and times VC1s. In each sub-category, one VC1is selected for a case study based on its usage frequency.In the present study, interpretation and classification of VCls from a cognitive perspective are foundations for the further cognitive study. VCls are means of human categorization. They are linguistic representations for certain aspects relevant to actions or events. These aspects profile and add boundaries to actions or events. The interpretation further provides evidence for the classification. Accordingly, VCls are classified by the participant roles in the action frame. The participant roles vary according to different action frames, so the sub-categories of VCls are also open-ended.As to the emergence process of VCls, three levels of thinking are proposed: pre-linguistic thinking level, linguistic thinking level Ⅰ and linguistic thinking level Ⅱ. These three levels progress in accordance with the development of human cognition from low to high forms. Besides, the emergence process demonstrates a basic tenet of cognitive science—embodiment.At pre-linguistic thinking level, three sub-categories of VCls undergo similar mind activities:intention—movement thinking—image thinking—content thinkings—conception formation.At linguistic thinking level I, the mechanism of grammatical metonymy functions. Certain participant roles or the action frame as a whole profile and metonymically refer to the quantity of actions or events. Meanwhile the recategorization of word classes occurs—ouns or verbs function as VCls.At linguistic thinking level Ⅱ, VC1s enter different constructions which are pairings of form and meaning. Forms are mapped from meanings and meanings are reflections of different construal perspectives towards the same scene. Through corpus searching, construction types, tokens as well as usage frequencies of each of the three sub-categories of VCls are elicited. The three sub-categories of VC1s show similarities as well as differences in their constructional behaviors. Several continuums have been found by the comparison across them.In conclusion, VCls, whether they are temporarily applied or grammaticalized ones, must have gone through the same cognitive emergence process, which allows possibility for variations at each level.The present study has its implications in the following aspects:(1) the study reflects the interaction of language universality and individuality;(2) the interdisciplinary approach is more advantageous in making a relatively comprehensive and systematic study;(3) this corpus-driven research, hows that intuition should be supported by empirical evidence;(4) multiple approaches provide converging evidences for a particular linguistic phenomenon; and (5) the research findings have pedagogical implications, especially for the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Finally, some recommendations for further studies are provided.