Astudy On "gei Wo+Vp" From A Perspective Of Cognitive Construction Grammar

“gei” word sentence has always been the focus of research in Chinese academia.Many Chinese scholars have made a lot of in-depth studies on the categories, semanticfeatures and syntactic structures of “gei”. However, studies on “gei wo” leave great roomto be explored. Lv Shuxiang (1999) holds that the preposition-object “gei wo” plus a verbis often used in imperative sentences, expressing a polite request or indicating thespeaker’s strong commanding will. Based on Lv Shuxiang’s classification on “gei wo”, thisthesis attempts to make a semantic and syntactic study on “gei wo+VP” construction,under the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar.From the perspective of Cognitive Construction Grammar, the thesis firstly tries todetermine that “gei wo+VP” is an independent construction that expresses the imperativemeaning. Next, in accordance with Lv Shuxiang’s (1999) study on “gei wo”, the thesisdivides “gei wo+VP” into two sub-constructions:“gei1wo+VP” and “gei2wo+VP”.“gei1wo+VP” expresses a request while “gei2wo+VP” conveys a command. In terms of theinternal components, the semantic and syntactic features of the two sub-constructions, thethesis tries to further prove that these two sub-constructions are the variants of “geiwo+VP” construction, which are similar in form but different in meaning. Then, the thesisdiscusses the integration of “ba” word sentence with “gei2wo+VP” construction, exploresthe changes in the expressive function and emotional meaning of the construction. Finally,the thesis discusses the origin of “gei” in “gei wo+VP” construction from the perspectiveof grammaticalization. It follows that “gei” in “gei wo+VP” construction has gone througha process of grammaticalization from the verbal “gei” to the prepositional “gei”. Hence,the grammatical function of the verbal “gei” fades, and is replaced by a new “gei” servingas a function word. Actually, the semantic and syntactic features of “gei1wo+VP” and “gei2wo+VP” areboth the semantic instantiation and extension of the imperative “gei wo+VP” construction.The study on “gei wo+VP” construction may throw new light on future studies of Chinese“gei” construction. Meanwhile, it further proves the strong explanatory power of CognitiveConstruction Grammar on Chinese language.