A Cognitive Analysis Of "You A Wu B"

Although "you A wu B" is a typical expression in Chinese, it has not caught the attention of many scholars. The previous studies mainly focus on the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of "you A wu B". Few researchers have attempted to account for the cognitive mechanism of its meaning construction. Even though some researchers have explored "you A wu B" from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, their studies are far from systematic and reasonable.This paper attempts to make up the inadequacy of the previous studies and have a deeper and more comprehensive study of "you A wu B" by employing Conceptual Blending Theory and Construction Grammar Theory. Language materials we analyze are collected from CCL (Center for Chinese Linguistics) and some are chosen from Chinese dictionaries.This paper consists of five parts. Part One is the introduction. It briefly introduces the rationale of the study, the research questions of the study, the methodology and data collection of the study and the layout of the study. Part Two is the literature review. It has a literature review of the previous studies of "you A wu B" from the perspectives of the Chinese dictionary definitions, the four-character Chinese construction, the verb symmetry format and the Quasi-set phrase in modern Chinese grammar and the phonetic, semantic, pragmatic and cognitive aspects of related studies. At the same time, it points out the contribution as well as the deficiencies of the previous studies. Part Three is the theoretical foundation. It has an introduction and summary of Conceptual Blending theory, construction grammar and construction coercion, as well as the necessity of integrating Conceptual Blending theory and construction grammar to have a deeper and more comprehensive explanation of "you A wu B". Part Four is the cognitive research of "you A wu B", aiming to have a deep discussion of "you A wu B" from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. It first analyzes the online meaning construction of "you A wu B" by employing Conceptual Blending theory. Then it puts forward the standards of classifying "you A wu B" and classifies it into three levels. The detailed information of each level is discussed, including the conceptual process in the four spaces, the semantic features, the syntactic features and the role of context. On the former basis, the paper tries to verify Level C as a construction according to Goldberg’s standard of construction and analyze its typical construction meaning. At last, this study turns to the construction coercion of Level C on A & B, which includes coercion on the form of A & B and coercion on the meaning of A & B. Part Five is the conclusion. It summarizes the main findings of the present study. At the same time, it points out the limitations and suggestions for further research.Based on the studies above, we have obtained the following findings:firstly, "you A wu B" can be classified into three levels whose blending process, semantic features, syntactic features, role of context are different. Secondly, Level C of "you A wu B" can be regarded as a construction. Its typical construction meaning is the emphasis of attitude, which includes the subjective evaluation and avoidance of negative values. Thirdly, the construction coercion of Level C on A & B includes coercion on the form of A & B and coercion on the meaning of A & B. Coercion on the form of A & B includes the disyllabic Chinese construction coercion and order coercion. Coercion on the meaning of A & B includes coercion on the word class of A and B; coercion on the meaning relevance of A & B and coercion on the meaning of A & B.