A Diachronic Construction Grammar Account Of Grammaticalization Of The Chinese Lexical Construction "Ji"(极)

“Ji”（极）is one of the most frequently used highest degree adverbs in modern Chinese.It expresses a subjective judgment of the speaker.However,according to the corpora available,“Ji”（极）is originally encoded as“the ridge beam of houses”or“the wooden carrier on the back of a donkey”,which shows an objective meaning with an explicit referent.How does“Ji”（极）ultimately evolve from objective meaning to subjective meaning?Previous studies on this issue have been based on traditional grammaticalization theory.Nevertheless,this approach may bring the following issues.For one thing,there is a short of specific and accurate descriptions of the grammaticalization process of“Ji”（极）.For another,the evolution of“Ji”（极）as a form-meaning pairing is cut apart and the motivations and mechanisms of change are single and simple,which lacks systematicness and completeness.Diachronic Construction Grammar（DCG）emerges and develops as the combination of diachronic linguistics with grammaticalization and construction grammar.Taking holistic and gradual approaches to language change,DCG regards the issue of language change,e.g.grammaticalization and lexicalization,as a constructionalist issue and investigates the universal law of formation and evolution of the form-meaning pairing in a construction from a diachronic perspective.According to construction grammar,construction is a continuum ranging from word even to discourse.Chinese character“Ji”（极）thus can be regarded as a lexical construction.Therefore,DCG provides a brand new angle on tackling the evolution of“Ji”（极）and avoids the disadvantages of traditional grammaticalization studies which may only lay stress on one side of the form or meaning.In this thesis,we seek to show how grammaticalization can be partially rethought and embraced in terms of a constructional approach.Adopting both synchronic and diachronic analysis,this thesis tries to propose a cognitive theoretical model of language change based the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar.On this basis,the current research takes Chinese lexical construction“Ji”（极）as a case study,and devotes to making a thorough investigation on the form and meaning emergence and development of the lexical construction“Ji”（极）,in the meantime,the thesis also tries to find out motivations and mechanisms behind those changes.The following three questions are addressed:（1）How does the form and meaning of lexical construction“Ji”（极）evolve?（2）What are characteristics during constructional change and constructionalization of lexical construction“Ji”（极）?（3）Why does the form and meaning of“Ji”（极）evolve,that is to say,how are they motivated?The major findings are as follows.First,constructions can change both at the substantive level and at the schematic level.In the whole evolution process,the part of speech of“Ji”（极）changes tremendously,namely,from noun（N）to verb（V）and adjective（Adj）,from Adj to degree adverb and finally changes to a degree complement.New constructions(form_new-meaning_new parings),such as“Ji+V/A”（极+V/A）,“V/A+Ji”（V/A+极）,“Ji+V/A+Le”（极+V/A+了）and“V/A+Ji+Le”（V/A+极+了）are created successively.These new constructions,varying from simple to complex,substantive to schematic,form a construction continuum.Second,changes of construction“Ji”（极）can occur at either end of the grammatical-lexical gradient.The whole process is characterized by shifting from a lexical construction to a partially grammatical construction and finally to a grammatical construction,from a substantive construction to a schematic construction,and most importantly it is a process from constructional change to constructionalization.The whole evolution process is characterized by the increase in productivity and in schematicity,together with the decrease in compositionality.Increased productivity is mainly increase in token and type frequency.In a construction,it usually means the increase in construct frequency.While increased schematicity includes two parts.One is a substantive construction may become more schematic.The other is the schema itself may expand.Decrease in compositionality is decrease in the transparency of the match between meaning and form.It is concluded that in post-constructionalization,“Ji”（极）completely loses its conceptual meaning（referential meaning）and only functions as an emphasis tone adverb.A conventional construction“V/A+Ji+Le”（V/A+极+了）is gradually created.Among these new constructions,construction“V/A+Ji+Le”（V/A+极+了）is highest both in productivity and in schematicity,but is lowest in compositionality.Third,language change is a result of the interaction and integration of multiple factors.As for the evolution motivations and mechanisms of lexical construction“Ji”（极）,subjectivity and subjectification runs through the whole process of its constructional change and constructionalization.It is a process from objective to subjective and also with a continuous enhancement of subjectification.Besides,context also plays a crucial role both in constructional change and constructionalization of lexical construction“Ji”（极）.Generalization,metaphor,neoanalysis and analogization are only the dominant motivations in a particular stage of its evolution process.Cognitive linguistics always aims for seeking the general principles governing all aspects of human language.The present study establishes a unified cognitive language evolution theoretical model and takes Chinese lexical construction“Ji”（极）as a case study to make a thorough investigation on the form and meaning change of construction“Ji”（极）,which is of great significance.To start with,it helps to avoid the disadvantages of traditional grammaticalization studies of“Ji”（极）which may only lay stress on one side of its form or meaning.Besides,it sheds some light on the relationship among grammaticalization,Diachronic Construction Grammar and constructionalization,which might be conducive to deepening the constructionalist approach to language change.Finally,the current research may give some hints on dealing with the issue of universality differences of language evolution theory whose data usually is based on English.