| Sentence type is a very important linguistic concept in the field of modern Chinese study. It has gained a unique status at the sentence level in modern Chinese and can best demonstrate the characteristics of Chinese language with its remarkable and powerful functions(Shao Jingmin, 2014:6-7). According to the claims of Fan Xiao(2010b:1-11, 2013c:3-12), the sentence type is the grammatical structure of sentence format, that is, the format structure of sentence displayed by a certain grammatical form which indicates a particular grammatical meaning. Specifically, it is the format structure of sentence which contains syntactic structure and pragmatic function and is displayed by lexical sequence, specific word, fixed format, intonation and other forms. The advantage of this claim lies in: first, it can clearly differentiate the concept of “sentence type” from others, such as, “sentence pattern”, “sentence type”, “sentence mode” and so on, which is conducive to the establishment of the system of sentence type and the further study of sentence type; second, this claim combines three planes of syntax, semantics and pragmatics together and makes it a synthesis, which finally establishes sentence type as an equal concept with sentence pattern, sentence mode, sentence type and so on; third, this claim makes sentence type a terminology in the domain of grammar and eliminates the interference of terms coming from nongrammatical domain, such as figurative sentence.Many scholars have done a lot of fruitful researches on the definition of sentence type, classification of sentence type, conversion of sentence type, the generation and cognitive motivation of sentence type, and so on. For example, early studies on the generalization and classification of sentence type, studies on the relationship and conversion of sentence type from the perspective of structuralism, studies on the generative process, condition and reason of special sentence type from the perspective of generative grammar, studies on the condition of sematic constraint and reason of generation from the perspective cognitive linguistics, and studies on the establishment of modern Chinese sentence type, etc. have deepened our understanding of modern Chinese sentence type, laid a solid foundation for our research, and also made room for further research. On the whole, studies from those scholars have three kinds of disadvantages: firstly, most of those studies are case studies and more systematic researches are not enough. Previous studies usually focus on one or several specific sentence types, such as studies on sentence types of “ba-construction” and “bei-construction” from different perspectives are numerous, but studies which put various sentence types into a unified theoretical framework are rare; secondly, there are lots of studies on descriptions with few studies on explanations. Many scholars have done a lot of researches on modern Chinese sentence type, but descriptive studies are rich and studies on the generative motivation of sentence types are not enough. Although many scholars have discussed the derivative mechanism of Chinese special sentence type, consensus on those derivative processes has not yet reached. For example, lexical generation and semantic generation both exist in the explanation of “middle ergative construction”. Other scholars also have studied the cognitive rules of certain special sentence types within the framework of cognitive linguistics. For example, under the framwork of figure-ground theory, some scholars have studied the patientsubject sentence and intrument-subject sentence respectivly, but they haven’t expored more sentence types under the same framwork. So we say the unified cognitive explanation on most sentence types is rare. Thirdly, there are still problems existed on the study of sentence types. For example, the controversies of “disposition” or “causation” on “ba-construction”, and of “derogatory” or “influence” on “bei-construction” are still existed. And also, instrumentsubject sentence is an independent sentence type or not? Shall we cancel the term “instrument-subject sentence type”? How to distinguish instrument-subject sentence type? These kind of controversial questions are still existed.Given the problems mentioned above, we try to formulate the “Event-reference-pointrelation Model(ERPRM)”, which is under the guidance of cognitive grammar, to explore the basic psychological process in which the events are conceptualized and to discuss the impacts of this process on the formation of modern Chinese sentence types. Based on those analyses, we try to explain the various sentence types within a unified cognitive framework and have the following research questions be answered:(1) Can the main modern Chinese sentence types be explained in a more unified wayunder the impact of human cognition?(2) Which cognitive rules are responsible for the formations of divergent modernChinese sentence types?(3) Does the controversies, which exist among scholars while studying on certainsentence types, will be explained in a unified way within our theoreticalframework?The proposition of ERPRM is based on three basic theoretical premises:(1) essentially, grammar, which is the structuration and symbolization of conceptual content, is meaningful and grammar and meaning are inseparable;(2) Human being has the basic cognitive capability of mental scanning;(3) Conceptualization develops with time and has internal dynamics as its feature. Based on this, the ERPRM claims that, the event-reference-pointrelation is the most fundamental principle of organization in the process of syntactic structure construction. The ERPRM represents the basic psychological process in which events are dynamically conceptualized. This is a process in which the conceptual components are dynamically extracted, and a sequential mental access route on which the reference-pointrelation is based. Different mental paths project to syntactic level and form various syntactic structures. The ERPRM represents the basic psychological process in which events are conceptualized and can be used to explain the formation process of syntactic structures.This study employs both the qualitative research method and quantitative research method, but the qualitative research method will be the primary methodology throughout the whole study which highlights the combination of “theory-oriented” top-down analysis and “usage-based” bottom-up analysis. The combination of description and explanation of linguistic phenomena as well as the combination of corpus approach and the introspective method are just two aspects. Specifically, based on the observation of key modern Chinese sentence types and guided by the relevant theories of cognitive grammar, this study explores the process of mental retrieving during which events or activities are conceptualized within the ERPRM, and the formation of syntactic format which comes from the projection of this process onto the syntactic level. At the same time, based on the analysis and explanation of data, this study clearly demonstrates the validity and explanatory power of this model, thus makes the theoretical construction and corpus evidence complement each other, in order to provide a unified explanation for the generative motivation of certain modern Chinese sentence types and a more reasonable explanation for the problems appear in the course of studies on certain modern Chinese sentence types.The main concern of this study is, within the framework of ERPRM, to provide a unified explanation on the generative motivation of six types of modern Chinese sentence types, that is, SVO structure, “ba-structure”, “the object as the subject structure”, “the middle ergative structure”, “bei-structure”, and “instrument as subject structure”; at the same time, this study tries to find a solution to solve the controversies appeared in the course of researches on those six sentence types based on the framework of ERPRM. The basic operating principle of ERPRM is: for a simple process of event conceptualization, our mental retrieving route usually follows the event-reference-relation. When a conceptualized subject percepts a certain concept, and makes it as a starting point, this starting point will act as the reference point of mental retrieving process and then the mental retrieving route will be constrained by reference point relation. That is, the mental retrieving process will lead to another concept in the domain of reference point which is called target concept. Under the combined effects of reference point relation, the proceduralization of event and the conventionalization of modern Chinese, a mental retrieving route is formed with the “reference point-process-goal” as its mental retrieving process.Within the typical event model, ideally, what a conceptualized subject mostly perceives is the agent of an action, because this is the source of energy and the head of the chain and thus bears the most remarkable cognitive feature, therefore, we tend to take the head of the chain of behaviors as the starting point of mental path(Langacker, 2008: 367), and a classical event-reference-relation is formed. At this moment, the agent becomes the starting point of the process of conceptualization and acts as the reference point. Under the effect of ERPRM, the mental retrieving route exhibits as a sequence from “starting point(agent)” to “process(action)” to “target(patient)”, and a mental retrieving route is formed.Usually, when this mental path, which is based on typical event reference point relation, is coded into the language, a structure of “agent-verb-patient” is constructed, and thus a conceptual prototype of typical modern Chinese SVO structure is formed. This very process reflects the most basic psychological operation process in which the modern Chinese is dynamically conceptualized and becomes the most basic means of encoding the clause. However, this process is not the only mental retrieving route. In reality, the starting point of our mental retrieving process is not always the head of the chain of behaviors. In the event scenario, there are other potential participants, such as, instrument, patient, recipient, beneficiary, time, place and so on, and all of them can potentially become the starting point of the mental path, thus possess the function of reference point. In this case, a deviation from the classical event reference point relation is formed, and two kinds of deviations are discussed in this study: the patient-reference-point and instrument-reference-point. Based on this, six types of modern Chinese sentence types will be analyzed in details.Research shows that the ERPRM is a universal and general framework and can be used to explain the syntactic construction of modern Chinese. The ERPRM reveals some basic cognitive rules behind the formation of key modern Chinese sentence types. Under the perspective of the ERPRM, not only the construction of modern Chinese sentence types can be explained in a unified way, but the problem left by previous studies can be solved in a better framework.At the same time, the ERPRM is a further development of both the theory of cognitivereference-point and the theory of typical-event-model. The ERPRM is more than the simple fusion of the theory of cognitive-reference-point and the theory of typical-event-mode, actually, the ERPRM successfully solves the existing problems of the theory of cognitivereference-point and the theory of typical-event-mode and it is a complement, perfection and further development of the two. |
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