Constructionalization And Constructional Objects In Chinese

Within the framework of Construction Grammar,especially the newly emerged theory of Constructionalization,this dissertation studies the evolutionary process of three kinds of non-canonical verb-object structures in Chinese,namely[Vt + Non-patient NP],[Vi+NP]and[VO₁+O₂].According to the number of the syllables of the verb,the above-mentioned three kinds of structures are categorized into two types of constructions,that is,[monosyllabic V +Non-patient NP]construction and[disyllabic V + NP]construction.This dissertation probes into the productivity and constructionalization process of these[V+NP]constructions thoroughly,and investigates the evolutionary inheritance relationships of these verb-object structures comprehensively.Based on this,the constructionalization process diagrams for these structures are built up respectively,and the understanding of these non-canonical verb-object collocations in the history of Chinese is strengthened,providing the data and the theoretical basis for the proposal of the concept of "constructional object" as well as further research on transitivity.Chapter One is a brief introduction to some foregoing issues about the research so as to pave the way for further work,such as the reason of selecting this topic,research object,theoretical framework,research methodologies,individual innovations,research values,data sources,the framework adopted in this dissertation and so forth.Chapter Two introduces the latest development of Construction Grammar concisely,especially the new theory of Constructionalization and its quinteseence,which includes four aspects,namely three essential elements,the relations between these elements,the concepts of constructional change and constructionalization,and the linguistic levels that constructionalization involves.This chapter points out that one construction basically contains three elements,namely schematicity,productivity and compositionality,and they present the reciprocal relationships among each other.More precisely,high schematicity means high productivity;conversely,high productivity means high schematicity.Meanwhile,strong schematicity,high productivity means weak compositionality;weak compositionality goes with strong schematicity and high productivity.The relationship performance of schematicity,productivity and compositionality in the usage of three verb-object collocations reflects the high productivity of them.Additionally,the three types of verb-object collocations go through the processes of lexical constructionalization and grammaticalization in the evolutionary development of language.Chapter Three employs statistical data to show the change of the three kinds of[V+NP]constructions in the Chinese history.In the light of the investigation of the token frequency of[Vt+ Non-patient NP]and the type frequency of the semantic roles of the post-verb NPs,this chapter reveals the productivity of[monosyllabic V + Non-patient NP].The statistical data shows:?1?from the perspective of the usage tendency of[V+NP]constructions,the overall trend of 8 transitive verbs is rising?6/8=75%?,the trend of 4 intransitive stative verbs is 50%climbing and 50%declining,and the trend of 8 intransitive behavior verbs is rising?6/8=75%?;?2?from the perspective of the variety of semantic types of the post-verb NPs,the overall trends of 8 transitive verbs,4 intransitive stative verbs and 8 intransitive behavior verbs are steady or climbing.Based on the above observation,this chapter focuses on the analysis of the transitivity of verbs,the semantic types of the post-verb non-patient NPs and the constructionalization motivation of the monosyllabic verbs taking non-canonical objects as well.Chapter Four deals with the motivation behind the constructionlaization of[monosyllabic V+ Non-patient NP]construction,that is,the 'how' of change.Put it another way,it analyzes the constructionalization process of[monosyllabic V+ non-patient NP]from two aspects,which are semantic inheritance and syntactic inheritance.Semantic inheritance results from the semantic integration of construction and its components,which involves the semantic inheritance of the whole[V+NP]schemas and the extension of the semantic types of post-verb NPs;while syntactic inheritance is the inheritance relations among syntactic schemas,which is a kind of functional inheritance.During the inheritance process,analogization,neo-analysis and constructional coercion play an important role.This chapter also indicates that there is no strict boundary between transitive and intransitive verbs,which makes it possible for all of them to take different NPs with different semantic types.Besides,whether the post-verb NPs are patient or non-patient,it is supposed to be defined as object according to their syntactic function.Chapter Five studies the constructionalization process of disyllabic verb-object verbs taking objects.This chapter collects almost all the verb-object verbs in Modern Chinese Dictionary?6th Edition?,and then classifies them into two types,namely[VN]verb and[Vv]verb.On the basis of the description of the evolutionary process of these two types of verbs in the Chinese history,it indicates that?1?disyllabic[VO1]verb taking another object is essentially constructionalization phenomenon,which goes through two processes,that is,lexical constructionalization process and grammatical constructionalization process.In the process of lexical constructionalization,Noun Incorporation plays a great role;while in the process of grammatical constructionalization,construction coercion plays an important role.In addition,this chapter analyzes the dynamic nature and the gradability of transitivity as well as the main elements determining transitivity language-internally,and the interchangeable motivation of the transitivity of verbs language-externally.In the light of the research achievements above,chapter Six proposes a brand new concept,namely Constructional Object.Based on abundant cross-linguistic data and the theory of Construction Grammar,this chapter parses the main elements of object,and shows clearly that the three so-called non-canonical constructions are essentially constructionalization phenomena and are all the subtypes of[V+NP]construction.No matter what their semantic roles are,the NPs in the three types of constructions are all objects of the whole constructions,and their argument roles are substantially affected and dominated by both the construction and the verb.Moreover,the so-called non-canonical object prevails among many other languages as well.Therefore,all the non-canonical objects?including canonical objects?can be called 'construction object'.Furthermore,construction is the primary factor to determine the transitivity of the sentence;and the transitivity is the attribute of the whole utterance structure.Chapter Seven provides a summary of the main contents and summarizes the viewpoints of this dissertation.In the end,it points out the orientation in future work.