A Cognitive Interpretation Of The Chinese Figure Of Zeugma:Its Structural,Semantic And Generative Mechanism

A literature review of the studies on the Chinese figure of zeugma over the last forty years since 1980 has revealed some inadequacies as well as great achievements.A close look at the contemporary cross-disciplinary researches on figures of speech and other related subjects has revealed much space for reinterpretations of the Chinese figure of zeugma.Our reinterpretations,based on previous studies,apply theories of cognitive linguistics to further explorations of the structural and semantic features of zeugma with emphasis on the constructive features of zeugma in light of construction grammar and on the generative mechanism of zeugma in light of constructive suppression.It is found that the tension between the linked and the linking word is caused by constructive suppression with the prototypical grammatical construction as the suppressor and the linked as the suppressed,both forming a joint force for the constructive suppression of zeugma.The constructive suppression is conditioned on the fact that the latter rhetorical construction is actually a semantic variation of the former grammatical construction with the former and the latter basically consistent in structure and relevant in the nature of the former event and the latter event stated.A considerable space is finally devoted to the atypical structure of zeugma in the form of "V is not A,but B" as in "??????,???" along with its semantic and generative motivation.The case study thus made will hopefully contribute to multi-facet explorations of such a rhetorical study with a long tradition as figures of speech in Chinese against the contemporary academic backdrop.