A Linguistic Analysis Of "Gradable Adverb+Noun Phrases" Construction In Modern Chinese

In the past few decades, it presents a prevalence of such kind of phrases as "very gentleman", " very model", " very China". These phrases consist of a gradable adverb and a noun or noun phrase immediately followed. It is becoming more and more popular in the daily conversation, the mass media and some informal written works nowadays. Early studies took it as a temporary transformation of parts of speech in conventional grammar. However, this construction often helps to express one's view vividly and thoroughly instead of causing misunderstandings.The purpose of this thesis is exploring the reasons for the popularity of "Gradable Adverb +Noun/Noun Phrases" (here after Gra. Adv. + NP) construction;the conditions for the formation of limited numbers of Gra. Adv. + NP expressions;searching for its pragmatic values and contextual factors it adapts to and means of taking part in contextualization and the degree of salience of the user. Although it is extremely hard to predict whether this construction will be knocked out or categorized into the Chinese language, as an active speech phenomenon, it worth doing a linguistic research that combines semantic, cognitive and pragmatic analysis with a comprehensive perspective.This thesis is a comprehensive investigation of Gra. Adv. + NP construction in contemporary Chinese, mainly with some key concepts andapproaches related to semantics and cognition like "decategoization", "stereotype" "prototype" and "cognitive model" ect. and Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory as analytical basis. During the analysis, three core questions will be explored: the reasons for the existence and prevalence of Gra. Adv. + NP construction;the special requirements of the formation of a Gra. Adv. + NP expression and pragmatic functions and values of this construction in communication. The major parts of this thesis contain:First, a cognitive and semantic analysis of data is made to summarize some criteria for a Gra. Adv. + NP expression to come into existence primarily with the help of "decategoization", "stereotype" and "prototype". A relevant discussion about the semantic basis and the cognitive model of the Gra. Adv. + NP is included.Second, an adaptative analysis of data in the communicative context is made to discover the reasons and pragmatic values of Gra. Adv. + NP construction.As for the methodology, this thesis collected all its data from daily conversations, the mass media (mainly in newspapers, magazines and TV) and other informal literary works. These data are taken as examples through transcription. As assistance, a questionnaire is designed in advance mainly to measure the degree of acceptability of Gra. Adv. + NP construction. The remarkable difference of acceptability among individuals reveals based on a statistic testing on the data collected by the effective reclaimedquestionnaires. The social recognition of this construction increased to some extent compared the result with that of a former experiment. Besides, an initial discovery on some characteristics of this construction is presented.Finally, it is concluded that the ultimate motivation responsible for the activity of Gra. Adv. + NP construction in contemporary Chinese is a spontaneous mechanism of the natural language. It is the result of the self-adjustment and self-development of language. This construction is the requirement of adaptation to various communicative goals by limited symbols and the choice in the process of adapting to contextual factors and dynamically constructing context.