Expressive Function Of Chinese Demonstratives: A Cognitive Linguistic Approach

As a subject of universal appeal, demonstratives have been studied extensively by researchers from a variety of disciplines. Chinese, like many other languages in the world, has different demonstratives referring to proximal objects and distal ones. In this study, demonstratives in Chinese are the focus.In a discourse, the choice of a demonstrative to refer to an entity linguistically or extralinguistically is complicated, because many factors are involved, such as speaker, addressee, participants, the place and the time of utterance. Some factors, in the previous studies by many linguists and experts, gain extensive explanations. However, the effect of speaker on the choice of demonstratives has not been researched comprehensively. In this study, the importance of expressive function, besides the referential function, is explored. The expressive function refers to the speaker's subjective construal of the referent or the other viewer's subjective stance or emotive attitudes. In certain situations, both a demonstrative and some other referential forms are applicable in the same syntactic position. Why does the demonstrative appear instead of others? Sometimes the use of a demonstrative is unnecessary, but why it is there anyway. Such questions are not easy to answer in the traditional studies. This study pays attention to such unusual or unique usages of Chinese demonstratives. Meanwhile, it tries to give a reasonable explanation to the cognitive mechanism of these usages by virtue of the reference point model and subjectivity in Cognitive Grammar (CG) which provides the theoretical vocabulary to define some notions with precision.Two usages of demonstratives are the main tasks in this study. One is the cataphoric use with the referent appearing after the cataphora immediately. In such a use, the traditional ways fail to provide an acceptable analysis on the cognitive mechanism. The motivation of the speaker (locutionary agent) is especially ignored. This paper attempts to posit that the choice of demonstrative in this situation is to express the speaker's more subjective feelings towards the referent of the demonstrative description and the subjectivity of the demonstrative expression is higher compared with the canonical indefinite description used in the same situation. The other is the coreferential use of the demonstratives, specifically with the personal pronouns together. In such a situation, some other referential forms are also acceptable, such as the use of the sole corresponding personal pronoun. However, the demonstrative appears, expressing some objective feelings of the speaker and the subjectivity of the expression is lower compared with the corresponding personal pronoun used alone. The different degrees of subjectivity show the different degrees of the speaker's active control of the expressions.The cognitive mechanism of these uses is also discussed. The meaning of a structure comes out not only from the direct relationship with the external world but also from the nature of individual and social experience and hence abstract conceptual structures project some aspects of the basic human capacity. Establishment of reference point is a fundamental and pervasive human cognitive ability in our everyday experience. The choice of a demonstrative in discourse is a manifestation of this conceptual reference point ability. As a natural reference point, Point of View (POV) is claimed to be the crucial factor in the interpretation of the expressive function. In this study, POV is classified into two types: the speaker-addressee-shared POV which is the default POV in narration and the character's POV in which the addressee is encouraged to empathize with the character. Different referential forms can demonstrate different POVs of the conceptualization. Taking POV of Character's or shifting POV from the speaker-addressee-shared POV to it results in the demonstratives in cataphora and coreference to convey the expressive feelings, attitudes or other emotions of the speaker.This study is composed of five chapters:Chapter One introduces the main task of this study with the object, the motivation and the purpose. After that, the theoretical approach, the methodology and the data collection are provided with the whole arrangement of this thesis.Chapter Two reviews the previous researches on demonstratives. The overview is carried out by three sections: the studies of English demonstratives which are considered as one important type of referential forms; the studies of Chinese demonstratives which attract attentions at different levels such as the syntactic level, semantic and pragmatic level and the discourse level; the studies of the contrast between English and Chinese demonstratives, which inspires the cognitive study in this thesis. After the overview, there is a comment on the involvement of speaker's feelings, attitude or other emotions in the use of demonstratives.Chapter Three portrays the theoretical approach. After a briefly discussion about the contributions and limitations of Accessibility Theory by Ariel (1990), this study proposes the important role of subjectivity. POV, as a kind of natural reference point is also discussed. The notion of subjectivity and the model of reference point within the framework of CG guide the analysis in the next chapter.Chapter Four investigates the demonstratives in cataphora and coreference respectively under the guidance of the cognitive concepts proposed in the last chapter. With the detailed examination, the expressive function of demonstratives in these uses is illustrated. The different degrees of subjectivity and the effects of POV as the cognitive motivation are analyzed as well.Chapter Five concludes the whole study with the limitations and implications.