A Study Of Verb Structure "一+P+P+了+NP"

The sentences"一坐坐了一下午","一红红了二十年"are frequently used in oral Chinese, which can be abstracted as"一+ P + P +了+ NP"。"一+ P + P+了+ NP"is a productive construction marked by two elements"一"and"了"。Although there was not specific study on this construction, the studies on the two elements were all-inclusive, which set a strong foundation for understanding of the entire construction. In this paper, we tried to make a reasonable trade-off to existing conclusions of"一"and"了". On the basis of that, the grammatical meaning, pragmatic features and the choice conditions of predicate of this construction were summarized. Furthermore, we analyzed the differences between related formats and explained the construction to some extent. After some research we concluded that:1. The choice conditions of predicate of"一+P+P+了+NP"(1),The verbs that can enter the construction and the reasons for thatIn the process of inspection to verb, we found that those verbs, which can enter the construction, do not have starting point and ending point on timeline, or do not have starting point but have ending point. So they are all unbounded verbs. The reason that unbounded verbs can be used is that this construction indicated a bounded event, which required bounded movement with starting point and ending point. As a result of that the construction both has"starting point aspect"and"completed point", which marked by"一"and"了", only the unbounded verb , without starting point and ending point in timeline, can enter it.(2),The verbs that cannot enter the construction and the reasons for thatBounded verb, with starting point and ending point in timeline, cannot enter this construction. The verb indicated determine, modal verb, as well as dummy verb can not enter the construction either.NP in this construction requires continuation of action. However, bounded verb has the semantic features of"starting and ending", which do not meet the requirements of the construction, so it cannot be used. Although the verb indicated determine, modal verb and dummy verb have grammatical features as verb, they do not have real semantic. So they cannot enter the construction. 2,Semantic features of"一+P+P+了+NP"(1)Constructional meaning of"一+P+P+了+NP"The construction describes objective things, at the same time, it is more inclined to express people's subjective evaluation to objective things. Therefore, it is a syntax construction that both have description function and evaluation function."一+P+P+了+NP"provides a grammatical structure to evaluate the disparity between the reality and the subjective scale. Those sentences which enter the syntax all contains the speakers'evaluation of the object, and express specific emotion and subjective identification of the speakers. What need to emphasize is that subjective scale is the core element of the meaning of this construction. It is not only the intrinsic motivation to express the speakers'ideas and emotions, but also the key for listeners to understand the meaning of sentences.(2)The temporal issues of"一+P+P+了+NP""了"in"一+P+P+了+NP"does not mean the end of action, but the quantitative phrases"NP"makes the whole event be closed in tense and aspect on the basis of the"achieved aspect", which the sentences have already had. Moreover,"NP"also makes the"speaking time"be a default reference time, which turns the whole construction from"achieved aspect"into"perfect aspect".(3) The subjective-quantity of NP in"一+P+P+了+NP"In"一+P+P+了+NP", the non-self-sufficiency requirement of"一P"sets its influence to quantitative phrase, which leads to the inevitable semantic and syntactic links with quantitative phrase"NP"and gives the construction an"unusual"meaning ."一P"has a feature of small subjective-quantity, which can cause an unusual results of"large quantity". Therefore,"一+P+P+了+NP"can give the large subjective-quantity meaning to NP.