Subjectification Of Copula "Shi" In Mandarin

Subjectification plays a significant part in the grammaticalization of "shi" in Mandarin from a demonstrative pronoun to a copula in that a semantic change of "shi" from its deictic usage to its assertive usage goes along with the augment of subjectivity that interlocutors hold in cognition.Copula "shi" is extensively studied in many different fields,such as philosophy,anthropology,sociology,psychology,linguistics and cognitive linguistics,and with each staring from a different set of preconceptions.The present paper analyzes the subjective aspect of copula "shi" in Mandarin and explores the type of subjective information implicated by "shi" from a perspective of cognitive linguistics.On the basis of previous studies,this paper further investigates the subjectification of"shi" which gives us to the grammaticalization of the word.From the viewpoint of cognitive linguistics,subjectivity,which is recognized as a human cognitive motivation,plays an important role in the formation and evolution of syntactic structures.'Subjectivity' in this study is defined as the expression of self and representation of the speaker's perspective and point of view in the propositions; 'subjectification' is defined as the structure strategies that languages evolve in the linguistic realization of subjectivity or as the relevant processes of linguistic evolution themselves.Grammarians have been holding a belief that "shi" has a variety of meanings that are greatly different and seemingly irrelevant to each other.They attribute these semantic differences and irrelevance to the different grammar-semantic behaviors that "shi" displays in different context.However,in modern linguistics,scholars ready to discuss this irrelevance have come under grave suspicions.Linguists of different branches who have been united by a common interest in the cognitive nature of language have come to argue that human cognition would provide a theoretical framework within which linguistic phenomena might be accounted for.Cognitive linguistics holds that there is a close relation between grammar and cognition:many grammatical rules are actually various cognitive projections from the rules in reality to language.The world schema,through the medium of human cognition,is projected to become the general framework of language design and the motivation of language use.In the course of perceiving the world,the speaker's/ conceptualizer's attitudes,beliefs and emotions will inevitably permeate and affect the process and product of the interpretation of events and states of affairs and their relationships.This subjective evolvement will therefore manifest itself in the linguistic structures.The present paper consists of five chapters.In the first chapter,the main concern of the present study is briefly introduced.Then a preliminary probe into the research of "shi",which includes the motivation of the study of "shi" and characteristics of deictic and copula "shi" is carried out.Besides,the necessity and significance of the study are introduced in the latter part of this chapter.The second chapter is mainly a literature review.It presents previous studies regarding the word of "shi".Here,both philosophical and linguistic analyses of "shi" are summarized.Ideas and hypotheses from different linguistic approaches and celebrated scholars such as Hegel,G.W.F.,Heidegger,Langacker,Traugott,Wang Lu,Xiao Yaman, etc.are briefly reviewed.The third chapter introduces the cognitive linguistic theories to be used in the paper, especially Traugott's grammaticalization and subjectification theory and Langacker's subjectification theory,which provides a theoretical framework for the study.It is all in all an introduction to the notion of subjectivity and subjectification proposed by Ronald W. Langacker.In the light of the theoretical foundation,the key research questions of the study are introduced.The fourth chapter carries out a thorough analysis on different meanings of the word of "shi" and generalizes the semantic changing path the "shi" follows;along which the grammatical structure has changed a lot.In this chapter,the subjectification of"shi" from deictic to assertive is examplified in detail.By investigating the motivations for this subjedification process,it is asserted that pragmatic feature plays a much larger part in the process of subjectification of"shi".The last chapter gives a conclusion of the paper.Findings of the paper are summarized and limitations of the present study are mentioned,which provides some implications for further research on the copula "shi".The approach taken for the present study has provided a new perspective for the further research of the word "shi".At the same time,its findings have laid a solid foundation for the future research on subjectivity and subjectification.