The Production Mechanism Of "Xiao Xin X" As An Imperative:A Cognitive Approach

Imperatives are used to order, require, forbid, persuade and so on and have been studied by scholars both at home and abroad."xiao xin X"("小心X") as an imperative is widely used in written and spoken languages. Previous scholars have studied imperatives and mentioned"xiao xin X"as the one to"warn somebody of / against something"or to"announce a warning"; some have studied the word"xiao xin"when it is used as a verb in respects of its etymology, semantic features, distributions in different voices, selective constrains on other parts within a sentence and so on; some have focused on the construction of"xiao xin X"as an imperative from the point of semantic features of the"X"used in this construction. However, very few people have touched on the production mechanism of this construction. We hold that cognitive ability concerning language is not different from that of other cognitive abilities. Guided by this belief, this paper provides a workable account for the production mechanism of"xiao xin X"as an imperative from the perspective of cognitive linguistics."xiao xin X"is mostly used in three syntactic forms, namely,"xiao xin NP","xiao xin VP"and"xiao xin AP", expressing the meaning of"warning somebody of / against something"or"announcing a warning". But a close observation may find that the phrase following"xiao xin"actually expresses the meaning of a clause. For example,"小心小偷"(take caution of thieves) means"小心小偷偷东西"(take caution that thieves may steal your belongings). What influence the speaker to choose a phrase to stand for the meaning of a clause? And how can a phrase express the meaning of a clause and in what case an NP is used, in what case a VP is used and in what case an AP? This paper applies the theory of"Autonomous-dependency analysis framework", which is part of"Mental model based research paradigm"proposed by Xu Shenghuan, Gestalt psychology, Intentionality and other related theories to work out a unified working framework to offer a tentative explanation for the production mechanism of"xiao xin X"as an imperative. We hold that the speaker's intentional attitude directs his intentional content. The speaker's intentional attitude in this construction is to"warn somebody of / against something or announce a warning", therefore, only the most economic and representative linguistic expression can satisfy this communicational goal, because very long or redundant expressions are seldom used in directive sentences, especially in urgent situations. So, he derives a higher scale mental model through the relations of [proximity±] or [similarity±] to represent what he intends to convey and maps it on syntactic expressions, while leaves those that can be inferred by the hearer linguistically unrealized.By applying the working framework of"xiao xin X"as an imperative, we come to the following findings:(1) Directed by his intentional attitude, which is to warn somebody of / against something or to announce a warning, the speaker must choose a very economic and representative expression to convey his intentional content; otherwise, his intentional attitude may not be fulfilled. Because"warning"or"announcing a warning"is usually not expressed by very long and redundant sentences due to the fact that this structure is often used in very urgent situations, except that the speaker has a different purpose. Therefore, he derives a higher scale mental model through the relation of [proximity±] or [similarity±] and maps it on syntactic expressions. The selected higher scale mental model is often a phrase and has many lower scale mental models, among which the speaker's implied meaning is contained, which is often a clause. The hearer has the same mental models with the speaker, thus, by hearing the phrase, all the lower scale mental models contained by the higher one is triggered, and then he makes the correct interpretation according to the situation where the conversation happens.(2) Because the phrase which is chosen to express the meaning of a clause is the higher scale mental model of the speaker's intentional meaning, that is to say, it includes the speaker's implied meaning and can trigger it through the relation of [proximity±] or [similarity±] under the situation in which the expression is used. Therefore, a phrase expresses the meaning of a clause successfully.(3) Whether an NP, a VP or an AP is chosen to represent the meaning of a clause depends on the focus of the speaker's intentional content. If the higher scale mental model which is chosen to be mapped on syntactic expression is an NP, the NP will be left in explicit expressions; if the higher scale mental model which is chosen to be mapped on syntactic expression is a VP, the VP will be left linguistically; if the higher scale mental model which is chosen to be mapped on syntactic expression is an AP, the AP will be left in linguistic expression.