A Cognitive Study Of The Formation Mechanism Of Chinese Serial Verb Construction

The thesis aims to study the formation mechanism of Serial Verb Construction (SVC) inChinese. Chinese SVC is a construction in which there are two or more verbs or verbalphrases used in serial without connectives or phonetic pauses; all the verbs in thisconstruction describe the same subject and the order of which represents a kind of time orderor logical relationship. Researchers have contributed greatly at giving definitions andexhaustive descriptions, and doing researches on the features of SVC from the perspective oftraditional grammar, generative grammar and cognitive grammar. In spite of these studies,there are still incomplete studies at the formation mechanism of this construction. TheStructure-Boundary Principle established by Liu Chendan is applied to illustrate the cognitivebasis of the formation mechanism of Chinese SVC. Under the guidance of theStructure-Boundary Principle, we attempt to give reasonable explanations to the followingquestions: What is the mechanism of the formation of Chinese Serial Verb Construction? Whycan the verbal structures be placed close together? What is the motivation and organizingprinciple of argument merging in Chinese SVC?Based on the Structure–Boundary Principle, we make the hypothesis of Chinese SVC.We hypothesize that if two (or more) actions described by the verbal structures are closelyrelated semantically or logically and there are overlapped arguments in them, the two verbalstructures can be syntactically adjacent under the influence of the principle of proximity. Theoverlapped arguments of the latter structure may move to the position or merge with thearguments of the former structure for economy, with the grammaticality and acceptabilitybeing protected. The merging of the arguments abides by the local default principle.According to the Structure-Boundary Principle, well-formedness of linguistic structures consists in the integrity of the structure and boundary as a unity. The formation of ChineseSVC is based on the integrity of the structure-boundary unity. According to the hypothesis,only when the two structures are closely related semantically or logically and there areoverlapped arguments in them, can they be syntactically adjacent. Then the overlappedarguments must be merged together, and the originally componential structures are reanalyzedas an integral structure. For one thing, there are overlapped arguments in the verbal structures,which means the actions are performed by the same agent or are performed on the samepatient. For another thing, it is proved that the actions represented by the verbal structures areclosely related either semantically or logically. Based on the two reasons corresponding to ourhypothesis, the componential structures can be placed near to each other to form thestructure-boundary unity. When the verbal structures with the same arguments are justified tobe close together, the overlapped arguments may cause wasteful repeat. To express moreeconomically, the arguments of one verbal phrase can be moved to the position of the samearguments in the other verbal phrase and merge with it. Abiding by the local default principle,the arguments in the latter structure can be moved to the previous structure and merged withthe overlapped ones. Then the aim of economic expression is achieved with thegrammaticality and acceptability being protected.The findings of the study are as follows:(1) Both the processes of placing the componential structures close and merging theoverlapped arguments happen under the cognitive framework of the Structure-BoundaryPrinciple. The principle provides reasonable explanations to the formation mechanism ofChinese SVC.(2) There are close semantic or logical relations between the verbal phrases in ChineseSVC. The Structure-Boundary Principle provides reasonable explanations for the verbalstructures being placed close together and helps them to be conceptualized as the structure-boundary unity in the construal process.(3) The local default principle, one of the sub-principles in the Structure-BoundaryPrinciple, motivates the merging of overlapped arguments and protects the grammaticality andacceptability of the whole structure after the argument merging.