A CMP Model Analysis Of The Vogue Expression "V De Bu Shi A, Shi B"

The vogue expression “Ge chi de bushi mian, shi jimo” becomes popular for atime on the internet and is followed by many netizens, so a series of similarexpressions appeared. Particular expressive habits are formed with the constructionas “V de bu shi A, shi B”. We intend to research it from the perspective ofconstruction, only to find that it bears particular pragmatic meaning which is notinferable from the conventional combination of the constructional components. LuYingshun (2010) has studied the constructional meaning of “bu shi A, shi B”, that is,the subject especially refers to the behavior that “V+A” stands for, acquires oreliminates the state that “B” possesses in some way. There are also some otherscholars who have described the construction from the perspective of pseudo-denial,syntactic relation, semantic analysis and grammaticalization. However, theirresearches haven’t touched on human cognition.To solve the limitations of previous researches, this paper proposes a newtheoretical model CMP (Coercion Metaphor and Prominence), which is mainlybased on cognitive linguistics of Construction Coercion, Conceptual Metaphor andProminence Principle, with a view to seeking the production and interpretationmechanism of “V de bu shi A, shi B”. So it is easy to explain the acceptability andpopularity of “V de bu shi A, shi B”.This thesis will have a clear classification of the sentence pattern “bu shi A, shiB” which is very commonly used in Chinese, from the perspective of pragmaticnegation and the properties of “A” and “B”. We conclude three patterns: prototypeconstruction, periphery construction and ill-formed construction and define the lastone as our research object. Given the explanatory insufficiency of ConstructionCoercion to “V de bu shi A, shi B”, this thesis constructs a theoretical framework bythe combination of conceptual metaphor which analyzes the semantic mapping andinteraction between the source domain “A” and target domain “B”, and prominence principle which highlights the constituent “B”. Based on the framework, we make adetailed study of the production and interpretation of the construction. Besides, thispaper illustrates the rationality and value of “V de bu shi A, shi B” from theperspective of rhetoric and pragmatics.