"Degree Adverb+Noun" Structure In Chinese: A Grammatical Metonymy Explanation

In recent years, the “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure in Chinese as a new languagephenomenon has emerged in increasing numbers in our lives, especially in newspapers,magazines and on the Internet. Many phrases in Chinese like “很女人”,“很中国” and “非常生活” are widely used. In traditional grammar, this structure is regarded as ungrammaticalbecause the adverbs tend to modify the verbs or adjectives but not nouns. However, the use ofthis structure does not cause misunderstanding. Instead, it can produce a novel effect ofexpression.This structure has aroused many scholars’ interest and the discussion of this structure haslasted for a long time. The early studies of this structure are mainly on whether this structureis grammatical, and later the scholars try to describe and explain it. Many scholars investigatethis structure from different aspects such as semantics, pragmatics, cognition, etc. Though theprevious studies were abundant and made us have clearer acknowledgement of “DegreeAdverb+Noun” structure, few studies consider the cognitive operational process of thisstructure and the relationship between the cognition and the grammatical structure in “DegreeAdverb+Noun” structure.In view of the previous studies, this thesis adopts the theory of grammatical metonymyto analyze the cognitive mechanism of the “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure and investigatethe “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure in the operational model of grammatical metonymyproposed by the domestic scholars Wu Shuqiong and Wen Xu (吴淑琼&文旭,2011).Based on the analysis of the data we collected, a brief classification of the degree adverbs ismade and the characteristics of the degree adverbs entering into this structure are summarized. Most of the usages of degree adverbs in “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure are colloquial andthe degree adverbs that can modify the nouns always tend to have high level degree. Then adetailed grammatical metonymy analysis of different “Degree Adverb+Noun” structures ismade based on different types of nouns in this structure. Through the grammatical metonymyanalysis of the “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure, we come to a conclusion that thegrammatical metonymy CATEGORY FOR ATTRIBUTE is the cognitive motivation of theformation of the “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure. And the grammatical structure caninfluence the operation of the grammatical metonymy. It is the semantic coercion thatmotivates the operation of this grammatical metonymy. In addition, we should take thecontextual influence to the grammatical metonymy into consideration. The characteristics ofthe noun in “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure are also summarized in this thesis.The thesis is made up of five chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction of the thesis presenting the motivation of the currentstudy, object of the study, objectives and significance of the study, research questions,methodology and data collection as well as stating the general framework of the thesis.Chapter Two presents a general review of the previous studies on “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure in Chinese. Some representative viewpoints of this structure are presented. Atlast it will introduce a new approach to the study of this structure.Chapter Three introduces the theoretical framework in this thesis—grammaticalmetonymy. It first presents the theory of conceptual metonymy and grammatical metonymy.Then it introduces the operational model of grammatical metonymy by which the “DegreeAdverb+Noun” structure can be explained more adequately in the perspective of cognitivelinguistics.Chapter Four is the analysis of “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure within the frameworkof grammatical metonymy. It is the main part of this thesis. Firstly, a brief study of the degree adverb in “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure is presented. Then, the grammatical metonymicanalysis of the “Degree Adverb+Noun” structure is the main concern of this part.The last chapter is the conclusion; an overall summary of the thesis and the discussion ofthe major findings are made. Furthermore, it presents the limitations of the study.