Grammaticalization In Constructions

This study focuses on constructions related to the word gei which is frequently used in Chinese: geiwo+VP ("给我滚”)and NP+gei+VP(“小鸟给飞走了”). Firstly, from the perspective of Cognitive Construction Grammar, these two are defined as specific constructions extended from Double-Object construction. Geiwo+VP construction extends into a typical and an atypical sub-construction according to the grammaticalizational extent of geiwo. In the typical sub-construction, geiwo is a syntactic combination identifying the motion object—the target of the VP; In the atypical sub-construction, geiwo has been grammaticalized as an imperative-tone emphasizer. On the other hand, NP+gei+VP expresses a non-prospective result. The VP in NP+gei+VP is composed of a verb and a result complement and no other linguistic elements can be added after the word gei. At the same time, the construction depicts an action from the perspective of the patient, which is a reversed expression marked by the word gei. Further, clear developing paths of these two constructions are presented in the thesis.This thesis is different from the previous research in that it is an in-depth study on geiwo+VP which incorporates synchronic corpus searching and diachronic evolvement probing, based on which, a disapproval is put forward that geiwo cannot be taken off from the sentence where it appears. It also proposes that geiwo has been a required chunk at least at the early period of the construction’s generation stage. Also, it disagrees that NP+gei+VP demonstrates a disposal or passive meaning, and concludes that it embodies a non-prospective causative result. Further, grammaticalization is thought to endow the word gei with the ability to occur right in front of other verbal phrases, which also offers a reasonable explanation for these two special linguistic phenomena and other similar cases in Chinese. Even, the grammaticalization study proves that there are only two paths for a word to go through grammaticalization:firstly, to grammaticalize alone as the word gei in NP+gei+VP; secondly, to go through grammaticalization with a closely-related word(s) to form a grammaticalized chunk as geiwo in geiwo+VP.