On Semi-productivity Of The "Chi+O_at" Construction

In Mandarin Chinese, the “chi+O_at” construction, in which an atypical object (O_atfor short) occurs after the verb chi （meaning “to eat”）, has attracted a lot of attention.There have been quite a lot of studies on this construction from syntactic, semantic, andmetonymic perspectives. However, there remain some questions which need to bediscussed further. We know that metonymy can be seen as a working mechanism ofgenerating the atypical object in the construction. But the question is whethermetonymy is the sole cognitive factor that is at work. If not, what other cognitive factorsmight there be that impose certain restrictions on the occurrence of the atypical objectappearing after the verb chi? The restricted occurrence of O_atcharacteristic of theconstruction is described as “semi-productivity” in this thesis, which we approach in thelight of Langacker’s Construal Theory （CT）. More specifically, we explain thesemi-productivity of the construction in terms of scope/background, specificity,perspective and prominence, which are viewed as different construal operations inLangacker （1993）. And we find out the relevant cognitive factors that serve to constrainthe generation of linguistic expressions in Chinese that pattern with the “chi+O_at”construction.We propose the cognitive restrictions as follows:1) In terms of scope/background,an acceptable atypical object taken by chi must satisfy a condition under which theatypical object must offer an immediate scope which can activate the patient argument（something to eat） of the verb chi;2) In terms of specificity, the given atypical objectmust be specifically related to the action denoted by the verb chi rather than otherwise;3) In terms of perspective, we conclude that if the given word can offer an availablevantage point from which one can mentally see or conjure up food, this word can be anacceptable object of the verb chi;4) In terms of prominence, the given atypical objectshould share the same conceptual base with the canonical patient object of the verb chiso that the latter will be sufficiently prominent. As a result, there will be a case of anacceptable atypical object.