The Chinese Construction A 了去了:Its Composition, Origin And Constructional Meaning

A了去了is a construction in modern Chinese.The discussion of the construction in this thesis centers around three issues:its composition,its origin and its constructional meaning.As for its composition, we maintain in the first place that the construction can be structurally divided into [[[A 了]去]了], which consists of three levels. Secondly, we take the final 了(conventionally known as 了 2) in the construction as functionally tantamount to the Chinese sentence-final interjection 啦, expressing the meaning of making an exclamation about the scale of quantity denoted by the construction. Besides, 了2 also has the meaning of being confirmative about the factuality of the scale of subjective quantity denoted by the construction under discussion. This dual meaning makes it difficult to elide 了 2, which therefore is liable to be preserved in the construction. Furthermore, similar to 了 2, the particle 了 suffixed to A(conventionally known as 了 1) also cannot be omitted, strictly speaking. The reasons are as follows. First, the adjective A cannot be directly combined with the directional verb 去 because on the one hand, A has got the stative reading and according to Vendler(1967) and Smith(1997), state is non-dynamic. On the other hand, the directional verb 去 intrinsically contains the semantic feature of dynamicity. Second, in Chinese, it is permissible to combine A with 了, and A 了 in its entirety has got the change-of-state meaning. That is to say, the syntactic object A 了 as a whole should be taken as a verbal phrase of an inchoative nature. Third, the combination of the verbal phrase A 了 and 去 literally has the meaning of expressing the direction and tendency in which the state denoted by A is changing itself. Fourth, the fact is that 去 in the construction has the function of strengthening and enhancing the degree of the property denoted by A.So far as the emergence of the construction is concerned,we hold,based on grammaticalization theory and certain cognitive linguistic theories,that it stems from V了去了.This evolutionary process includes three stages:from V了to V了去/V去了,from V了去/V去了to V了去了,and finally from V了去了to A了去了.In this thesis,we also prove the constructional property of A了去了and provide a more elaborate account of the constructional meaning of the construction.Appealing to the Theory of Subjectivity and Subjective Quantity,we think that,generally speaking,A了去了expresses speaker’s subjective exaggeration of the property denoted by the adjective A in the construction.The degree of property that A了去了expresses exceeds not only the hearer’s expectation but also the speaker’s prior expectation.The meaning of expectation transcendence further implies two types of contrast or two semantic asymmetries:the contrast between the speaker’s knowledge state and the hearer’s knowledge state,and the contrast between what is explicitly stated by the sentence and speaker’s prior information state.