The Cognitive Pragmatic Analysis Of "Direct Speech+ De+NP" Construction In Mandarin Chinese

In recent years,the expressions of��????'???�,��?????????'???�,��?????'???�are becoming increasingly popular,while studies on them are scant.We find that the�Direct speech+de+NP�structure(DDN for short)inherits some features from attributive structures in Chinese and�modifier+head noun�structures in English.In particular,�adjective+noun�structures and phrasal compounds(PC for short)motivate many properties of it.Within the framework of traditional grammar,DDNs belong to the level of phrase,while PCs belong to the category of word.However,both of them are�form-meaning�pairs under the framework of cognitive grammar.In the present study,we take DDNs as constructions in Chinese and uphold that the inheritance links,polysemous nature as well as construction coercion contribute to the generation and interpretation of them.Meanwhile,metonymy,cognitive reference point model and Generalized Conversational Implicature theory are utilized in order to give a thorough explanation of this fancy construction from three dimensions which are syntactic,semantic and pragmatic.In terms of the formal features, this construction consists of the direct speech,�de� and the head noun or noun phrase. Moreover, qualified direct speech modifiers are divided into lexicalized phrases and freely generated sentences. We also make a conceptual-semantic classification of the head nouns. They are classified into individual, property, attitude, action, time, utterance, medium conveying utterance and thing. With regard to the semantic properties, the central meaning of this construction is that the direct speech modifies the head noun. And there exist three specific meanings: instantiation, description and demonstration. Instantiation indicates the most direct and the simplest relation between the modifier and the head. And description means that the meaning of the lexicalized modifier is influenced by the construction meaning, hence it has to function as an adjective to describe the properties of the head noun. Demonstration refers to that direct speeches virtually demonstrate the head noun through evoking a relevant everyday scenario. During this process, there exists a reference point chain and a metonymy chain.Finally, we assume that strong pragmatic functions of this construction such as creating subjective categories, producing rhetorical effects and defining novel and ineffable concepts and so on stem from the conflict of I-principle(say as less as possible) and Q-principle(try to be more informative) at the level of phrase.