A Cognitive Analysis Of Adjective+object Construction In Modern Chinese

As a long-standing linguistic phenomenon which has been discussed by different scholars,adjective+object construction refers to the linguistic expression that the adjective takes up the syntactic position of the verb,and is followed by the object(Li Quan,1994).For example:(1)?????????,???????????(2)????????????????,??????????????,??????????Although scholars in different periods study adjective+object construction in different approaches,they cannot reach an agreement.Hence this thesis attempts to make a detailed observation of adjective+object construction in modern Chinese within the framework of cognitive linguistics in order to summarize the syntactic and semantic features of adjective+object construction,and to discover the cognitive motivations of the emergence of the meaning of this construction.In order to give a thorough elucidation,this thesis selects 200 adjectives which are only labelled as adjectives from Modern Chinese Dictionary(the seventh edition)and retrieves these adjectives in the corpus of modern Chinese which is built by Beijing Language and Culture University.200 example sentences are collected to form a small corpus of adjective+object construction.Syntactically,it is found that adjectives which are used in adjective+object construction can be monosyllables or disyllables.Their proportions are 8.5%and 91.5%,respectively.In addition,in terms of the form of the object in adjective+object construction,adjective+object construction can be classified into two types:the adjective+(dynamic auxiliary)+noun and the adjective+clause.By calculating the 200 example sentences,186 sentences which belong to the first type account for 93%of the total number,while the sentences which belong to the adjective+clause take a smaller proportion of 7%.Semantically,the adjective+object construction can express both the attribute changes of the object and the psychological changes of the subject toward the object.Their proportions are83.5%and 16.5%,respectively.For the adjective+object construction which expresses the attribute changes,the agent of the event usually occupies the syntactic position of the subject,and the patient occupies the syntactic position of the object,for example,?????.However,for the adjective+object construction which expresses the psychological changes,the experiencer is in the syntactic position of the subject and the target takes up the syntactic position of the object,for example,?????????,???????,????????.On the basis of the above observation,it can be seen that the adjective in adjective+object construction functions as the verb with the features of dynamicity,gradability and duality.Dynamicity means the adjective in adjective+object construction occupies the syntactic slot of the verb to express the action process;gradability means that adjectives which occur in adjective+object construction can be modified by different degree words;duality means that the meaning which the adjective+object construction conveys includes both the action process and the result of the action process.Besides,this thesis also attempts to find out the cognitive motivations of the emergence of the meaning of this construction.According to cognitive linguistics,verb and adjective both express relation.A verb designates a temporal relation,and an adjective designates an atemporal relation.The two are semantically related.A verb designates a whole process which is scanned sequentially,but an adjective designates a final state of a process which is scanned in a summary way.In adjective+object construction,the adjective is used as a verb,which means it is used to designate a process instead of a final state.It is achieved through the change of people's construal.The final state is metonymically used to designate a whole process,which is scanned sequentially instead of being scanned in a summary way.Based on the analysis of the cognitive motivations of adjective+object construction,there are two reasons for the employment of adjective+object construction.First,it is the subjective expression of human beings;second,it is the principle of economy.