The Constructionalization Of GezhongX

The present research is about the constructionalization of the Chineses construction gezhongX by answering the following two research questions:‘how many phases are there in the constructionalization process of gezhongX and what are they'and‘how does gezhongX constructionalized'.According to the definition drawn by Traugott and Trousdale?2013?,constructionalization is the type of change that contributes to the creation of‘a form_new-meaning_new paring'.Thus a constructional approach to gezhongX would be the one to look at this linguistic unit in a diachronic view:what it looked like back then when it appeared and what it looks like now;more importantly how does it evolve into what it is now.By collecting and analyzing corpus data from various sources,four phases have been identified to be responsible for constructionalization of gezhongX.They are:the pre-constructionalization stage,the first constructionalization stage,the second constructionalization stage and last but not least,a post-constructionalization construction change stage.The two constructionalization are identified for there have been changes to all three dimensions of their former construction:‘ge'and‘zhong'for the first constructionalization;and‘gezhongN'for the second constructionalization,which,according to Traugott and Trousdale,is a proof of constructionalization.On the other hand,the two stages left are identified as there have only been changes to either one or two of the dimensions of the constructions that are directly relevant to them,which again,prove them to be constructional changes.About the second research problem,there are two mechanisms that are found to be responsible for the changes that have taken place to gezhongX:noeanalysis and analogization.Conceptual metaphors and metonymies contribute a lot for neoanalyzing the construction,and so does constructional coercion;while some corpus data about some well-entrenched degree adverbs in mandarin have also shown that analogization is responsible for the constructionalization of gezhongX.