A Neo-cognitive Pragmatic Study On The Buzzword Construction "Yuan Lai Ni Shi Zhe Yang De X"

With the development of society,buzzwords have become a universal phenomenon,which reflects the co-variation between language and society and man's re-categorization of the world.Therefore,research into buzzwords can reveal language change to some extent.Previous studies on buzzword construction have been mainly taken from the single perspective of sociolinguistics,pragmatics or cognitive linguistics,but few of them combine pragmatics with cognitive linguistics to explain the production and comprehension of such linguistic phenomena.Therefore,this thesis takes the Neo-cognitive pragmatic approach to conduct a construction grammar analysis of buzzword structure “Yuan Lai Ni Shi Zhe Yang De X” so as to uncover the cognitive-pragmatic motivation of the production and comprehension of this linguistic phenomenon.The data for the present study are mainly collected from the titles of Netnews,with qualitative research as its main research method.It is found that:(1)The emerging expression “Yuan Lai Ni Shi Zhe Yang De X” is a construction reflected in the following two respects: from the aspect of usage,the variable “X” is no longer limited to referring to a person,whereas anyone or anything about which the language user aims to express his opinion,can be applied to the construction;from the aspect of meaning,the construction has evolved two opposite meanings,which can be used to express both positive and negative evaluation,and in most cases it is accompanied with humorous irony.(2)In the stage of expression,the cognitive basis of the construction is parody thinking,and the production of the construction is the consequence of one's parody thinking.In addition,conceptual metaphor and metonymy also contribute to the production of unconventional expressions.In the comprehension stage,prior context,which includes collective prior context and individual prior context,is the main base for language comprehension.To be specific,the collective prior context provides shared knowledge for mutual understanding while the individual context guides people to focus on salient information related to their own experiences,which may result in misunderstanding.In this case,dueling context will help to achieve proper comprehension of the speaker's intended meaning.(3)Construction “Yuan Lai Ni Shi Zhe Yang De X” has important pragmatic values.Under the guidance of politeness principle,when used for positive evaluation,it implies its praise under the cover of phrase “Zhe Yang De”,making it easier to be accepted in an indirect and comfortable way;and when used for negative evaluation,“Zhe Yang De” is serving as a hedge to avoid explicit criticism and threatening the other's face.In short,the same construction can be used in different contexts to highlight different conversational implications,all of which are guided by politeness principle to achieve corresponding pragmatic intentions.Buzzword construction “Yuan Lai Ni Shi Zhe Yang De X” has become a high frequency expression.A cognitive-pragmatic approach to its study can better explain the production and comprehension of such new linguistic phenomena,achieving a certain theoretical and practical significance.