The Study Of Constructionalization Of Chinese Middle Constructions "p + V Qilai???? + Vp₂"

Middle construction is a common phenomenon in languages,which has been heatedly discussed.People hold different opinions about whether there is such a thing as middle construction in Chinese or not.A large majority of scholars define NP+V qilai(??)+ADJ as Chinese middle construction and point out the distinctions between it and patient-subject construction,ergative construction and topic construction.However,there are some problems with the definition.Although they have done a lot of research on the formation,characteristics and semantic restrictions of verbs and adjectives in Chinese middle construction,its diachronic development has been rarely studied.On the basis of Traugott and Trousdale(2013)'s theory of constructionalization and constructional changes,the thesis tries to give a detailed explanation of the source,the process,the characteristics and the mechanisms of constructionalization of Chinese middle construction P+V qilai(??)+VP2 from a diachronic perspective.There are five important findings in the thesis:Firstly,this thesis gives a redefinition of Chinese middle construction and considers P+VX+VP2 to be a Chinese middle construction in a broad sense only when semantic orientation of VP2 is potential agent or the predicate.P+VX+VP2 can be regarded as abstraction,which generalizes innumerable micro-constructions P+V qilai(??)+VP2,P+V zhe(?)+VP2,P+V shangqu(??)+VP2······.Secondly,P+V qilai(??)+VP2 comes from the subject-predicate construction A+V qilai(??)+VP2.When patient is prominent,two intermediate constructions—agent topic construction A+P+V qilai(??)+VP2 and patient topic construction P+A+V qilai(??)+VP2 are formed.Owing to syntactic and semantic neoanalysis of the construction,Chinese middle construction P+V qilai(??)+VP2 appears.Later,with the use frequency increasing,the construction has been gradually conventionalized.This is the process of constructionalization of Chinese middle construction P+V qilai(??)+VP2.Thirdly,middle construction is used to express a modality or possibility,which doesn't describe an actual event.Therefore,it can be regarded as an irrealis construction.Fourthly,during the constructionalization of P+V qilai(??)+VP2,schematicity and productivity have increased while compositionality has decreased.Thus,it is a case of grammatical constructionalization.Fifthly,neoanalysis and analogization are two important mechanisms of the constructionalization of P+V qilai(??)+VP2.