A Cognitive Study Of Zou X Construction

Zou is a commonly used word in Chinese.With the rapid development of society,there are many new meanings of zou generated with relevant new expressions,which attracts the attention of many scholars.Recently,many researchers discuss this topic from different perspectives,but there are still some shortcomings and unexplored area.The subject of this paper is zou X construction.The author obtained 400 items of zou X instances from BLCU Corpus Center(BCC for short)and previously relevant research.By integrating Autonomy-Dependence Alignment,Event-domain Model,Conceptual Metaphor and Conceptual Metonymy Theory,the author attempts to explain the features of zou X at the levels of syllable,syntax,semantics and pragmatics,etc.and reveals the generative mechanism and cognitive mechanism of its syntax and semantic construal.The main findings are as follows:(1)Syllabic level: There are various forms of zou X construction: disyllable construction,trisyllable construction,quadrisyllable construction,pentasyllable construction,hexasyllable construction,septasyllable construction,octosyllable construction and decasyllable construction.Among them,“zou + monosyllable” syllabic pattern is the main form of this structure,which shows prototypicality,such as zouhong.Furthermore,the number of noun phrasal X takes up the most among all syllabic patterns.And “zou + monosyllabic nominal X” construction mostly convey the meaning of “certain action and its object”.(2)Syntax level: In zou X construction,X can be noun phrase,verb phrase and adjective phrase,but most of X are noun phrase.The form of zou X construction can be divided into modification-center structure,verb-object structure and verb-complement structure.And zou X within the verb-object structure accounts for the highest proportion.The Autonomy-Dependence Alignment can explain its generative mechanism at the syntactic level,that is,zou serves as the dependent structure,X acts as the autonomous structure.(3)Semantic level: In zou X construction,four types of X are present,namely,Action object,Action environment,Action manner and Action result.By connecting the metaphorical meaning of the spatial movement of zou with another concept X,the zou X construction expresses the meanings as follows:(1)certain action and its object;(2)certain actionand its location;(3)certain action and its manner;(4)certain action and its result.Among them,the meaning of “certain action and its manner” is the prototypical meaning of zou X construction.In the process of meaning construction,the specific Event-domain Cognitive Model is evoked,involving the cognitive mechanism of conceptual metonymy and conceptual metaphor.(4)Pragmatical level: zou X construction shows three features,i.e.productivity,economy and novelty.