A Corpus-Based Approach To The Constructionalization Of“Da(?)+X”Constructions In Mandarin Chinese

“Da(?)” is one of the most frequently used polysemous words in modern Chinese.Researches concerning “Da(?)” and “Da(?)+X” structures have been conducted for many years,mainly focusing on either the form or the meaning from the perspective of semantics and syntax and fruitful achievements have been made.Nevertheless,there are mainly two weaknesses for traditional approaches.For one thing,the semantic and grammatical changes of “Da(?)” are analyzed separately,lacking systematically and consistently integrated study.For another,“Da(?)+X”structures whose internal semantic role and syntactic function are different are short of further classification.Based on construction grammar,constructionalization,which makes a combination of traditional grammaticalization and lexicalization,simultaneously investigates the form and meaning changes in a construction from a diachronic perspective,thus avoiding the previous issues and consistent with the researches concerning “Da(?)+X”.This thesis tries to unveil the language changes based on the framework of constructionalization by applying both synchronic and diachronic analysis.Taking “Da(?)+X” construction as a case study,this thesis collects data via Chinese corpus and dictionaries to make an integrated investigation of the form and meaning changes of both “Da(?)+X” and “Da(?)”.This thesis aims at answering the following questions:(1)What are the differences in terms of constructive features of “Da(?)+X” sub-constructions?(2)What is the relationship of the sub-constructions?(3)How do the form and meaning of “Da(?)” evolve in different “Da(?)+ X” construction?The research findings are as follows:At first,this thesis divides the “Da(?)+ X” constructive group into “Da(?)+ X”compound construction and “Da(?)+ X” phrase construction based on the differencesbetween Chinese compound and phrase.The two differs with each other in constructive features.In modern Chinese,“Da(?)+ X” phrases are mostly “Da(?)+N” phrases while “Da(?)+ X” compounds can be “Da(?)+ A\ N\ V”.Therefore,“Da(?)+ X” compound construction has increased schematicity and productivity with decreased compositionality.Secondly,“Da(?)+ X” compound construction,which is investigated from a diachronic study,results from the lexical constructionalization of the “Da(?)+ X”phrase construction under the principle of economy.Originally,“Da(?)+ N” phrase is verb-object construction.Under the principle of economy,some “Da(?)+ N” phrases are lexicalized in modern Chinese;dating back to Chinese disyllabification,“Da(?)+V” phrase,which is originally verb-object construction,undergoes lexicalization to conform to Chinese disyllabification and the principle of economy;accompanied by the semantic bleaching of “Da(?)”,“Da(?)+ A” phrase is verb-complement construction originally.In modern Chinese,“Da(?)+ A” phrase is lexicalized under the principle of economy,thus being recorded in the dictionary.Thirdly,during the evolutionary process of lexical constructionalization,“Da(?)” is grammatically constructionalized.In “Da(?)+ X” phrase construction,“Da(?)” is formally a verb whose meaning is related to its prototype meaning “hit and strike”;in “Da(?)+ X” compound construction,“Da(?)” is grammatically constructionalized into a verb marker without lexical meaning.