A Cognitive Semantic Research Of �DONG BU DONG VP� Construction In Modern Chinese

The research object of this paper is the�DONG BU DONG VP�construction in Modern Chinese,such as�BIE DONG BU DONG(JIU)KU BI ZI�(????????).In this construction,�DONG BU DONG�does not have the characteristics of the content verb�DONG�(?),and it is grammaticalized to an adverb,called frequency adverb,which means that calculate and express the number of repetitions of actions,behaviors,events or states within a specific time range.It reflects the amount or frequency of repetition of actions,actions,events,states,etc.For the convenience of research,the study of�DONG BU DONG VP�construction in this paper does not include the sentence formed by the content verb�DONG�(?).As for the adverb �DONG BU DONG�,the academic community has already paid attention to it and has drawn many valuable conclusions,such as: the part of speech is an adverb;indicates frequency or commentary;contains dissatisfaction,boredom,or negative meaning;its grammaticalization path;its subjective motivation,pragmatic presupposition,etc.(Qu Chengxi,2005: 86;Li Linding,2010: 298-299;Zhang Yisheng,2000: 46;Zhu Jun,2012;Lv Shuxiang,2015;Guan Heizhuai,2015,et al).This is of great significance for us to further understand the �DONG BU DONG� structure.However,by further thinking,we found that when expressing frequency,the high usage frequency of �DONG BU DONG VP� indicates that the structure has become a priority option for people.What motivates people to use it this way? What is the cognitive law behind this? Moreover,when �DONG BU DONG VP� expressing negative meaning,the degree is not the same,there is a big difference.Why? With these questions,this article attempts to further explore from the perspective of construction grammar in order to further clarify the cognitive semantic characteristics of �DONG BU DONG VP�,and mainly answers the following two questions:First,what are the semantic features of �DONG BU DONG VP� construction? From the perspective of construction grammar,what is the constructional meaning of �DONG BU DONG VP�? Where does the constructional meaning come from?Second,what are the cognitive motivations of �DONG BU DONG VP� construction?In order to solve the above problems,this paper first retrieves qualified corpora in the CCL corpus,and combines the corpora collected during the normal reading process to establish a small closed corpus to observe the semantic features of the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction in details.Through corpus analysis,it is found that the �VP� in the �DONG BU DONG VP� structure is mostly derogatory words;after a few neutral words or commendatory words enter this construction,the meaning of �VP� tends to shift to derogatory meaning.Hence,this paper believes that the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction has negative semantic features,and calls the meaning expressed by this configuration negative meaning.What's more,the construction meaning is temporarily expressed as �expressing negative emotion to a certain action behavior or event state which occurs too frequently�.In order to find out the source of negative meaning of the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction,with the help of related theoretical achievements in psychology,we try to make appropriate explanation for solving the problem.In psychology,emotion is the basic process of mental activity(Meng Zhaolan,1989: 17),is human's attitude and experience caused by whether the objective things meet their needs.Need serves as an important basis of emotion.According to whether the needs are met,emotions are divided into positive emotions and negative emotions.Generally,anything that cannot meet people's need will give rise to negative emotions and emotional experiences(Cai Xiaoyue,2014: 76-77,106).In the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction,�DONG BU DONG� means frequency,which often exceeds expectations,so that the information expressed by �VP� does not meet the needs of the speaker,thus causing negative emotions of the speaker.Moreover,frequencies beyond the speaker's expectations tend to have a transfinite effect.That is,the psychological phenomenon of extreme impatience or rebellion because beyond a certain threshold range,which will negatively impact the mental state of the action object(Yang Fuge,2018).Emotion is often expressed through speech,aiming to pass information and communicate ideas between humans,and making the two sides can understand and communicate with each other(Meng Zhaolan,1989: 40-42).The speaker put his negative emotions on his speech expression,which was reflected in the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction,making the construction a negative meaning.Emotions have the degree of strength and freedom,which mainly depends on the state of human needs.And the negative emotions of different intensities can convey different degrees of negative information,so that the construction produces different degrees of negative semantics.Based on this,this paper divides the negative meaning into weak negative meaning,medium negative meaning and strong negative meaning.Therefore,the negative emotions of the speaker endowed the negative meaning of the construction.The meaning of the negative constructional meaning of �DONG BU DONG VP� comes from the negative emotions of human beings.So what kind of cognitive motivation does this construction have?Construction grammar holds that when a word is used in a particular construction,the semantics and usage of the lexical item and construction are incompatible.At that time the construction is often in a�strong position�,which can forcefully change the semantics and usage of the lexical item,forcing the two to cooperate(Wang Yin,2011:322).This is construction coercion.In the�DONG BU DONG VP�construction,because the construction expresses a negative meaning,the�VP�that enters the configuration is also a word that expresses a negative meaning,that is,a derogatory word.This is because the construction is often in the dominant position.However,some neutral words or commendatory words can also enter the construction,such as�NI DONG BU DONG JIU BIAO YANG TA�(????????).At this point,the verb�BIAO YANG�(??),which originally expresses a positive meaning,is in conflict or incompatible with the constructional meaning.Under the effect of construction coercion,the construction is in a dominant position,forcing the verb�BIAO YANG�(??)to change its semantic characteristics,its commendatory characteristics are suppressed,and the constructional and the verb have achieved cooperation in meaning,so that the construction as a whole retains its negative meaning.Therefore,under the construction coercion,no matter whether the�VP�in the�DONG BU DONG VP�construction is a neutral word or a commendatory word,it will show a tendency to shift to derogatory meaning,so that�VP�shows negative semantics,which is the result of construction coercion.Consequently,the result of the grammaticalization of�DONG BU DONG�contributes part of the sources to the constructional meaning of�DONG BU DONG VP�.While the constructional meaning of�DONG BU DONG VP�suppresses the meaning of�VP�,which makes the construction as a whole shows negative meaning.The study found that: First,the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction has negative constructional meaning.Second,under the effect of construction coercion,any commendatory or neutral verb �VP� in �DONG BU DONG VP� construction shows a tendency to shift to derogatory meaning,so that �VP� shows negative semantics,making the whole construction still keeps the negative meaning.Third,this paper tries to explain the source of the constructional meaning with the help of the psychological concept of emotion and the transfinite effect,and the negative constructional meaning of the �DONG BU DONG VP� construction comes from the negative emotions of human beings.What's more,negative emotions with different intensity can convey negative information of different degrees,so that the construction generates negative semantic meaning of different degrees.