A Cognitive Approach To The Semantic Expansion Of Verb Object Structure

In this paper,we focus primarily on the commonly-used Chinese word "Xi" in the verb object structure "Xi+NP".And the synchronic and diachronic analyses are combined to investigate and describe the evolution path of semantic expansion of the verb object structure "Xi+NP".From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,we then analyzes the motivation and mechanism behind this semantic expansionAfter discussing the origin of "washing" as the general meaning of "Xi",we find that the semantic expansion of "Xi+NP" can be divided into two categories concrete meaning and weakened meaning.In its concrete meaning,the nouns which can co-occur with "Xi" mainly relate to body,utensil and clothes.In the process of expansion,the verb Xi competes with other washing-related verbs and becomes the upper word of semantic field of washing with its strong vitality.In terms of its weakened meaning,the meaning of "washing" has been extended to the meaning of removing,changing,or(making)something clean etc.When used with nouns,the meaning of Xi is expanded from concrete to weakened.This semantic expansion can be summarized into three stages:the concrete meaning,the concrete and weakened meaning,and the weakened meaningFrom the perspective of cognitive linguistics,we contend that the semantic expansion of "Xi+NP" is closely related to human cognitive mechanism,such as"human is center" metaphor,metonymy as well as subjective and objective projection mechanism.The trend of Chinese disyllabification,the change of social environment and human embodied experience actually contribute to the semantic expansion of "Xi+NP".