A Study Of Chinese Structure “XP+Cai Guai” From The Perspective Of Construction Grammar

As a frequently-used linguistic structure in Chinese,“XP+cai guai(XP+才怪)”expresses strong negative meaning and pragmatically presents counter-expectation.The previous studies on“XP+cai guai”are mainly centered on its semantic features or pragmatic effects,but seldom on the analysis of“XP+cai guai”in a form-meaning integrated way and discuss its cognitive motivation from the perspective of Construction Grammar.Linguistic structure“XP+cai guai”is a construction whose meaning is not simply accumulated by its constituents.On the basis of the data from CCL(Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU),this paper syntactically,semantically and pragmatically studies“XP+cai guai”construction in both quantitative and qualitative way,moreover,it explores the mechanism explaining how the construction’s negative meaning generated within the framework of Construction Grammar.The present study will attempt to explore the following issues:firstly,As a construction,what are the restrictions of“XP+cai guai”construction on“XP”,and what semantic and pragmatic properties does the construction have;secondly,how does the construction produce negative meaning and change the meaning of the items licensed to the construction;thirdly,in“XP+cai guai”construction,variable item“XP”belong to various syntactic categories,what is the relationship among different types“XP+cai guai”constructions.The findings show that,firstly,at the level of lexical coercion,“XP + cai guai”construction basically has the syntactic and semantic features like many Chinese adverbs detonating a sense of negation.The syntactic properties of the argumentative adverb “cai”,as well as the negative meaning of the construction’s lexical item “guai”,which is formed diachronically and metaphorically with the help of subjectification,determine the syntactic and sematic characteristics of “XP + cai guai” construction.Secondly,the construction semantically inclines to match with “XP” denoting negative meaning,in order to show a sense of affirmation,and meanwhile,“XP + cai guai”construction pragmatically acts as the marker of counter-expectation and deduction by violating Grice’s Maxim of Manner and Leech’s Maxim of Agreement.The way to generate “XP + cai guai” construction is responsible for such semantic inclination and pragmatic features of the construction.Moreover,construction coercion in “XP + cai guai” is closely related to the context,and is in accordance with the economic principle of language.Thirdly,with lexical and construction coercion,specific “XP” belonging to various syntactic categories enter into the construction and form an interrelated“superordinate-subordinate” inheritance hierarchies,which is one of important cognitive mechanism behind the construction.Generally speaking,metaphor,subjectification,coercion as well as the inheritance hierarchies are all indispensable for“XP + cai guai” as a negative construction.Based on the concerning notions and analysis method in Construction Grammar,the present study discusses the syntactic,semantic,pragmatic features,as well as the cognitive mechanism for generating “XP + cai guai” construction.It serves to be an attempt to explore specific Chinese linguistic phenomena,hoping to arouse more consideration and studies on the relevant issues concerning with Chinese language.