A Construction Grammar Approach To The Entrenchment Of “ADV+N” Construction In Modern Chinese

Since the appearance of the “ADV+N” construction in the media,it has been a popular topic of discussion in modern Chinese academic fields.The study of this construction has gone through two main stages:the debate on its grammatical rationality in the early stage and the explanation and investigation of the motivation for its formation later.Although “ADV+N” construction has been studied from the grammatical,semantic,pragmatic,and cognitive angles,not many studies have been conducted to explain the entrenchment process of this construction from the perspective of construction grammar.Based on previous studies,this study systematically investigates the use of“ADV+N” construction in modern Chinese from the construction grammar perspective,intending to explore the internal motivation for forming “ADV+N” construction.The study focuses on the following three research questions:(1)Under the theory of construction grammar,how does the“ADV+N” construction entrench?(2)What are cognitive mechanisms of nouns entering the “ADV+N”construction based on the entrenchment of the construction?(3)What are motivations for entrenching the “ADV+N” construction under the effect of cognitive mechanisms of nouns?This study focuses on the following three steps based on the literature research method,qualitative and quantitative research methods,case study method,and introspection method.Firstly,we analyze the entrenchment of the “ADV+N” construction from the composition of the construction to the construction as a whole through statistical and detailed observation of the collected linguistic data.Then,cognitive mechanisms of the nouns entering this construction are analyzed and verified based on many examples of “ADV+N” constructions;finally,motivations for “ADV+N” construction are examined in terms of entrenchment.Based on this idea of research,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)The individual understands the meaning of the “ADV+N”construction through repetitive sensory and cognitive activities,which help generate new symbolic associations and syntagmatic associations in the brain and make the construction a conventional language expression.By replacing variable “nouns” in language structures with close or similar words and reusing them in similar contexts,paradigmatic associations and pragmatic associations allow new constructions to abstract into more typical members of the speech community and become fixed language expressions in the individual’s mind.(2)The nouns that can enter the “ADV+N” construction cover all categories of nouns,but relatively speaking,there are more abstract nouns than concrete nouns.The common feature of abstract and concrete nouns is that they have a particular quality meaning,the semantic basis for the nouns to enter the “ADV+N” construction.Combining degree adverbs and nouns reflects the polysemy and the dynamic feature of semantic construction.The lexical meaning is flexible based on the meaning of the contextual framework,and different semantic aspects are highlighted in different contexts.The meaning has to be adjusted according to the specific context,and the understanding of the meaning is a dynamic process of construal in the specific context.(3)The main motivations for the entrenchment of the “ADV+N” construction are construction use and frequency.According to the usage-based view of grammar,grammar knowledge comes from the language and is a cognitive structural component of an individual’s language experience.Grammatical structures are abstract categories built up by repeated use,and the frequency of language occurrence plays an essential role in cognitive structure.There are two types of frequency: token frequency and type frequency,with token frequency related to the unit status of a specific usage event and type frequency related to the entrenchment of the constructional paradigm.In modern Chinese “ADV+N” construction,some cases have already acquired unit status,while others are gradually acquiring unit status.From the statistical data and specific language phenomena,this constructional paradigm has certain entrenchment effect.That is,it has certain entrenchment property,so it can be assumed that construction entrenchment has occurred.This study uses a construction grammar approach to explain the entrenchment of “ADV+N” construction.To a certain extent,it demonstrates the explanatory power of construction grammar,and provides a lesson for explaining other special Chinese language phenomena.