A Study On The Intricate Cognition Of Constructionalization Of Chinese Synonymous Collective Classifiers

Collective classifier is one of the fundamental categories of Chinese classifiers.It serves as an essential means of collective quantification and attribute marking in Chinese,mirroring the thinking mode of Chinese people.However,collective classifier evolves from other parts of speech rather than existing in the very beginning and experiences constructionalization gradually with the steady development of form and meaning.Under the guidance of the cognitive linguistics theory,based on multiple corpuses(CCL and BCC)and the R statistical platform,this study researches the targeted 31(13 pairs in total)synonymous collective classifiers(selected from The Modern Chinese Dictionary),analyses their similarities and variances in the matched noun from modern Chinese in the synchronic level,and then explores the evolution traces as well as cognitive mechanisms behind them from ancient Chinese in the diachronic level.Finally,the relevant cognitive models are summarized with the attempt to reveal the intricate cognition and laws in collective classifier constructions of Chinese by means of qualitative-quantitative research together with diachronic-synchronic research.This study explores the following questions:(1)What are the similarities and the variances in semantic clustering features and category distribution between synonymous collective classifiers in modern Chinese?(2)What are the similarities and the variances of constructionalizaion between these synonymous collective classifiers in ancient Chinese?(3)What are the cognitive motivations,mechanisms or laws behind the constructionalizaion of Chinese collective classifiers?The main findings are as follows:Firstly,the semantic clustering characteristics and category distribution of most paired synonymous collective classifier constructions in modern Chinese vary to different degrees,which are mainly reflected in spatial form,quantity,physical state,emotional attitude and so on,ranging from being significantly varied,like“dui”and“tuan”,to being nearly the same,like“die”and“da”(see sections 4.8 and 5.9 for details).This is closely related to their source word and directly-evolving word respectively,reflecting the rationality and intricate cognition in the construction of collective classifiers by Chinese people.Secondly,the constructionalizaion of synonymous collective classifiers can be knifed into two phases:construction formation and construction change,corresponding to grammatical decategorization and referential decategorization respectively.Collective classifiers are mainly derived from nouns and verbs,with very few exceptions from adjectives.However,their directly-evolving words are mainly nouns and adjectives(that is,collective classifiers directly evolved from these two parts of speech),with very few exceptions from verbs.The main reason lies in that nouns and adjectives are cognitively and grammatically closer to classifiers.Generally speaking,the Middle Ancient Chinese Period is the most concentrated stage of the formation of collective classifiers,in which,specifically,noun-derived collective classifiers are mainly formed in Old and Middle Chinese Period while verb-derived and adjective-derived collective classifiers are mainly later formed in Middle and Recent Ancient Chinese Period as a whole.As for reasons,the long cognitive and grammatical distance between verbs and classifiers requires nouns or adjectives as the transition,which naturally elongates the evolution cycle.For adjectives,they themselves appear relatively late in ancient Chinese so the time of their evolution into classifiers would be much later.Thirdly,both metonymy and metaphor play a fundamental role in the evolution of collective classifier constructions,but the role of metonymy is more prominent in the construction formation stage,which is obviously reflected in the construction formation stage of verb-derived collective classifiers while in the construction change stage,the role of metaphor is more prominent instead,and the evolution of noun collocation is realized based on the metaphorical projection of a certain concept.Altogether,seven cognitive models are involved in the constructionalizaion of synonymous collective classifier:(1)the model of[metaphor+metonymy];(2)the model of[metaphor+metonymy~+];(3)the model of[multiple metonymy];(4)the model of[single metonymy];(5)the model of[metonymy+metaphtonymy];(6)the model of[metaphor+metaphtonymy];(7)the model of[single metaphor].According to the dominant differences between metaphor and metonymy mechanism,we can further classify(1)as the metaphor-metonymy balanced model,(2)-(5)as the metonymy dominant model,and(6)-(7)as the metaphor dominant model.This finding shows that in the construction formation stage of synonymous collective classifiers,the metonymy dominant model maintains its reign,followed by the metaphor-metonymy balanced model,with the metaphor dominant model in the final place;while in the construction change stage,the metaphor dominant model alone exists.It can be apparently seen that the cognitive“labor division”of metaphor and metonymy is different in different stages of constructionalizaion:metonymy plays a more prominent role in the construction formation stage,mainly responsible for the“concrete correlation”in evolution of parts of speech while metaphor plays a more prominent role in the construction change stage,mainly responsible for the“abstract analogy”of categorization of the matched nouns.The innovation and significance of this study are as follows:firstly,it summarizes the cognitive models in the constructionalizaion of synonymous collective classifiers and divides their decategorization process into grammatical decategorization and referential decategorization,promoting the development of both Construction Theory and Categorization Theory;secondly,from the perspective of construction in both synchronic and diachronic level,this study systematically explores the similarities and the differences between synonymous collective classifier constructions,which windows a new perspective for the study of Chinese collective classifiers;thirdly,with the R statistics platform,this study applies Collostructional analysis to the study of Chinese collective classifier constructions and gives priority to statistical analysis,cognition analysis,synchronic distribution and diachronic evolution,which achieves the observation adequacy,description adequacy and explanation adequacy to a large degree,promoting the innovation of methodology in the study of classifiers.