| The verb-copying construction is a particular type in modern Chinese,which occupies an important position in Chinese grammar and has attracted wide attention among scholars.The most prominent feature of verb-copying construction is the repeated use of the same verbs and the co-occurrence of object and complement in a single sentence.From a cross-linguistic perspective,the verb-copying construction has distinctive Chinese features and typological characteristics,which have not been found or studied in other languages.Therefore,deepening the research of the verb-copying construction is of great significance to reveal the characteristics of Chinese grammar and the uniqueness of Chinese.The verb-copying construction has been widely discussed in the past few years,and some contributions have been made.However,both the reductionist approach and the holistic analysis still have some limitations.There are still some unsolved problems with verb-copying constructions.Therefore,benefiting from previous research and based on usage-based construction grammar,the dissertation proposes a theoretical framework for the description and explanation of constructions（form-meaning pairs）to modify the theoretical defects of construction grammar and re-examine the modern Chinese verb-copying construction.The following three questions are addressed:（1）What are the syntactic and semantic features of the verb-copying construction?（2）What are the fusion processes and mechanisms of verb-copying construction?（3）How are the form and meaning of the verb-copying construction motivated?In addressing these questions,we combine the top-down with bottom-up research paths and adopt a“divide and conquer”strategy based on the pursuit of consistent generalization of the verb-copying construction.The major findings are as follows.Firstly,the verb-copying construction is a complex category,including prototypical members such as resultative verb-copying construction,de complement verb-copying construction,measurement complement verb-copying construction,and non-prototypical member“V1OV2de”verb-copying construction,for instance.Different types of verb-copying constructions have family resemblance in some aspects of their forms or meanings,and together they generate an interrelated verb-copying construction group.The prototypical meaning of the verb-copying construction is the construal of events activated by“V1O”.Different subcategory verb-copying constructions also have various semantics and functions,highlighting different aspects of the events.These semantic types and their subcategories together constitute a schematic hierarchical network,demonstrating the semantic diversity of verb-copying constructions.Secondly,in the verb-copying construction,V2is the main verb,V1is the copy of V2.Verbs that have access to V-slot must formally be eligible with carrying both object（transitive verbs）or quasi-object（separable words）and complement and are semantically characterized by[+action],[+persistence],[+hypernormality],and so forth.The verb-copying construction shows a significant tendency to select objects,which tends to be unmarked,non-referential,and unbounded.The lexical item entering the O-slot is combined with V1to form a verb-object structure,indicating an unbounded activity.The C-slot members are of various types and have complex semantic orientations,including agent,patient,V itself,and so forth.The lexical item is combined with V2to form a verb-complement structure,representing a bounded event.Thirdly,the verb-copying construction has unique pragmatic features and functions.In terms of information arrangement,the verb-copying construction conforms to the“topic-comment”pragmatic framework.The verb-object structure usually is the topic,and the verb-complement structure is the comment.The speaker takes“V1O”as the topic,followed by“V2C”to explain and evaluate the topic,reflecting a linear sequence of discourse comprehension.In terms of information layout,the verb-copying construction is generally“old information+new information”,with“V1O”carrying old information and“V2C”encoding new information,which is also the focus information of the verb-copying construction.This way of information layout is closely related to the“end-focus principle”（or the“end-weight principle”）.Different types of verb-copying constructions have been functionally differentiated in actual use,with various pragmatic functions such as evaluation,description,measurement,repair,and interpretation.Fourthly,the verb-copying construction is a compound event fused by two sub-events.The syntactic realization of the verb-copying construction consists of three steps:the participant roles of the event are first fused with the participant roles of the verb,then these roles are fused with the argument roles of the construction,and finally,the argument roles of the construction are projected to the syntactic level to realize its syntactic functions.The whole fusion process is governed by the principles of sequence iconicity,boundaries,profiling,referentiality（merging vs.shading）,semantic coherence,and correspondence.However,different verb-copying constructions behave differently regarding the specific fusion principles and the actual fusion processes.For example,the syntactic boundary of the resultative verb-copying construction is“resultative”,“de”complement verb-copying construction is“V2de”and measurement complement verb-copying construction is“V2”,while“V1OV2de”verb-copying construction is formed through syntactic operations such as movement,deletion,and substitution driven by the cognitive economy.Finally,the verb-copying construction is motivated by both linguistic motivations and non-linguistic motivations.Linguistic motivations emphasize the influence of linguistic factors on the formation of verb-copying constructions.First of all,the formation of the verb-copying construction is inseparable from the fusion and interaction of lexical items and the construction itself.Coercion and fusion are essential means of the interaction between constructional meaning and lexical meaning.What’s more,the particular semantic focus and prominence of verb-copying constructions reflect the speaker’s specific construal,which is an important way of constructing the meaning of verb-copying constructions.Verb-copying constructions do not exist in isolation in language.Information structure constructions,verb-copying constructions,and sub-construction of verb-copying constructions are connected as a complex hierarchical network through inheritance links such as polysemy links,metaphorical extension links,and instance links.Non-linguistic motivations emphasize non-linguistic factors,including experience,cognition,psychology,and culture,on the influence of the verb-copying construction.Firstly,the verb-copying construction has its embodied cognition basis,which originates from people’s interaction with the external world and results from real experiences’conceptualization.Secondly,the verb-copying construction reflects the Han nationality’s holistic thinking mode,which creates the uniqueness of the verb-copying construction in the Chinese language.Thirdly,the verb-copying construction is constrained by distance iconicity and sequence iconicity.The last non-linguistic factor is social cognition.The use of the verb-copying construction is driven by sociocognitive factors such as attitude and emotion.All of these factors working together contribute to the formation and use of the verb-copying construction.This dissertation re-examines the modern Chinese verb-copying construction in the framework of the description and explanation of constructions.It not only provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the syntactic,semantic,and pragmatic features of the verb-copying construction but also discusses its fusion processes and motivations,which are of both theoretical and practical significance.To begin with,the theoretical framework proposed in this dissertation not only provides a unified analytical framework for the study of the verb-copying construction but also enriches and develops the theory of construction grammar to a certain extent and enhances its methodological value.Besides,the analytical ideas and research strategies（three combinations）adopted in this study can provide some beneficial enlightenment for studying other schematic constructions in Chinese.Practically speaking,the research results can be directly applied to teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the acquisition of the verb-copying construction,which is of great significance in formulating effective teaching methods and teaching strategies for the verb-copying construction. |
