Contemporary Chinese Predicate Complement The Cognitive Interpretation Of The Structure

The Rheme-Complement Construction is very important in Chinese grammar, for its emergence and development have brought great influence upon the formation of the modern Chinese grammar system. Since predecessors and contemporaries have done profound research in the Rheme-Complement Construction on the semantic and grammatical level, this paper, based on their accomplishment, plans to expound the Rheme-Complement Construction in modern Chinese grammar from a point of view. First of all, the semantic relationship in the Rheme-Complement Construction needs to be explained. Categorization is a basic method for humans to perceive the world. With this method, we categorize the semantic relationship in the Rheme-Complement Construction. As the movement of an object comprises the starting point, path, and end point, the Rheme-Complement Construction features,interms of semantic relationship,a "beginning-change-ending" procedure. The Rheme-Complement Construction mainly expresses the relationship between an action and its result. The results of actions are very complex: some results are natural, constant, or predictable; others are different or totally opposite, which is due to the interference caused by various extrinsic factors upon the beginning and change of an action. The former complies with people's "ideal cognitive model" and thus is the nuclear meaning of the Rheme-Complement Construction. Then, we explain the grammatical form of the Rheme-Complement Construction from a cognitive perspective. The occurrence of an action necessitates a subject and an object. The action that the subject carries out often embodies its subjective will, the will to achieve certain purpose. The action that the subject performs, its process and respective result are reflected in the grammatical form. This is called iconicity in cognitive linguistics. The changing processes and results that are in accordance with the subject's will are comparatively simple in form; those processes and results that are not in accordance with the subject's will or contingent results seem relatively complex. "De"(得) is a form marker for the Rheme-Complement Construction, signifying contingent results. "Ba" (把) is the form marker of the effect meaning. "Ba" (把) and "de" (得) often concur with each other. We explain this with the conformity of functional meaning. Finally, we explain grammaticalization, the diachronic change of the Rheme-Complement Construction. Semantic meaning changes in the diachronic evolution, so does the grammatical form. At the meantime, form and meaning influence each other. The change in linguistic elements is mainly induced by pragmatics habit, that is to say, it is restricted or regulated by cognitive mechanisms.