A Study On The Interaction Between Constructional Meaning And Forming Constructs Of Chinese Existential-Presentational (EP) Construction

As an important linguistic phenomenon, Chinese existential-presentational (EP) construction has long received significant attention for its peculiarity and complexity. Linguists have conducted researches on different aspects of Chinese EP construction from different theoretical approaches and have achieved a lot. However, the studies on the interaction between the construction and its forming constructs focus on the interactive relationship between the construction and the verbs, which ignore the interaction between the construction and other forming constructs. Therefore, this thesis tries to make a deep analysis on the interactive relationship between the constructional meaning of Chinese EP construction and the three forming constructs under the guidance of Construction Grammar.Chinese EP construction is a cover term for existential expressions and disappearing-presentational expressions. The central constructional semantic meaning of Chinese EP construction is defined as "There exists some person or thing in a certain place" and the pragmatic function is to assert the existence of the person or thing and bring it into the awareness of hearers. Chinese EP construction can be analyzed into locative element, existential predicator and existent. The constructional meaning is resulted from the integration and interaction of the prototypical meaning of its forming constructs, which in turn are constrained by the constructional meaning (including constructional semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning).Under the constraints of the constructional meaning, the locative element must indicate a locative meaning. Those do not express a locative meaning can acquire it in a metaphorical or metonymical way, which makes some prepositional phrases and verbal phrases act as locative elements. The prototypical semantics of locative element refers to a spatial location, which can be extended to objects, parts of body, time and abstract entities. These extended meanings enrich the constructional meaning. The constructional meaning requires a verb with an existential meaning. Those verbs do not indicate an existential meaning can obtain it by metonymical coercion of the constructional meaning. In turn, the verbs’meaning results in the polysemy of construction. The pragmatic meaning is to introduce new information to the hearer. So the existents are usually represented by indefinite NPs. Proper nouns can act as existents under the constraints of the pragmatic meaning. The prototypical semantics of existent refers to a concrete person or thing, which can be extended to abstract entities, activities or events. These extcnsions can enrich the constructional meaning.