A Construction Grammar Approach To Structure "A Cai B Ne"

"A cai B ne" is a frequently used structure in Chinese which has attracted widely attention of linguists, but their studies are mostly around the semantic analysis of components in this structure.Based on previous studies and their deficiencies, this thesis collected detailed and reliable linguistic data to lead to a better understanding of structure "A cai B ne" from the perspective of Construction Grammar, and elaborated its constructional meaning and properties.Firstly, whether structure "A cai B ne" is a construction with constructional meaning is discussed. According to Goldberg’s definition for construction:a form-meaning pair whose meaning cannot be totally predicted is a construction. "A cai B ne" is a form-meaning pair with fixed syntactic form and unpredictable semantic meaning, so it is a construction which possesses a meaning of negation and refutation. It is often used directly or indirectly to negate and refute the trigger sentences or presupposes in previous context to show one’s discontent and anger.Then a syntactical, semantic and pragmatic analysis is carried out on construction "A cai B ne". Through semantic analysis, we found that the variable component "A" can be first person, second person and third person (including normal and abnormal third person). The degree of negation and refutation varies when "A" is a different kind. It tends to decline when "A" is the second person, first person, normal third person and abnormal third person in turn. Besides, the modal particle "ne" in construction "A cai B ne" can be omitted without affecting the constructional meaning, but the sentences seem to end abruptly. With the emotional meaning missing, it seems to be incomplete and the degree of refutation also declined. The pragmatic analysis is made to observe the main pragmatic manifestation and discourse cohesion, which including negative emotion orientation and suitable discourse domain. According to different classification of "A", the orientation of negative emotion is observed on the condition of different degree of negation and refutation. Studies also found that the main cohesive functions of "A cai B ne" are response and explanation, the main cohesive devices are lexical cohesion, including reiteration of original and general words.Finally, this thesis has noticed that when "A" is the second person, "B" is syntactically nouns of derogatory sense. However lexically, sometimes "B" is neutral or even commendatory sense, so the original sense of "B" is in contradiction with the constructional meaning. In order to eliminate this conflict, construction "A cai B ne" coerces "B" to have the meaning of negation and refutation. With restriction of the whole constructional meaning, "B" turns to be in accord with the construction and added with the derogatory sense to show negation and refutation. Besides, a study on the subjectivity of construction "A cai B ne" is developed. From the perspective of the speaker "self", construction "A cai B ne" is to express a subjective attitude with a strong subjectivity. Although the affections are mostly negative, it can be divided into conflictive and non-conflictive according to the relationship of both sides of communication and the degree of negativity.This thesis offers a new research perspective to the study of structure "A cai B ne" and expects to help us get a better understanding of this construction and to provide references for other constructions’ study.