| "VV+kan" is a very common expression in modern spoken Chinese. It appears so frequently in the daily life that many scholars have conducted researches on it. Most scholars accept that verb reduplication and "kan" are two independent structures, which are studied separately. However, opinions vary on the grammatical meaning of both verb reduplication and "kan". For the word "kan", there are 8 semantic items concluded in Modern Chinese Dictionary (2002), one of which states that "kan" can be used after verb reduplication as an auxiliary, denoting the meaning of "to attempt to do something". But this semantic item is still questioned by many scholars.This thesis holds the view that it is not the word "kan" but the structure "VV+kan" that denotes the meaning of "to attempt to do something" since "kan" collocating with other structures does not denote such kind of meaning.500 sentences containing the structure "VV+kan" are collected and analyzed. It is found that this structure shows some properties that a construction possesses. That is, when the structure "VV+kan" is regarded as a single unit, it conveys more meaning than the sum of the meanings that verb reduplication and "kan" denote. In other words, the meaning of the structure "VV+kan’" can not be predicted from its separate components "VV" and "kan". Thus. "VV+kan"" is a construction. This thesis generalizes its constructional meaning—"because of the uncertainty of the outcome. one attempts to do something to obtain or verify information". Then this thesis conducts a systematic exploration of the construction on its semantic and syntactic features.Language undergoes changes in form and function influenced by the factors inside or outside the language. The process whereby new constructions emerge, is referred to as constructionalization (Traugott & Trousdale,2013). Constructionalization is the abstraction and generalization of one’s experience with language, and an important tool by which the grammar and lexicon are created. The constructionalization process is always accompanied with the increase in productivity and schematicity and the decrease of compositinality.This thesis puts forward that integration is an important means of constructionalization. During the integration process, two independent structures interact with each other and combine to a unit. The result of the integration is the emergence of new structure and meaning. This thesis conducts a tentative study on the integration process of the construction "VV+kan", which shows that there are great changes in the semantic and syntactic environment after integration, leading to the vagueness of the borderline between the components of "VV+kan". These changes can be generalized as the changes of productivity, schematicity and compositionality. Therefore, it can be concluded that integration is an important means of constructionalization.This thesis is of great theoretical and practical significance. Firstly, this thesis explains two structures of great controversy from a new approach. It regards the two structures as a single unit and describes it from the perspective of Construction Grammar. Moreover, this thesis generalizes a new way of constructionalization, which develops the theory of construction grammar. Secondly, the study of daily expressions like "VV+kan" is of great significance to successful communication, especially cross-cultural communication. Furthermore, it will offer some implications for Chinese acquisition and instruction as a foreign language. |
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