A Research On The Construal Of "NP Le" Construction

The research on the classification of word class in Chinese shows that the main grammatical function of substantives is for them to act as subject and object, and they normally do not act as predicate. "NP le" is an expression which is widely used in spoken Chinese. As a case of substantives acting as predicate, its main research focus lies in the nominal predicate phenomenon.Traditional analysis, mainly adopting semantic feature analysis, expounds the features of nouns or noun phrases in the construction. However, the features thus proposed can hardly provide a reasonable explanation for nominal predicate in the construction. Recently, scholars attempt to explicate this phenomenon by availing of cognitive theories of construction grammar and Cognitive Grammar. The handling of the construction in this way offers a new perspective to its studies, but the interpretation of it is hardly profound. By combining coercion theory, Figure-Ground theory and the theory of ICM of cognitive linguistics, this thesis explores the nature of coercion in "NP le" construction and analyzes the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of the construction, with the aim of providing a unified explanation for the on-line construal or meaning construction of "NP le" construction.The research finds:Firstly, the meaning construction process of "NP le" construction comprises the nominal predicate phenomenon and the interpretation of subjective quantity. Coerced by "NP le" construction, nouns or noun phrases are sanctioned to function as predicate, the mechanism of which lies in that it distributes NP and relevant non-NP over the time line, causing the referential potential of NP to be suppressed and its predicative function activated. The subjective quantity implied can be measured by the theory of ICM. The large subjective or small subjective quantity carried by NP in the construction is closely related to the ICM attributed to NP in a certain situation.Secondly, the analysis of the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of "NP le" construction shows:Syntactically, based on the nature of the subject (explicit or implicit) in "NP le" construction, the construction presents two syntactic patterns:(NPs)+(adverbs)+NP le and (Subject-predicate)+(adverbs)+NP le. The syntactic analysis also suggests that it is mandatory for le to immediately follow NP for the construction to be self-sufficient. The research of adverbs co-occurring with "NP le" construction manifests that the potential adverbs co-occurring with "NP le" construction also play a role in its syntactic self-sufficiency through lexical coercion.Semantically, by analyzing the meaning construction process of "NP le" construction with NP of different natures, the research proposes three constraints for a certain NP to enter "NP le" construction. Specifically, NP can enter "NP le" construction if:1) its referential potential does not pre-empt other functions that can be performed by the NP; 2) it is put into the appropriate contexts; 3) NP is considered temporary for its subject in "NP le" construction when NP and non-NP share one subject.Thirdly, this chapter further compares and distinguishes "NP le" construction with "tai NP le" and "NP le" with NP used as a verb, defining the research scope of "NP le" construction. The research suggests that "NP le" construction exhibits qualitative differences with syntactically similar constructions of "tai NP le" construction and "NP le" construction with NP used as a verb. Therefore, these two constructions do not fall into "NP le" construction.