A Qualia-based Approach To The Chinese Middle Construction “NP + Hǎo + V”

The notion of middle construction comes from Western linguistic theory.Traditional grammarians divide sentences into active and passive sentences according to the grammatical category of verbs,i.e.,voice.However,in actual language use,there are many sentences that are difficult to distinguish between active and passive;they denote active syntactically and passive semantically,and therefore are called middle constructions in linguistic circles.There are different variants of the Chinese middle constructions,and the “NP + hǎo + V” structure studied in this thesis is one of the important variants.Scholars have conducted many in-depth studies on the Chinese middle constructions from different perspectives,but there are relatively few studies on“NP + hǎo + V”.In addition,there is no agreement on the syntactic properties of hǎo and “hǎo + V” in the Chinese middle construction “NP + hǎo + V”,and there is no complete understanding of the syntactic structures and semantic features of the whole sentence.With the help of the CCL corpus and the BCC corpus,as well as the lexical interpretation of the Modern Chinese Dictionary,this thesis observes and analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of the Chinese middle construction “NP + hǎo + V”based on qualia structure theory,and tries to explain the cognitive mechanism of the formation of this type of Chinese middle construction in a comprehensive manner by combining qualia structure theory and cognitive construal,in an attempt to answer the following two questions:(1)What are the syntactic properties and semantic features of “NP + hǎo + V”?(2)What is the cognitive mechanism of the formation of “NP + hǎo + V”?The major findings of this thesis are as follows:First,syntactically,this thesis finds that the qualia structure of nouns places certain restrictions on the choice of verbs,and the subject NP is generally a patientive argument.In addition,NPs tend to be definite and are usually preceded by a demonstrative or modifier.Secondly,it is argued that the grammatical property of the verbs in “NP + hǎo + V” cannot be examined only in terms of transitivity,aspectual conditions and volitional verbs,and it is further pointed out that the nature of the verb is characterized precisely reflecting the stativization of action.Moreover,the verb needs to be co-constructive and related to NP.Thirdly,we argue that hǎo is an adjective in “NP + hǎo + V”,not an adverb or auxiliary,and the grammatical property of “hǎo + V” is an adjective phrase with strong productivity,in which the adjective hǎo is the head and V is the complement.Finally,based on the qualia structure of the subject noun,this paper proposes that “NP + hǎo + V” consists of the topic NP and the comment AP,which characterizes the qualia role associated with NP by illustrating the state within the event frame of the V-NP.This focuses not only on the relationship between the verb V and the NP,but also on the evaluative relationship between the AP and the NP,which can better explain the unique syntactic structure of the middle construction.Semantically,this thesis argues that “NP + hǎo + V” features genericity,non-eventiveness,responsibility of the subject and modality.First,the generic reading is reflected both in the genericity of the proposition expressed by the whole structure and in the genericity of its subject NP and the implied agent.Next,it is not used to report a specific event that has occurred,but a description of the properties of the subject,i.e.the qualia roles associated with the subject noun,as well as the state of the event that is not limited by time and space,which is stative and non-eventive.Thirdly,the subject NP is responsible for the occurrence of the action in “NP + hǎo + V”,i.e.,the patient argument in the sentence has some inherent property that enables the action to occur.Finally,it is the speaker’s evaluation of the potential and possibility of the event,and the qualia feature of things,which is also a representation of the speaker’s perceptual knowledge and characterized by modality.Secondly,in “NP + hǎo + V”,the patientive NP is located at the beginning of the sentence,and the subsequent verbs cannot be directly syntactically related to the NP,making it difficult to convey the cognitive subject’s attitude toward thing and its characteristics.Consequently,the verb can only be combined with the adjective hǎo,which contains a subjective judgment,to activate the qualia role of the thing through the prominence of construal.The focus of the perspective brings to the fore a certain action in the cognitive frame,and the action activates the qualia feature of the thing with the help of hǎo which performs a commentary function.Furthermore,this paper finds that “NP + hǎo + V” is different from adjective-predicate structure in that it is more subjective and ambiguous in highlighting the qualia role of things,and the interpretation of the specific qualia role of NP depends on certain contexts.Ultimately,we find that the acceptability of the originally unqualified middle construction can be enhanced after it undergoes a proper contextualization by accurately highlighting the corresponding qualia role of NP and backgrounding the implicit agent.So it follows that the acceptability and grammaticality of the middle construction depends on our perspective of construal of the particular state of affairs,i.e.,encyclopedic and context-specific knowledge,and especially on our conceptualization of the semantic connection between the NP and the V.A comprehensive examination of this type of middle construction based on qualia structure can not only deepen its own syntactic and semantic features,but also provide new insights and reflections on other middle constructions in Chinese.