A Construction Grammar Approach To The Tài X Le Ba In Modern Chinese

The tài X le ba construction in modern Chinese is widely used in daily communication.The three constant items(tài,le and ba)embedded in the expression have been separately and independently analyzed by lots of researchers from different linguistic angles.Meanwhile,some scholars have paid attention to the study of structures such as tài X le and tài hǎo V le ba.But in general,there is a lack of studies which take tài X le ba as a case.The restrictions of variable X following tài,the linguistic features and mechanisms of the structure tài X le ba have almost not been analyzed from the perspective of construction grammar.In this paper,this study aims to answer the following questions:(1)What are the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic features of this construction?(2)What is the constructional meaning of this construction?(3)What are the mechanisms and motivations for this construction?With the purpose of answering the three questions,this thesis gathers 453 reliable instances of the tài X le ba construction from Beijing Language and Culture University Chinese Corpus and Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU.Under the guidance of theories including construction grammar,coercion and inheritance links,a more comprehensive and systematic analysis of the tài X le ba construction can be given,covering descriptions of its linguistic features and explanations of generative mechanisms and motivations for this construction.The major findings are as follows:First,the tài X le ba is proved to be a construction.And it’s found that the slot X can be occupied by adjectives and adjective phrases,verbs and verb phrases,nouns and noun phrases,pronouns as well as Chinese idioms.In terms of the syntactic features of the whole construction tài X le ba,it can function as syntactic constituents of predicate and adverbial,as well as it can be used as an independent sentence.It’s worth mentioning that wèi miǎn or yě always co-occurs with the tài X le ba construction.Semantically,the tài X le ba construction contains commendatory or derogatory meanings under different situations.With regard to its pragmatical functions,the tài X le ba construction is used to demonstrate subjective modalities such as affirmation,discontent,contempt and amazement in specific contexts.Furthermore,this construction serves the role of keeping discourse cohesive.Secondly,its constructional meaning is to express the speaker’s positive or negative evaluations on what exceeds the normal status based on one’s expectations or demands.If the abnormal status highlighted is in line with one’s expectations or demands,the construction denotes positive assessment;If the abnormal status emphasized is against one’s expectations or requirements,the construction conveys negative evaluations.Third,the construction coercion and lexical coercion are employed as mechanisms to illuminate how this construction comes into being.The mismatch between components and the semantic restriction for the variable can be elucidated by bringing the coercion theory into play.Last but not least,the inheritance links among constructions and the principle of economy are applied as motivations to explore why this construction comes into being.To conclude,based on the theory of Construction Grammar,this thesis regards the modern Chinese expression tài X le ba as a construction and explores its syntactic,semantic,and pragmatic features,its constructional meaning,and its generative mechanism and motivations.Generally speaking,the study provides a new approach and angle to understand the meaning and usage of the expression tài X le ba and to some extent,makes up for the deficiency and gaps of previous research.