The structure and function of the Chinese copular construction
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the structure and function of the Chinese copular construction within the framework of Construction Grammar (Goldberg 2006; Croft 2001; etc.) and Constructionalization (Trousdale 2010; Traugott and Trousdale 2011; etc.). My analysis begins with the argument that shì is the systematic copula verb in Chinese. After identifying problems with previous accounts, I outline my own, original analysis of the syntax and semantics of the copular construction. I define the Chinese copula as an invariant non-inflectional verb that co-occurs with certain lexemes when they together form the predicate of a copular sentence. I propose that the copular construction is a form and meaning pairing: [(XPi) COP XPj] (XP=NP/VP/S)←→[SEMi copulative linking SEMj] with [NP COP NP] as the prototype. The copular construction has two subschemas: specificational and predicational. A cleft sentence is a special specificational copular sentence. The Chinese cleft construction is a form and meaning pairing: [NPi COP NOMj] (NOM=(ADV/TP/PP) NP/VP/S de)←→[SEMi specificational+contrastive SEMj]. I suggest shì is consistently the copula verb in the cleft construction and signals the immediate post-copula element as contrastive focus. The cleft construction also has two subschemas: cleft-obj and cleft-sbj. My constructional analysis improves on similar accounts of the cleft sentences in two ways. First, my analysis helps understand the grammatical status of shì and provides a schematic framework to understand the commonality and distinction between cleft sentences and copular sentences. Second, my analysis allows for a straightforward account of the relationship between the two subschemas of the cleft construction, and of the relationship among variations of the cleft-sbj. The thesis also examines the constructionalization processes of the copular construction and the cleft construction. I suggest that the Old Chinese (500 BCE- 200 CE) topic-comment construction, in which the demonstrative pronoun shì occurred at the subject position of the comment clause functioning as an anaphor, was reanalyzed as a subject-predicate construction via analogization to the construction of the Old Chinese verb wéi 'to be.' As the copular construction was entrenched and conventionalized in Middle Chinese (200 CE -1000), it gave rise to the emergence of the cleft construction through host-class expansion, syntactic expansion (the nominalization was recruited into the predicate position of a copular sentence), and semantic-pragmatic expansion. Together, my synchronic and diachronic analyses add up to a maximally explanatory account of the copula shì and the copular construction.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Zhan, Fangqiong |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. |
| Primary advisor | Sun, Chao |
| Primary advisor | Traugott, Elizabeth Closs |
| Thesis advisor | Sun, Chao |
| Thesis advisor | Traugott, Elizabeth Closs |
| Thesis advisor | Matsumoto, Yoshiko, 1954- |
| Thesis advisor | Wang, John C. Y. (John Ching-yu), 1934- |
| Advisor | Matsumoto, Yoshiko, 1954- |
| Advisor | Wang, John C. Y. (John Ching-yu), 1934- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Fangqiong Zhan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2012 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Fangqiong Zhan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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