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Chapter 3. A corpus-based study of subjectification and the disposal construction in modern Mandarin

The BA construction vs. the BA-GE construction
  • Yuchen Li and Zhengguang Liu
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Cognitive Linguistics and the Study of Chinese
This chapter is in the book Cognitive Linguistics and the Study of Chinese

Abstract

The BA construction, also known as the ‘disposal’ construction, is a morphosyntactic phenomenon unique to the Chinese language. Based on the findings of a collexeme analysis of corpus data and in line with subjectification proposed by Langacker, we provide evidence that the BA-pattern and the BA-GE-pattern constitute different constructions and we uncover the dynamic processes of meaning change regarding the concept of ‘disposal’ in the two constructions. The BA construction does indeed focus on the description of disposal events, whereas, in the BA-GE construction, the objective meaning of ‘disposal’ is backgrounded and the speaker’s subjective perspective becomes foregrounded. Such changes in conceptual construal demonstrate the importance of subjectification, a crucial cognitive tool in the construction of meaning and syntactic structure.

Abstract

The BA construction, also known as the ‘disposal’ construction, is a morphosyntactic phenomenon unique to the Chinese language. Based on the findings of a collexeme analysis of corpus data and in line with subjectification proposed by Langacker, we provide evidence that the BA-pattern and the BA-GE-pattern constitute different constructions and we uncover the dynamic processes of meaning change regarding the concept of ‘disposal’ in the two constructions. The BA construction does indeed focus on the description of disposal events, whereas, in the BA-GE construction, the objective meaning of ‘disposal’ is backgrounded and the speaker’s subjective perspective becomes foregrounded. Such changes in conceptual construal demonstrate the importance of subjectification, a crucial cognitive tool in the construction of meaning and syntactic structure.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Series Editors’ Preface ix
  5. Foreword xiii
  6. Abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction to this volume 1
  8. General introduction 7
  9. Part I. Morphological, lexical and syntactic constructions
  10. Chapter 1. When constructions meet context 47
  11. Chapter 2. On the partial productivity of constructions 73
  12. Chapter 3. A corpus-based study of subjectification and the disposal construction in modern Mandarin 95
  13. Chapter 4. Types of negatives and the noun-verb distinction in English and Chinese 121
  14. Chapter 5. The conceptual spatialization of actions or activities in Chinese 157
  15. Part II. Cognitive pragmatics
  16. Chapter 6. Structural salience and referential accessibility 185
  17. Chapter 7. Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa 207
  18. Part III. Neurocognition and psycholinguistics
  19. Chapter 8. A neurocognitive approach to Chinese idiom comprehension 227
  20. Chapter 9. The role of metaphor in categorization 261
  21. Chapter 10. Linguistic and mental representations of caused motion in Chinese and English children 285
  22. Author index 309
  23. Subject index 311
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.67.05li

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Series Editors’ Preface ix
  5. Foreword xiii
  6. Abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction to this volume 1
  8. General introduction 7
  9. Part I. Morphological, lexical and syntactic constructions
  10. Chapter 1. When constructions meet context 47
  11. Chapter 2. On the partial productivity of constructions 73
  12. Chapter 3. A corpus-based study of subjectification and the disposal construction in modern Mandarin 95
  13. Chapter 4. Types of negatives and the noun-verb distinction in English and Chinese 121
  14. Chapter 5. The conceptual spatialization of actions or activities in Chinese 157
  15. Part II. Cognitive pragmatics
  16. Chapter 6. Structural salience and referential accessibility 185
  17. Chapter 7. Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa 207
  18. Part III. Neurocognition and psycholinguistics
  19. Chapter 8. A neurocognitive approach to Chinese idiom comprehension 227
  20. Chapter 9. The role of metaphor in categorization 261
  21. Chapter 10. Linguistic and mental representations of caused motion in Chinese and English children 285
  22. Author index 309
  23. Subject index 311
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