Approaching The Double‐Nominal Construction In Mandarin Chinese Through The Semantic‐Cognitive Interaction

• Kun Sun ^[1]
  1. [1] Zhejiang International Studies University

     Zhejiang International Studies University

     China

     
• Localización: Studia linguistica: A journal of general linguistics, ISSN 0039-3193, Vol. 72, Nº 3, 2018, págs. 687-724
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The double‐nominal construction (DNC), also called ‘topic construction’, is a common occurrence in Chinese and other East Asian languages. It is characterized by two initial NPs which appear before the predicate verb. The construction has mostly been analyzed using the syntactic angle singly approach. The topic (the initial nominal phrase, abbreviated as NP1) needs to syntactically establish some connection with the comment (the rest of the construction) but this has, unfortunately, not been the case due to numerous counterexamples. This construction is so complex that other factors have to be taken into account. This paper addresses the major concern about the problem of the two Initial NPs’ transposition in various DNCs, an area that does not appear to have previously been sufficiently explored. Compared with other languages, the transposition of two initial NPs in DNC is unique to Chinese. The transposition with two initial NPs in each type of DNC performs quite differently, so we should make finer classification for DNC reasonably. In order to propose reasonable classification of DNC, we need to clarify the relationship between NP1 and the rest of the construction. Meanwhile, in order to tackle the problem of the two NPs’ transposition in a special type of DNC called dangling topic construction, we propose a more reasonable and precise interpretation of the relationship between topic and comment in this construction using the event‐based model and the event integration. This study shows how, depending on the syntactic‐semantic behavior of NP1, Chinese DNCs can be classified into three types. Finally, based on the three types of DNC proposed, a semantic‐cognitive interaction helps to explain and resolve the problem of NPs’ transposition for each type. This study, therefore, provides a unified and more developed account of Chinese DNC. Consequently, a semantic‐cognitive approach is likely to shed more light on the notion of topic construction and help understand how Chinese native speakers comprehend its structure and construct the meaning.