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Article published In: Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 11:1 (2020) ► pp.84–106

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Non-canonical passives in Chinese

A mental space account

 | Nanjing University
Published online: 3 June 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.19001.zha
Abstract
This paper examines a non-canonical passive construction in Chinese. In this construction, the passive marker bei can proceed a constituent including intransitive verbs, adjectives and nouns, in such expressions as bei zisha/‘commit suicide,’ bei xingfu/‘happy’ or bei gaotie/‘high speed train.’ Following Mental Space Theory (Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 1997. Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), this paper argues that the construction serves as a space builder, which prompts conceptualizers to build a counterfactual space to hold the event conveyed by the constituent but deny the event or its associated assumption in the base space. The Mental Space operations produce the interpretations of the construction featured by ambiguity and irony. This study demonstrates the existence of dedicated counterfactual constructions in Chinese. It showcases an attempt to posit cognitive operations as the constructional function and outlines a cognitively plausible procedure to derive specific interpretations of the construction in the context.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Form/function pairing of the non-canonical passive construction
    • 2.1The form of the construction
    • 2.2The function of the construction
    • 2.3The pairing of form and function
      • 2.3.1The pairing as a dedicated counterfactual construction
      • 2.3.2The pairing as a prompt to carry out cognitive operations
      • 2.3.3From cognitive operations to interpretations
  • 3.Interpreting the construction in context: A cognitive procedure
  • 4.The ironic effect of the construction
  • 5.Conclusions and implications
  • Notes
  • References
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