Cover not available

In:Cognitive Linguistics and the Study of Chinese
Edited by Dingfang Shu, Hui Zhang and Lifei Zhang
[Human Cognitive Processing 67] 2019
► pp. 73–94

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 2
On the partial productivity of constructions

Creativity and semantic constraints on the Chinese zhe existential construction

 | Shanghai International Studies University
Published online: 20 November 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.67.04tia
The productive schema of a grammatical construction allows speakers to produce creative utterances. However, the fact that constructions tend to be partially but not fully productive has puzzled scholars for decades. This chapter analyzes the partial productivity of a highly productive construction – the Chinese zhe Existential Construction, in particular the collostructional strength (Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003) between verbs and this construction. Findings suggest that there is a blending of scenes in the use of transitive verbs in this construction and the semantic constraints limiting new instances lie in the relative salience of the following participant roles in verb semantics – theme, patient and location. Verbs with the profiled role of agent or experiencer are not compatible with this construction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Collostructional strength of verbs and the CEC
    • 2.1Collostructional analysis
    • 2.2Data resource and collection
    • 2.3Verb distributions and their collostructional strength with the CEC
  • 3.Motivations for the variety of transitive verbs in the CEC
    • 3.1Verb categories and distributions
    • 3.2Semantic relations between verbs and the CEC
    • 3.3Motivations in the use of transitive verbs in the CEC
  • 4.Verb-construction compatibility and the partial productivity of the CEC
    • 4.1Constructional meaning of the CEC
    • 4.2Partial productivity of the CEC
    • 4.3Semantic compatibility and its limits for verbs and the CEC
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (52)
References
Barak, L., & Goldberg, A. 2017. Modeling the partial productivity of constructions. The AAAI 2017 Spring Symposium on Computational Construction Grammar and Natural Language Understanding, Technical Report SS-17-02. Stanford, CA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barlow, M., & Kemmer, S. 2000. Usage based models of grammar. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boas, H. C. 2005. Determining the productivity of resultative constructions: A reply to Goldberg and Jackendoff. Language, 81, 448–464. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. 1990. Mapping thematic roles onto syntactic functions: Are children helped by innate linking rules? Linguistics, 28(6), 1253–1290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braine, M. D. 1971. On two types of models of the internalization of grammars. In D. I. Slobin (Ed.), The ontogenesis of grammar: A theoretical symposium (pp. 153–186). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee J. 2010. Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, J. 2003. Mechanisms of change in grammaticization: The role of frequency. In B. Joseph, & R. Janda (Eds.), Handbook of historical linguistics (pp. 602–623). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, J., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chu, Z., Liu, J., Long, G., Tian, H., Ye, G., & Zheng, X. 1997. A diachronic study of Chinese existential sentences. Research in Ancient Chinese Language, 4, 13–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fan, F. 1963. Existential sentences. Studies of the Chinese Language, 5, 386–395.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. 1982. Frame semantics. In The Linguistic Society of Korea (Ed.), Linguistics in the morning calm (pp. 111–137). Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. 1995. Constructions: a construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. 1997.The relationship between verbs and constructions. In M. Verspoor, K. Lee, & E. Sweetser (Eds.). Lexical and syntactical constructions and the construction of meaning (pp. 383–398). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalizations in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019. Explain me this: Creativity, competition, and the partial productivity of constructions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gries, S. Th., & Stefanowitsch, A. 2004. Extending collostructional analysis: A corpus-based perspectives on ‘alternations’. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 9(1), 97–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gries, S. Th., Hampe, B., & Schönefeld, D. 2005. Converging evidence: Bringing together experimental and corpus data on the association of verbs and constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 16(4), 635–676. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Converging evidence II: More on the association of verbs and constructions. In J. Newman, & S. Rice (Eds.), Empirical and experimental methods in cognitive/functional research (pp. 59–72). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gu, Y. 1997. Existential sentences in Chinese. Modern Foreign Languages, 3, 14–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, J. 2001. Existential sentences in English and Chinese: Towards a generative analysis. Modern Foreign Languages, 2, 143–158.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hilpert, M. 2014. Construction grammar and its application to English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. 1988. A usage-based model. In B. Rudzka-Ostyn (Ed.), Topics in cognitive linguistics (pp. 127–161). Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. Construction grammars: Cognitive, radical, and less so. In F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibánez, & M. S. Pena Cervel (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics: Internal dynamics and interdisciplinary interaction (pp. 101–159). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lei, T. 1993. On the study of existential sentences. Chinese Studies, 2, 47–50.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, L. 1986. Sentence patterns in contemporary Chinese. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Y-H. 1990. Order and constituency in Mandarin Chinese. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, Z., & Wang, K. 2013. On the motivation of the non-typical complex construction production. Modern Foreign Languages, 4, 363–370.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lu, J. 1991. The application of semantic feature analysis in Chinese grammar research. Chinese Language Learning, 1, 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. An interface between syntax & semantics. Journal of Foreign Languages 3, 30–35.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008. The value and shortcomings of construction grammar. Journal of School of Chinese Language and Culture, Nanjing Normal University 1, 142–151.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nie, W. 1989. Existential sentences and their classification. Studies of the Chinese Language, 2, 95–104.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinker, S. 1989. Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qi, H. 1998. The semantic and pragmatic analysis of zhe sentences that denote location. Journal of East China Normal University: Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition, 3, 77–83.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qian, N. 2000. The aspect marker zhe does not express progressive meaning. Chinese Language Learning, 4, 1–6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shi, Y. 2004. The motivation of conceptualization for the difference of double-object construction between Chinese and English. Foreign Language Teaching and Research , 2, 83–89.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shui, C. 2011. Event process and “le” or “zhe” in the existential construction. Linguistic Sciences, 3, 231–245.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Song, Y. 1982. Dynamic existential sentences. Chinese Language Learning, 6, 9–15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989. Perfective dynamic existential sentences. Chinese Language Learning, 6, 1–4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stefanowitsch, A., & Gries, S. Th. 2003. Collostructions: Investigating the interaction between words and constructions. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 8, 209–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suttle, L., & Goldberg, A. 2011. The partial productivity of constructions as induction. Linguistics, 49(6), 1237–1269. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tang, Y. 2005. The double internal argument hypothesis of existential verbs. Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , 3, 5–9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. 2003. Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trousdale, G. 2008. Words and constructions in grammaticalization: The end of the impersonal construction. In S. M. Fitzmaurice, & D. Minkova (Eds.), Studies in the history of the English language IV: Empirical and analytical advances in the study of English language change (pp. 301–326). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Issues in constructional approaches to grammaticalization in English. In E. Stathi, E. Gehweiler, & E. König (Eds.), Grammaticalization: Current views and issues (pp. 51–72). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Y., & Xu, J. 2010. A constructiion grammar approach to existential sentences in Chinese. Studies in Language and Linguistics, 3, 62–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, C., & Montrul, S. 2017. Learning datives: The tolerance principle in monolingual and bilingual acquisition. Second Language Research, 33(1), 119–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, S., & Pan, H. 2001. A constructional analysis of the existential structure. In H. Pan (Ed.), Studies in Chinese linguistics II (pp. 189–208). Hong Kong: Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yuan, Y. 2004. Motivation, mechanism and condition of interaction between argument structure and sentence construction: On the effects of expression elaboration on verbal valence and sentence construction. Studies in Language and Linguistics, 4, 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yun, X., Liang, T., & Soh, H. L. (Eds.). 2011. Current Issues in Chinese linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhu, D. 1981. ‘To write on the blackboard’ and its related sentences. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, 1, 4–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue