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Article In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 13:1 (2026) ► pp.1–37

The syntactic and semantic features of the “X zhōng de [中的] X” construction in modern Chinese and its motivations

 | Southwest University
 | Southwest University
 | Yanchuan High School
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This paper investigates the modern Chinese construction “X zhōng de X” (经典中的经典, jīng diǎn zhōng de jīng diǎn, classic among classics). Drawing on corpus-based method, we retrieved and manually annotated attested instances from BCC and CCL corpora, identified 440 tokens, and analyzed them within the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar. The analysis focuses on three aspects: (i) the conditions for words to enter the “X” slots in the construction, (ii) the syntactic and semantic features of the construction, (iii) its cognitive motivations. The results show that “X” is flexible in word class but displays a clear preference for disyllabic and semantically salient items. Syntactically, the construction functions mainly as a predicative expression, while semantically it conveys a scalar evaluative meaning equivalent to “highly/most X,” typically with a positive stance. Its productivity is explained by multiple cognitive motivations, including inheritance within a constructional network, analogical extension, communicative efficiency, and pragmatic vagueness. These findings refine the description of the “X zhōng de X” construction and contribute to usage-based accounts of Chinese constructional productivity.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Theoretical framework and data collection
    • 3.1Theoretical framework
    • 3.2Data collection
  • 4.Multi-dimensional analysis of the “X zhōng de X” construction
    • 4.1Analysis of the constructs in the construction
      • 4.1.1Restrictions of the variable “X”
      • 4.1.2The relationship between the two variables — “XF” and “XL”
      • 4.1.3Nature and function of “zhōng de”
    • 4.2A syntactic analysis of the “X zhōng de X” construction
    • 4.3A semantic analysis of the “X zhōng de X” construction
      • 4.3.1Semantic Features of the Construction
      • 4.3.2The constructional meaning
  • 5.Cognitive motivations of the “X zhōng de X” construction
    • 5.1Inheritance
    • 5.2Analogy
    • 5.3The principle of economy and efficiency
    • 5.4Syllable and auxiliary evolution in Chinese culture
    • 5.5Pragmatic vagueness
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
  • Sources of examples
References (40)
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Appendix. Sources of examples
BCC Chinese Corpus (BCC 汉语语料库), 北京语言大学语料库中心 [Corpus Center of Beijing Language and Culture University]. [URL]
CCL Chinese Corpus (CCL 语料库), 北京大学中国语言学研究中心 [Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University]. [URL]
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