Chinese Descriptive Pivotal Construction: Taxonomy and Prototypicality*. (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Peng, Rui
• Is Part Of: Yu yan ji yu yan xue. Volume 17:Number 4(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: 529
• Page End: 573
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: descriptive pivot construction -- prototype effects -- taxonomy; Chinese philology -- Periodicals; Chinese language -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 495.1
• DOI: 10.1177/1606822X16632115
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1606-822X

Abstract

This study, which is a preliminary survey of the Chinese descriptive pivotal construction (D-PVC), focuses primarily on the taxonomy and prototype effects of this construction. In contrast to previous discussions, which have been based on observations from a limited number of examples, this study extracted data from both a large-scale Chinese corpus and Internet sources. In the D-PVC, usually the pivot N (i.e. noun phrase between matrix verb and complement verb) is indefinite. It is often, but not always, preceded by a numeral phrase. Statistically the D-PVC instances in which the pivot N is preceded by a classifier phrase dominate. Particularly, the classifier phrases preceding the pivot N are most often the combination of 'one' and a classifier. Based on the semantic properties of the matrix verbs, instances of this construction are classified into nine primary types. The D-PVC instances are prototypically structured and those in which the matrix verbs designate 'presence' are the central members. Determined by multiple factors, the non-prototypical instances deviate from the central members in different ways. This indicates that D-PVC instances are semantically related to one another continuously. That the D-PVC permits considerable semantic extension from its prototype characterization accords well with the facts that in modern Mandarin, the D-PVC is productive and capable of encoding a wide range of semantic variations.