The ‘Verb+Yixia’ Construction in Mandarin: Perspectives on MARVS and Cognitive Linguistics Theory

• Main Authors: Ching-Sheng Hung, 洪青勝
• Other Authors: Yu-Fang Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89384865625564684211

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 102 === This study aims to investigate Mandarin V+yixia construction in terms of MARVS (Module-Attribute Representation of Verbal Semantics) and cognitive linguistics theory. V+yixia construction serves as a polysemous item which is frequently used in daily conversation and written materials. Depending on its preceding verbs and context, yixia conveys different meanings, such as ‘once’ or ‘duration’. Aside from the essential meanings, pragmatically, yixia carries contextual implications that assist speakers to hold their ground in social interaction by reducing the impact of the expressions. To better assess how V+yixia construction functions in real situations, the thesis analyzes the written materials with the consideration of context it occurs. By examining the data from United Daily News, the study makes new classifications of yixia: one-time yixia, durational yixia, and state-changing yixia. Each of the classifications is assigned with corresponding event types and mental domains. Also, this study points out that the argument of verbal restriction on yixia drawn from previous study is not sufficient enough. Thirdly, we have a discussion about the suitability between the five aspects and yixia. Finally, because English separable phrasal verbs and V+yixia construction have similarity in structure and object position, a comparison is drawn to give an account of the object position of V+yixia.