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Article published In:
Concentric
Vol. 48:1 (2022) ► pp.30–69

The constructionalization of antonymous compounds

Evidence from the adverb chi-zao in Mandarin Chinese

| The University of Arizona
In modern Chinese, the adverb chi-zao is regarded as an adjective-adjective compound, with morphemes chi ‘late’ and zao ‘early’ as extreme poles in a gradable temporality. The formation of chi-zao as an antonymous compound has not received much attention from a diachronic construction grammar perspective. This study reports on the historical change of chi-zao as evidence showing the interplay of antonymous compounds and constructionalization in modern Chinese. Based on corpus analysis, I found that the formation of chi-zao as a lexical construction inherits from previous changes but emerges instantaneously in Pre-Modern Chinese, where its form has been condensed and its meaning has been bleached to indicate subjectivity. Three arguments shed light on the model of constructionalization: (1) constructionalization at the compound level can be associated with three motivations: subjectivity, frequency, and metaphor; and (2) the operation of constructionalization is at work not only at the sentential and phrasal level but also at the morphological level of compound word formation in Chinese; (3) rhetoric as an output of language use plays a part in the development of constructionalization in relation to antonymous compounds.
Keywords: constructionalization, antonymous compound chi-zao , frequency, subjectivity, metaphor
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The theory of constructionalization
  • 3.Previous studies
    • 3.1Grammaticalization of Chinese antonymous compounds
    • 3.2The issue
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.The formation of chi-zao construction in Chinese
    • 5.1Medieval Chinese: Source (rhetoric) construction
    • 5.2Pre-modern Chinese: Intermediate construction
      • 5.2.1Emergence of nominal phrase as NP construction
      • 5.2.2Competition of the two constructions
      • 5.2.3Decrease in compositionality
      • 5.2.4Increase in schematicity
    • 5.3Modern Chinese: Constructionalization
      • 5.3.1The dominance of chi-zao as compound adverb
      • 5.3.2Expansion and reduction effects in (contentful) constructionalization
      • 5.3.3Interim summary
  • 6.Cognitive processes: Subjectivity, frequency, and metaphor
    • 6.1Subjectivity
    • 6.2Frequency
    • 6.3Metaphor
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 2 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.21012.lu
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