Abstract
The article presents a cognitive account of the NP+de(的) +VP structure in Mandarin. By making its syntactic functions and cognitive motivations explicit, it shows that the relationship between the constituents of the structure is subject-predicate rather than modifier-head as claimed by previous studies. Based on the new proposals that the structure is exocentric and the particle de is a nominalizing infix, the article offers a possible solution for the long-debated contradiction between the overall nominal functions of the structure and its constituents’ verbal part of speech. We conclude that a cognitive linguistic approach to analyzing structures in Mandarin can be useful in producing a picture of the formation of the structures and revealing how they are cognitively motivated. This study contributes to the development of cognitive studies on Chinese grammar and sheds light on Chinese language instruction in the long run.
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