A Study of “AB Ren” From the Perspective of Construction Grammar

Abstract

The “AB Ren” construction such as 打工人da gong ren ‘wage earner’ is fast becoming one of the key instruments in a riot of social media. In this corpus-based study to explore the nature of the “AB Ren” construction from Goldberg’s construction grammar perspective, a total of 108 “AB Ren” expressions were retrieved from the Beijing Language and Culture University Modern Chinese Corpus (BCC), and social media network Weibo. The study aims to investigate the formal features, constructional meaning, social functions and implied cognitive mechanisms behind the “AB Ren” construction. From the standpoint of the formal composition, this construction consists of two parts, the variable part and the fixed part. It can be divided into three categories (verb, noun, and adjective compounds). The “AB Ren” construction has the independent constructional meaning, which is used to describe a certain group of people who are engaged with an occupation corresponding to the “AB” part and are fond of particular activities as well as individuals who are defined as possessing certain features. Because of the high frequency of occurrences, some expressions acquire new emotional meanings as far as constructional meanings are concerned. A group of commonly-appeared “AB Ren” expressions, combining the use of metaphorical and metonymical mechanisms, illustrate language simplicity and are a great way to express self-encouragement and mockery. This study reveals the common generation trends of popular language on the internet in today’s world and the