Novel Lexical Semantic Change and Interactivization

Abstract

The study aims to explore newly arising lexical semantic changes that demonstrate an interesting tendency of semantic shifts towards highly interactive and socially impactive meanings. A number of such changes are provided with a focus on the novel cases where an abstract noun or an attributive adjective is used as a transitive verb in a causative-transitive construction (e.g., tā nèihán wǒ le 他内涵我了 ‘He covertly satirized me.’). A constructional analysis is proposed to account for the form-meaning mapping principles in the novel usage patterns that show a consistent tendency of semantic shift from less interactive to more interactive meanings. This tendency of ‘interactivization’ is evidenced in the changes from non-verbal to verbal and intransitive to transitive uses, detailed with a case study of the grammatical distributions of nèihán内涵 ‘inner quality’ over two different time periods. The findings ultimately contribute to both interactional linguistics and Chinese lexical semantic studies in highlighting the observed trend of interactivization in lexical semantic changes under the popular use of social media that enhances the subtlety and complexity of human interaction.