C 2019

When constructions meet context: The polysemy of Mandarin hai revisited

LU, Wei-lun

Basic information

Original name

When constructions meet context: The polysemy of Mandarin hai revisited

Authors

LU, Wei-lun (158 Taiwan, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Amsterdam, Cognitive Linguistics and the Study of Chinese, p. 47-72, 26 pp. 67, 2019

Publisher

John Benjamins

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Kapitola resp. kapitoly v odborné knize

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Netherlands

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

printed version "print"

References:

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14640/19:00111230

Organization unit

Language Centre

ISBN

978-90-272-0416-5

Keywords in English

contextualization; discourse pragmatics; schematic sense; presupposition

Tags

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 3/3/2020 12:48, doc. Wei-lun Lu, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

This study investigates the synchronic polysemy of the Mandarin construction hai. Drawing on authentic and contextualized examples of spoken language, I propose that hai prototypically functions as an indicator that the ensuing proposition refers back to some relevant presupposition in prior discourse, which is either explicitly stated or inferable. With this contrastive alignment of two propositions, the reading of hai as ‘temporal continuance’ emerges naturally by way of pragmatic inferencing. In other words, I demonstrate that the various meanings identified in previous studies arise from an interplay between hai’s schematic sense and discourse pragmatics. This study presents not only a unified account for the synchronic polysemy of hai, but also has significance for the study of constructions in discourse.