A Study on the Semantic Features of Chinese "连NP都VP" Sentence - Centered on the negative (anti-anticipatory) construction of “连” Sentence
RYOMYONG NAM · Korea Journal of Chinese Linguistics · 2022
“连” sentence is a common sentence pattern in Chinese. There are several forms of “连” sentence, among which "连NP都V" is the most commonly used. The main function of the “连” sentence is to make the other party trust the things or situations they describe via expressing extreme situations. For native speakers, the “连” sentence is frequently used as a very efficient expression. For foreign students, it is a sentence pattern difficult to master, let alone use flexibly. It has been observed that most foreign students choose ordinary descriptive sentences to express when they need to use “连” sentence, which greatly reduces the efficiency of expression. The main purpose of this paper is to help Chinese learners to better understand and use the “连” sentence by examining the semantic features of the “连” sentence. Through the research on a large number of corpora, this paper finds that in Chinese "连NP都V", the structure of V is mainly in negative sentences such as "“不V”, “没V”, “V不了”, “V不起来” and etc; otherwise, although the sentences in an affirmative form, the predicate with negative semantics is mainly used. From the diachronic development of grammar and pragmatics, this paper studies and reveals the source of the negative semantic feature of “连” sentence. The research value of this paper lies in the detailed analysis of the semantic features of the “连” sentence, to fill the insufficient in-depth research on the semantic characteristics of the “连” sentence in the academic circle, and provide fundamental data and new angle for the “连” sentence research.