A Diachronic Investigation of the Syntactic and Semantic Features of the Supernormal Objects of Chinese “chi/shi”

Abstract

This paper made a diachronic investigation of the development of the object of Chinese “chi/shi”. It was discovered that, besides the syntactic function—the prototypical patient, i.e. the concrete object，in its meaning “chi/shi” fi rst extended to“abstract object, source”, and further to instrument, experience, result, purpose, place, manner, type, time”, etc, so that it presented varied meanings. This paper also analyzed the syntactic and semantic restraints of the supernormal object of Chinese “chi/shi”.From the perspective of fi gure-ground theory, it also interpreted the cognitive motivations for the supernormal use of the object of Chinese “chi/shi”, and analyzed the laws of its historical evolution.This study provides useful inspiration for the exploration and cognitive interpretation of the laws of the syntactic and semantic features of the diachronic evolution of Chinese verb-object construction, especially the supernormal verb-object construction, and also provides valuable reference for the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language and the translation between Chinese and English of this construction.