A Cognitive Grammar Interpretation of the"You/有+Numerals Construction"Encoding State of Affairs
This paper examines the grammatical status of the"You/有+numerals"structure used after predicate verbs,and analyzes the functions and motivations of"You/有"from the perspective of cognitive grammar.It claims that the sequence of"NP+VP+You/有+numerals"is a topic-comment construction,with the event as the topic,and the state of affairs as the comment.It integrates the event and state of affairs,but highlights the latter.The"You+numerals"construction activates a special cognitive reference point configuration,which locates the state of affairs of the event represented by"NP+VP"in a corresponding scale,with reference to the personal cognition of the speaker,thus conveying a connotation of"subjective judgement"and"beyond expectation".This construction differs from the construction without"You",which denotes objective statement.It also differs from the"verb-copying construction",which locates the state of affairs with reference to the conventionalized standard of a community.The assertive use of"You"renders it proper for highlighting the existence of events,states of affairs or quantities,differing from the affirmative use of Shi/是."You"can also strengthen the subjectivity of unergative verbs followed by quantitative elements.
"You/有+numerals"state of affairscognitive reference pointcognitive grammarsubjectivity
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