The Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Hěn X Constructions in Spoken Corpora

To understand how daily usages can shape the gradual changes of both hěn, a prototypical intensifier in Mandarin Chinese, and the construction hěn X, the study aims to investigate the syntactic and semantic behaviors of hěn X constructions in spoken corpora. The conversational data from the NCCU Corpus of Spoken Chinese and a Taiwan Public Television show Bring Up Parents are extracted and analyzed, focusing in particular on the syntactic categories of X, the grammaticalization of hěn, and the lexicalization of hěn X. Several findings are found. First, the syntactic and semantic distributions of the data from both corpora are quite consistent. While adjectives and stative verbs still claim the majority of X, new categories are discovered, showing host expansion of X. In addition to words, phrases and clauses can play the role of X. The increase of the flexibility and complexity of X demonstrates the gradual grammaticalization of hěn. Moreover, some instances of hěn X can be used as a unit to modify other grammatical constituents, showing a certain degree of lexicalization. When hěn X is fused as a unit, hěn is obligatory, not only indicating a degree but also highlighting the characteristics of X. The analysis shows that the nature of spoken materials enhances the subjectivity of hěn X. The findings of hěn X in spoken corpora can be applied to linguistic studies and Mandarin teaching. 1 Background Hěn X constructions, often employed in both spontaneous speeches and written texts, have undergone syntactic and semantic changes. In addition to modifying common adjectives and verbs, the degree adverb hěn collocates with various types of words. While many studies have discussed the history of hěn, the development of its degree-specifying function and the expansion of X, in general, the main claim is that hěn, as a prototypical intensifier in Mandarin Chinese, has grammaticalized into a grammatical marker in conjunction with its gradual loss of lexical meaning but its gaining of subjective evaluation (Chui, 2000; Lin, 2009; Tseng, 2010; Bai and Zhao, 2007, Chen and Tsai, 2008, Liu and Chang, 2012). Among previous studies, few have discussed hěn X constructions in spoken data although they are used more and more frequently in daily conversations with hěn indicating a higher degree than normal states and with X expanding to various syntactic categories. The usages of hěn X constructions in spoken corpora deserve further exploration. To understand how daily usages can shape the gradual changes of hěn X, the study aims to investigate the syntactic and semantic behaviors of hěn X constructions in two different spoken corpora, focusing in particular on examining the syntactic categories of X, the grammaticalization of hěn, and the lexicalization of hěn X. PACLIC 29