The construction of “Wangmian Si-le Fuqin” in Mandarin Chinese: A Cardiff Grammar approach

Abstract

This paper investigates the construction of “Wangmian Si-le Fuqin” (Wangmian lost his father) in Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of Cardiff Grammar. It aims to answer three key questions: (i) What Process type and Participant Roles are expressed by this construction? (ii) What is the functional syntactic structure of the construction under study? (iii) What are the functional motivations for using the construction? After reviewing the previous studies and explaining the basic notions of Cardiff Grammar, the semantics, syntax and functional motivations of this construction are analyzed and discussed. The results show that (i) this construction realizes a Possessive Relational Process, and has two Participant Roles of Affected-Carrier and Possessed, which is different in meaning from other similar constructions, such as Wangmian de fuqin si-le (Wangmian's father died); (ii) the functional syntax of the construction is “SˆMˆC”, with the Subject conflated with Affected-Carrier, the Complement with Affected-Possessed, and le after the Main Verb si is an Aspect Particle; (iii) the functional motivation of this construction is three-fold: emphasizing the Process of “gain or loss”, making Wangmian the Subject Theme, and representing background information.