The Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) is going to hold the 4th Lecture of the FAH Macao Humanities Forum (2022/2023) on 2 May 2023. The forum aims to provide a platform for world-renowned scholars from diverse humanities fields to share their research with the FAH community and other UM scholars. All members of the UM community are cordially invited to this splendid event.

In this upcoming forum, we are honored to have Professor WEN Xu as our guest speaker to deliver a lecture on the topic “The Grammatical and Semantic Features of the “V1OV2 de” Construction in Modern Chinese and Reasons for its Formation” 現代漢語“V1OV2的”構式的句法語義特徵及形成理據. Prof Wen is the Dean of the College of International Studies of Southwest University. He is a National Distinguished Professor under the Ministry of Education, and an expert in the Review Committee of the National Social Science Foundation. A member of the ELT Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, and a member of the China National Committee for Graduate Education of Translation and Interpreting, Prof Wen is also the editor-in-chief of Cognitive Linguistic Studies; Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education; Language, Translation and Cognition; and editor of various academic journals both at home and abroad, including the Foreign Language Teaching and Research and Language Sciences. He is the president of the Committee on Cognitive Translation Studies and vice-president of the Committee on Cognitive Linguistics of the China Association for Comparative Studies of English and Chinese. In addition, Prof Wen is the vice-president of China Pragmatics Association and of the Chinese Association of Logic, as well as the president of the Chongqing International Studies Association. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of the Frontiers in Cognitive Linguistics in China series by the Commercial Press, and editor-in-chief of the Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. His research interests include cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, and cognitive translation studies.

Details of the forum are as follows:
Speaker: Professor Wen Xu
Topic: The Grammatical and Semantic Features of the “V1OV2 de” Construction in Modern Chinese and Reasons for its Formation
Date: 2 May 2023 (Tue)
Time: 16:30 – 17:45
Venue: On-Site (E21A-G049) / ZOOM
Language: Mandarin (with simultaneous interpretation into English)

Abstract:

The “V1OV2 de” construction is a commonly used colloquial expression in modern standard Chinese and a typical construct. This study explores the grammatical and semantic features and the reasons for its formation from a construct grammar perspective. The research found that “V1OV2的” is a non-typical verb-copying construction, and its meaning of construction can be summarized as “explaining the reason why an event has taken place in a certain situation.” This construction is driven by cognitive economy and formed based on a typical verb-copying construction through operations such as transposition, deletion, and substitution. Linguistic and non-linguistic reasons work jointly to contribute to the production and use of the “V1OV2的” construction.

Keywords: “V1OV2 de” construction; verb-copying construction; syntax; semantics; reasons

Please register for the forum by 1 May 2023 (Mon) via https://umac.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6oiF0kAdHMfoydE. Thank you!