Author(s)

Ding Yuqin ¹, Kang Amin ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Literature, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China

Corresponding Author

Ding Yuqin

ABSTRACT

The syntactic structure exemplified by phrases such as "blow his horn" is a common phenomenon in everyday Modern Chinese discourse. This study, focusing on such structures, employs Cuervo's (2003) analytical framework of the APPL theory to delve into their syntactic properties. Moreover, it thoroughly delineates the semantic attributes, structural genesis, and the relationship between the VP and "Him" within this category. By introducing the hypothesis of "APPL semantic light verbs," it conjectures successfully, thereby explaining why structures like "play a joke on him" share the feature of [EXPERIENCE] expression. Findings suggest a consistent underlying generation pattern for the "blow his horn" structures, with variations in their manifestation attributable to differences in their generation and spelling-out mechanisms. This uniform interpretive capability underscores the systematic and holistic explanatory power of the "blow his horn" structures. To comprehensively depict such characteristics, structural comparisons are conducted to corroborate linguistic phenomena, elucidate structural conundrums, and showcase the superiority of the APPL semantic light verb hypothesis, thereby extending the applicability of the APPL analytical framework to a broader range of Chinese structures.

KEYWORDS

Blow his horn; play a joke on him; Semantic Light Verbs

CITE THIS PAPER

Ding Yuqin, Kang Amin, The syntactic structure analysis of the phrase "blow his horn". Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 62-67. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070611.

REFERENCES

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