Author: Chan Brian Hok-Shing
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
E-ISSN: 1877-8798|9|1|46-74
ISSN: 1877-7031
Source: Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol.9, Iss.1, 2018-01, pp. : 46-74
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Abstract
This paper proposes a structural borrowing account for a lexicogrammatical phenomenon whereby, in on ongoing Cantonese discourse, in which the use of a single-word English preposition triggers and activates an English construction, specifically an NP COP P NP sequence, and brings it into that discourse. The borrowed structure eventually converges with Cantonese, with the English preposition reanalyzed as a verb or a coverb. It is further suggested that these processes of structural borrowing and convergence are semantically motivated. Drawing on Cognitive Grammar, the borrowed structure
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