A Grammatical Metonymic Explanation of Non-stereotypical Verb+Location Noun Construction in Chinese

AbstractThe stereotypical construction verb+noun or VO (verb-object) construction presents that theaction encoded by the verb is carried out on the patient exhibited by the noun. A prototypicalmeaning for VO construction is affectedness on the part of patient for the patient isundergoing the effect of some action, often undergoing some change in state (Saeed 2000:140). However, in Chinese, there is a non-stereotypical verb+location noun constructionwhich goes against the conventional semantic explanation of the VO structure. The locationnoun in this structure does not function as the patient of the verb from the point of view ofsemantics. The present paper explores the cognitive motivation of non-stereotypicalconstruction verb+location noun. The study shows that the location noun in the constructionhas three distinct meanings, and its generative mechanism is attributed to three kinds ofgrammatical metonymy: container for content and location for patient in Vt.+location nounconstruction and activity for state in Vi.+location noun construction.