The Baseline/Elaboration Model for “Da(打)+O” in Sports Discourse

The verb-object (VO) construction in Chinese exhibits diverse types and complex semantic relationships, representing a key syntactic feature of the language and a classic topic in linguistic research. Current studies primarily classify Chinese VO constructions into conventional and unconventional types. While extensive discussions have been conducted on the classification, characteristics, formation mechanisms, and licensing conditions of unconventional VO constructions—providing profound insights—there remains room for further exploration.<br/> Langacker’s “baseline/elaboration” organization model, a recent advancement in Cognitive Grammar, offers a promising theoretical framework. This model conceptualizes the generation of linguistic structures as a layered process involving a baseline and its elaboration, particularly suited for explaining asymmetrical phenomena across different linguistic levels. It thus provides a robust analytical tool for a unified account of both canonical and non-canonical constructions.<br/> This study employs the“baseline/elaboration organization” model from Cognitive Grammar to analyze the formation mechanism and licensing conditions of unconventional verb-object constructions like “Da Aoyunhui” (打奥运会) “Da qianfeng” (打前锋) et al. in the domain of sports discourse. Here, “Da”and the object (O) exhibit “baseline/elaboration”relationship: the baseline “Da”profiles a “Da qiu” (打球) event, while O elaborates on the baselinefrom different facets, forming the elaborated structure “Da+O”.The paper argues that the unconventional “Da+O” constructionis a multi-layered elaborated structure derived through two stages of elaboration, with the pre-existing conventional structure“Da qiu”serving as the baseline. This construction functions as a sport-attribute construction, representing the kinetic properties of a “Da qiu” event. Its licensing conditions include: 1) the object must be attribute-eligible; 2) the pattern mustbeconventionalizable; 3) the object’s denoted concept playing a pivotal role; 4) the constructional analogy must operate hierarchically.