Semantic Analysis of the Chinese “Lao (old) +N” Construction

摘要

Guided by the basic assumptions of cognitive semantics,this paper conducts an analysis on the semantics of Chinese“Lao(old)+N”construction and the semantic relationships between adjective“Lao(old)”and the noun in order to detect noun selection restrictions of this construction.Under the framework of Taylor’s discussions on adjectives in cognitive grammar,it was found that“Lao(old)+N”Construction could partially testify the feasibility of his assumption.The interpretation of“Lao(old)+N”construction is associated with different senses of“Lao(old)”,as well as the different semantic structures of the nominal constituent.And finally,a plausible explanation on semantic constraints of nouns in this construction is found with the aid of categorization.