An Idiom： The Affirmative and the Negative Form of the Same Construction Share the Same Meaning

【Abstract】In an “irregular language form” that the affirmative and the negative form of the same construction express the same semantic meaning， the negative form powerfully marks the speakers subjective idea or expectation. The article found it can be defined as idioms and it may be helpful for readers to appreciate language diversity.

【Key words】negative form； subjectivity； idioms

According to the grammatical and logical knowledge， a negative construction usually expresses the opposite semantic meaning to its corresponding affirmative construction. However， in everyday Chinese or some literature， there are some “unusual” negative constructions out of this rule-the negative word does not influence the semantic meaning. Some scholars consider them “irregular language forms” （Xiao， Xu， Liao， and Liu， 2003）. Some examples are listed as follows.

（1）……差點兒嚇死

……差點兒沒嚇死

（2）這樣難免會出事

這樣難免不出事

These constructions break the logic rule of language. Therefore， their grammatical rationality is doubted in spite of its frequent use in daily life （Yao， 2009）. The paper aims to analyze these “unusual” constructions from the perspective of the speakers subjectivity . It may help readers expose the diversity of language and be aware of the function of these negative constructions. Three questions will be answered in this paper： 1） Is this kind of construction a grammatical expression？ 2） Whats the function of the negative form of this construction？ 3） Which item or theory can be used to explain this construction？

According to Lv and Zhu （quoted in Yao， 2009）， grammar can not equal to logic. In oral communication， some constructions are not analyzable logically whereas they are used very often without any obstruction or misunderstanding in daily life. Therefore， from the grammatical perspective， they are reasonable and analyzable. Cruse （2014） also claims that in some irregular expressions （idioms）， grammatical constituents do not keep consistent with semantic constituents （p. 86）. In the negative construction well analyze， its semantic meaning does not corresponds to its negation. However it does not influence our interpretation of the sentence. As a result， the first question is answered： this kind of construction is an acceptable grammatical expression.

Some scholars once doubted that whether the negative mark in this construction is redundant （Chen， 2012）. In fact， the negative mark turns to be significant that it marks the speakers subjectivity more powerfully than the affirmative form. This part will answer the second question. Taking a look at example （1）， the affirmative construction and the negative construction share the same propositional meaning of “somebody is almost scared to death”. However， the affirmative form tries to interpret the sentence by delivering more attention to the fact “be scared to death” whereas the negative form delivers more attention to “be not scared to death”. “Chadianer mei” does not only deliver the fact but also convey the speakers subjective feeling or expectation that its so lucky he or she does not die. It proves to be true in language， as Talmy （quoted in Chen， 2012） claims that “l(fā)anguage offers approaches to shift attention to various aspects of a scene which is linguistically encoded.” Similarly， in example （2）， two different forms express same propositional meaning of “（This kind of action） must lead to something terrible”. The affirmative form “nanmian hui” focus on the fact that “something bad will be happen” whereas the negative form “nanmian bu” conveys this fact and implicates the speakers worry and expectation： “I hope something terrible will not happen”. From this we can see that in some circumstances， if the speaker attempts to display more than reporting a fact， one may project his or her subjective ideas into the negative form of this kind of construction.endprint

According to the analysis above， this special language phenomena can be defined， on the macro level， as the idioms in semantics. As Cruse （2014） claims that the semantic meaning of the idioms can not be predicted by its grammatical constituents （p. 90）， the semantic meaning is not changed by the negative constituent in the negative construction. In communication， these two forms does not make any misunderstanding and their meanings have been conventional. As a result， this language phenomena can be defined as idioms. On the micro level， some double negative construction such as “chadianer mei” may be related to duplication. From Cruse （2014）， duplication means a repetition having an intensifying effect. This is a meaningful repetition by which one part of the sentence is definitely highlighted （p. 190）. Just as we talked above， “chadianer” and “mei” hold the same propositional meaning of “have not”. However the combination of these two words “chadianer mei” is not redundant but a duplication because the repeated negation “mei” in this construction plays a significant role of emphasizing the speakers subjectivity and affect. These two classification could be the answer to the third question.

In a nutshell， in this special language phenomena that the affirmative and the negative form of the same construction express the same semantic meaning， the negative form powerfully marks the speakers subjective idea or expectation In addition， idioms and duplication theory can be used to explain this irregular phenomena. Based on this conclusion， there are three points enlightening us： a） To some extent， because of the mark of the speakers subjectivity by the negative construction， the modality of the sentence is intensified （Hao， 1992）； b） The language grammar is finite， but the expressing power or expressing forms are infinite. People prefer to choose different expressions to convey some subtle information or emotion； and c） Thanks to this idiom in which semantic meaning and form are not correspondent， our language is likely to be diverse. As to the research on the semantic meaning and the form of language we have a long journey to go on. To discover and to use such idioms could be enjoyable experience to appreciate language diversity.

References：

[1]Alan Cruse.（2014）.Meaning in language：An introduction to semantics and pragmatics（3rd ed.）.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research.

[2]Chen Yu.（2012）.A study of “chadianer（mei）+VP” on syntactic constrains and cognitive motivation.Unpublished masters thesis，Hunan University.

[3]Guo Yubai.（2015）.The study on the syntactic features of“chadian（mei）+VP” construction in the generative paradigm.Unpublished masters thesis，Harbin Normal University.

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作者簡介：張寶欣（1993.9.28-），女，漢族，陜西咸陽人，現(xiàn)就讀于西安外國語大學英文學院研究生部2016級外國語言學及應用語言學專業(yè)，主要研究方向：測試學。endprint