On the Novel Chinese Modifier-Head Construction Shejian Shang de X : An Analysis of Meaning Construction

Abstract Since the documentary A Bite of China (i. e. Shejian shang de Zhongguo ( 《舌尖上的中国》), where shejian shang literally means “on the tip of the tongue”), was broadcast in May 2012, a great number of expressions like shejian shang de Russia/world/Olympics/safety have begun to gradually converge into a novel modifier-head construction Shejian Shang de X , illustrating a typical evolution of modern Chinese.This study aims to analyze the construction’s meaning from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Our investigation and analysis indicate that (1) Shejian Shang de X differs from the classic Chinese construction PP de X in both semantics and syntax; (2) as a modifier-head construction, Shejian Shang de X shows its variations in the head X’s multiple category options (noun, verb and adjective), therefore extending the scope of nominalization in Chinese and simultaneously triggering the construction’s diversified meanings; (3) the construction’s non-compositionality results mainly from its modifier components shejian and shang and is in general construed metonymically and metaphorically; (4) as a whole, the construction is a double-scope network consisting of two different organizing frames: the frame of shejian (“tip of the tongue”), a body part term and the frame of X, a dynamically changing entity (physical or abstract). The surface semantic incompatibility between the modifier and the head can be solved only by virtue of conceptual blending, producing the novel meaning [X relevant to the function of the tip of the tongue] of the whole construction.