Nominalization of Monosyllabic Verbs in Anaphoric Constructions in Chinese: A Cognitive Grammar Perspective

A consensus in previous studies of word classes in Mandarin Chinese is that monosyllabic verbs cannot be nominalized.However, this consensus is neither proved by valid theoretical reasoning nor supported by facts of language.This paper makes a corpus-based study of the 1,351 monosyllabic verbs listed in The Dictionary of Modern Chinese(the 6th edition) from the perspective of Cognitive Grammar.We argue that many monosyllabic verbs can be nominalized in anaphoric constructions.They are mostly action verbs, which are the prototypical members of the category of verbs.And the process of nominalization is intended to fulfill the semantic function of reference.This finding can be given a coherent explanation in Cognitive Grammar.