2015 Volume 2015 Issue 262 Pages 1-30
This paper aims to clarify different connotations of the paratactic grammar, reveal the cognitive mechanism and the operational process of Chinese paratactic grammar, and then establish a descriptive system for the paratactic mechanism of the Chinese grammar. First of all, a low-level parataxis puts emphasis on the inadequacy of grammatical expression, whereas a high-level parataxis puts emphasis on the incompleteness of linguistic expression. This shows that intersubjectivity and experiential embodied cognition are supportive of the paratactic grammar. On this basis, attempts are made to establish a descriptive system for the Chinese grammar. This descriptive system is based on interactive multi-layered conceptual structures, which include argument structure, qualia structure, skeletal construction structure, tense and aspect structure and epistemic structure. Finally, this paper illustrates that the neural-mental dynamics of paratactic grammar originates in an operational layered pattern recognition adopted in the mind. Therefore, human language is an “encoding-decoding” and “ostensive-inferential” two-way opportunistic system.
