Qualia modification in Mandarin neologism: A case study on prefix "wéi"

Abstract

Language change is a ubiquitous and inevitable phenomenon in daily usages, represented by both novel interpretations and usages of old words, as well as through the development of entirely new words called neologisms. This study aims to give a theoretical account of the prefix[wéi] in Mandarin, which recently has extended its meanings by combing with modified nouns in varied contexts, for instance, [wéi-diànyǐng] (short film), [wéi-huándǎo] (riding bicycle to travel the northern coastline of Taiwan), [wéi-kāichē] (riding motorcycle) and so on. To analyze this phenomenon through the lens of lexical semantics, we follow the Generative Lexicon Theory to explore the selective binding of wéi +noun modification in terms of qualia structure. The result shows that wéi has a high preference for selection of the FORMAL role but excludes TELIC. Possible explanations are given for the underlying reasons for psychological preferences in perceiving FORMAL components of objects, such as shape and color, rather than the specification of function or purpose. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.