Conceptualization Basis of Dependent Change Construction in Mandarin and Its Syntactic Effect

On the basis of spatial cognition, reference cognition and comparison cognition under the framework of Cognitive Grammar, this paper explores the conceptualization of dependent change relations of quantity categories and its syntactic effect on Dependent Change Construction (DCC thereafter) in Mandarin.Our study has found that the conceptualization is related to three dynamic processes:1) Comparison cognition is exploited to continuously construct "standard-target" relations between different quantity values, so as to achieve the conceptualization of quantity value changes of quantity A and B; 2) Reference cognition is exploited to continuously construct "reference point-target" relations between quantity value changes, so as to achieve the conceptualization of the co-variations of quantity B and quantity A; 3) Spatial cognition is exploited to convert quantity value changes into virtual motion, so as to achieve the spatial conceptualization of quantity.The conceptualization of quantity as virtual motion is encoded by yuè, the conceptualization of quantity value changes is by "yuè X" and "yuè Y", and the conceptualization of dependent change relations is by "yuè X yuè Y".The exploitation of spatial cognition and reference cognition enhances the syntactic productivity of DCC, and the exploitation of comparison cognition imposes some syntactic restrictions on its constituents X and Y.