A Cognitive Grammar Interpretation of the “You/有+ Numerals Construction” Encoding State of Affairs

This paper examines the grammatical status of the “You/有+numerals” structure used after predicate verbs, and analyzes the functions and motivations of “You/有” from the perspective of cognitive grammar. It claims that the sequence of “NP+VP+You/有+numerals” is a topic-comment construction, with the event as the topic, and the state of affairs as the comment. It integrates the event and state of affairs, but highlights the latter. The “You+numerals” construction activates a special cognitive reference point configuration, which locates the state of affairs of the event represented by “NP+VP” in a corresponding scale, with reference to the personal cognition of the speaker, thus conveying a connotation of “subjective judgement” and “beyond expectation”. This construction differs from the construction without “You”, which denotes objective statement. It also differs from the “verb-copying construction”, which locates the state of affairs with reference to the conventionalized standard of a community. The assertive use of “You” renders it proper for highlighting the existence of events, states of affairs or quantities, differing from the affirmative use of Shi/是. “You” can also strengthen the subjectivity of unergative verbs followed by quantitative elements.