The Conditions for the BA-Construction in Modern Chinese : Focusing on the Pragmatic Propriety of the Patient Nouns

This paper examines the conditions for the BA-construction in modern Chinese, focusing on the pragmatic properties of postpositional nouns that follow the particle BA. Patient nouns in the BA-construction convey information that is either known or unknown to the listener, and the numeral phrase yi ge (“one”) may precede the patient noun. When the patient noun is known information, only a bare noun phrase is used as a patient noun, because the speaker believes that the listener is able to identify the referential object of the patient noun. When the patient noun is unknown information, the numeral phrase yi ge can accompany with the patient noun in the BA-construction. In this case, no linguistic antecedent appears in the preceding context, because the speaker does not want to point out the referential object clearly. If the patient noun is newly recognized information to the listener, both the numeral phrase yi ge and a modifier accompany the patient noun; this is because the speaker wants to point out the referential object clearly