색채형용사 ‘红, 黑’의 ‘Aₐₛₚ+NP’문형 의미확장 연구 ― ‘VAₐₛₚ+NP’ 문형과 ‘Aₐₛₚ+NP’ 문형 비교를 중심으로

Abstract

This study examines the semantic expansion and syntactic characteristics of the ‘Aₐₛₚ+NP’ and ‘VAₐₛₚ+NP’ constructions in the Chinese color adjectives ‘红’ (red) and ‘黑’ (black). The research aims to explore the relationship between these constructions and identify the grammatical features that arise during semantic expansion. The findings indicate that both ‘红ₐₛₚ+NP’ and ‘黑ₐₛₚ+NP’ constructions undergo diverse semantic expansions, closely linked to grammatical properties such as unaccusativity, ergativity, and transitivity. As these adjectives extend beyond their basic color meanings to express emotions, attitudes, and state changes, they gradually acquire more verb-like characteristics. Unaccusative constructions easily accommodate verb addition in the ‘VAₐₛₚ+NP’ form, often resulting in b meaning. In contrast, ergative constructions show mixed results, and transitive constructions make verb addition difficult or impossible, highlighting the connection between grammatical properties and verb inclusion. Comparing ‘红’ and ‘黑’, the study finds that ‘红’ typically retains unaccusativity and often transitions to the ‘VAₐₛₚ+NP’ construction through verb addition, while ‘黑’ shows more extensive semantic expansion, leading to ergative and transitive examples. This suggests that ‘黑’ can develop meanings further removed from its basic sense compared to ‘红’.