The Formation Features and Structural Mechanism of Modern Chinese “Vcooking+N” Structure

The monosyllabic verbs in modern Chinese should not be used as attributives directly, but the monosyllabic verbs that express the cooking meaning can be used as attributives directly, forming the ambiguous structure of “Vcooking+N”. For example, kǎobáishǔ (roasted white potato) can express both the verb-object relationship and the attributive-head relationship. The reason for the formation of this ambiguous structure is the semantic transfer from verb-object phrase to attributive-head compound. The semantic attribute of “produce or change” of Vcooking and the conventional production method in N’s meaning are the main factors that affect its semantic reference. From the perspective of the structural mechanism of “Vcooking+N” structure, the semantic class attribute of N determines the anchoring of the semantic attribute of Vcooking, and the implication or presentation of “production method” affects the selection of structural properties.