Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Formation Motivation and Comprehension Mechanism of the Intensifying Construction "méi nàme/zhème X (fǎn)"

Weixian ShangBeijing Foreign Studies University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The Chinese subjective de-intensifying construction "méi nàme/zhème X" has spawned an intensifying construction "méi zhème/nàme X (fǎn)" in new media. Based on 210 online corpora, this paper examines the formation motivation, interpretation mechanism and communication constraints of this construction within the frameworks of Construction Grammar and Interactional Linguistics. The study finds that this construction achieves polarity reversal through irony rhetoric, and is endowed with pragmatic motivation for intensifying interpretation by superimposing the opinion identification mechanism of online communities. The interpretation of this construction first eliminates low-information ambiguity based on conversational implicature, then establishes scalar reference using metaphors/hyperboles in the antecedent, and finally realizes intensifying evaluation through polarity reversal and comparison. The spread of this construction faces three constraints: cognitive load, media dependence and community binding. The research shows that this construction embodies a typical path of new media linguistic innovation: starting from community pragmatic innovation, emerging through interaction, and forming a relatively stable construction function in communication.

Keywords: méi zhème/nàme X; intensifying construction; pragmatic inference; speech community; scalarity
Published: June 1, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.33976
Volume: CHR Vol.111
pp. 77-90
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