her intransitive verbs or even transitive verbs can occur in CECs. Up to now,a general agreement has been reached that verbs in CEC should be unaccusative verbs or theyhave to be transformed into unaccusative verbs (Li 1990). The third stage begins from 1990s.The classification of CECs is the central topic during this period. Nie (1989), Song (1992),Lei (1993)，Pan (2003) are representatives of this stage.Hence, the following parts will discuss the previous studies on the classification of CECsalong with the studies on the initial elements, verbs and postverbal constituents in CECs.Since the publication of the book MaShi Wen Tong (“Ma’s Understanding of Language”) in 1898, CECs have caught the attentionof many scholars in China. It is Lǚ (1943/1982) that comes up with the concept of existentialclause. And Chen (1957) is the first scholar who takes the issue of existential clause as aresearch topic and puts forward the idea that the existence of entities includes not only thestate of their existence but also the appearance and disappearance of existence. Then Zhou(1957) proposes the term of cun-xian-ju (“presentative-existential clause”) for the first timeand summarizes its definition. In his opinion, cun-xian-ju refers to the clauses that describenot only the duration of the existence as well as the start and the end of existence. Zhou’sdefinition of CEC is agreed by most of the scholars, including Chen (1957), Nie (1989), Wang(2003), Zhang & Fan (2010). In addition, CECs can be mainly divided into three parts: theinitial element, the existential verb and the postverbal constituent. And most scholars studyingCECs would like to identify the structure of CECs as “Nominal Group1(‘NP1’ in traditionalgrammar) +Verbal Group (‘VP’ in traditional grammar) + Nominal Group2(‘NP2’ intraditional grammar)”, such as Zhang & Fan (2010: 21).
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Chapter 3 Analytical Framework: Systemic Functional Grammar...... 14
3.1 Introduction .... 143.2 An overview of Systemic Functional Grammar.... 14
3.3 The Cardiff Grammar.... 21
3.4 The analytical framework of the thesis ....... 26
3.5 Summary ........ 29
Chapter 4 A Systemic Functional Analysis of Chinese Existential Clauses ........ 29
4.1 Introduction .... 30
4.2 The study of English existential clauses in the Cardiff Grammar....... 30
4.3 The classification of CECs in the Cardiff Grammar ....... 31
4.4 The syntactico-semantic role of the initial elements....... 32
4.5 The syntactico-semantic features of the postverbal constituents ........ 52
4.6 Analysis of Chinese existential verbs..... 58
4.7 Summary ........ 70
Chapter 5 Conclusion ..... 72
5.1 Introduction .... 72
5.2 Major findings ..... 72
5.3 Implications of the present study ...... 74
5.4 Limitations and suggestions .... 74
Chapter 4 A Systemic Functional Analysis of ChineseExistential Clauses
4.1 Introduction
The theoretical framework of this thesis has been elaborated in Chapter Three. Then thischapter will adopt the analytical framework built up above to analyze the 900 Chineseexistential clauses (henceforth CECs). Different constituents in the clauses, such as the initialelements, the existential verbs and the postverbal constituents will be discussed in detail.Their functions and the semantic features will be illustrated respectively. Additionally,Chapter Four will also establish the systemic classification of CECs.Based upon Neale’s classification of the relational process, Deng (2012: 162-174) putsforward that there are at least four types existential clauses in English, which includelocational, attributive, directional and possessive. Mo
