The Construction of Subjective Diminishing of Qian X Yixia from the View of Constructional Interaction

Qian X yixia is a subjective diminishive construction, where the speaker humorously belittles his or her own action or state through a counterfactual statement. The constructional meaning and usage of qian X yixia arise from the interaction between the construction and its components. One more to note is that the components of construction highlight the constructional meaning. In the interaction of all the components, the integration of constructional occurrences can be seen as the subjective projection of a new quantitative expression based on the quantitative elements in the construction. As a result, a subjectivity which is doubly diminished is realized. In the constructional interaction, the function of qian, an adverb, expands, transitioning from denoting a low degree to a diminishive one. Hence, the level of measurement shifts from objective entities to language itself. Qian X yixia emerges through the interaction between constructions and constructional clusters, involving inter-constructional interactions and network ones.