Embodied semantics and pragmatics: Empathy, sympathy and two passive constructions in Chinese media discourse

This paper examines the usage patterns of two passive constructions, the emerging zao construction and the conventional bei construction, in Chinese media language where the distributional ratio of the zao construction to the bei construction is conspicuously higher than in other genres. The difference is especially dramatic in Internet news headlines. To account for the uses, we adopt a corpus-driven constructionist approach, seeking to identify the semantics of the two constructions by means of collostructional analysis. Based on the corpus data, we argue that the two constructions differ primarily in the speaker/writer's subjective experience of the event in which the patient is affected. Specifically, we invoke the psychological constructs of empathy and sympathy to account for the respective functions of the two passive constructions. The genre-specific usage patterns of the two constructions in the Internet news headlines are attributed to the pragmatic manipulation of semantics for the purpose of constructing stance and creating sensationalism. Cognitive psychological insights on human emotion, cognition and morality are discussed in support of embodied semantics and pragmatics.

► Collostructional data lead to empirically sound postulations of constructional meaning.
► The semantics and pragmatics of grammatical constructions are embodied.
► Genre-specific communicative goals motivate new patterns of language use and precipitate grammaticalization.