A Study on the Pragmatic Meaning and Discourse Function of Inverted Quantitative Causative Constructions in Modern Chinese

This study investigates the pragmatic features of inverted quantitative causative construction in Modern Chinese, which takes the form ‘XP (Non-agent cause) + V-le + NP (Agent) + QP (Quantifier).’ Departing from syntactic-focused approaches, this analysis posits that this construction is fundamentally an epistemic causative structure, formed through the speaker’s post hoc causal reanalysis. The speaker reconstructs a reflexive event by attributing its quantitatively marked result (QP) to an external cause (XP). Corpus analysis reveals that the result QP is prototypically interpreted as a subjective large quantity, serving as the focal point for the speaker’s evaluative and affective stance, which is predominantly negative. Furthermore, the construction functions as a discourse-organizing tool, integrating into narrative structures to provide quantitative grounding, enhance emotional appeal, and manage topical flow. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that this construction is not a mere syntactic inversion but a dedicated linguistic device for externalizing, objectifying, and intensifying the speaker’s subjective evaluation of personal experience.