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Volume 13, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2213-8706
  • E-ISSN: 2213-8714
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Abstract

Exceptive construction (EC), an interesting pragma-rhetorical phenomenon, frequently occurs in Chinese interpersonal encounters. It refers to an utterance that achieves pragma-rhetorical effectiveness through superficial semantic incongruity. This is realized by a combination of affirmative and negative components and by the exclusion of one thing alongside the inclusion of another, establishing a meronymic or partitive relationship between the two parts. Few studies considered various contextual factors in actual use of EC or explained from a pragma-rhetorical perspective the reason why Chinese speakers often choose EC in interpersonal encounters, hence descriptive inadequacy and explanatory inadequacy. Drawing on the Pragma-rhetorical Principle and data from the classical Chinese novel , this paper conducts a qualitative plus quantitative corpus-based analysis of EC’s syntactic, semantic properties and pragma-rhetorical function and effect in Chinese contexts. It is hoped that this study will offer insights for understanding traditional rhetorical devices from a pragma-rhetorical perspective, as well as contrastive studies of Chinese and English.

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2026-05-21
2026-06-07

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/content/journals/10.1075/ijchl.00046.liu
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Exceptive construction
International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 13, 100 (2026); https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.00046.liu
/content/journals/10.1075/ijchl.00046.liu
/content/journals/10.1075/ijchl.00046.liu
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): exceptive construction; pragma-rhetorical effect; pragma-rhetorical function; semantic illogicality

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