The Grammatical and Pragmatic Features of the New Popular Construction of “Cloud+X” in Contemporary Chinese

Abstract

“Cloud+X” is a popular construction that has appeared and been frequently used in recent years. The study of the grammatical and pragmatic process of "Cloud+X" construction has vital significance for understanding the development of this buzzword in the new era and word creation. The buzzword “Cloud+X” is analyzed from the perspective of grammar and pragmatics in this paper. From the grammatical perspective, this paper will focus on the grammatical characteristics of “Cloud+X” and analyze its evolution motivation. Based on three main constructions including “Cloud+verbs with monosyllabic morphemes”, “Cloud+verbs with disyllabic or polysyllabic morphemes” and “Cloud+nominal morphemes”, and combined with specific examples and meme theory, this study analyzes their relationship and evolution. From the pragmatic perspective, the paper mainly focuses on the four main aspects of the construction “Cloud+X” such as its productivity, main user groups, emerging platforms and registers as well as the construction stability.