Ba constructions,a special sentence pattern in Chinese,have almost no equivalent with similar forms and corresponding functions in any other language.In view of the particularity of the students of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language（TCFL）,the teaching efficiency can be greatly promoted by means of a profound understanding of the cognitive commonality concerning the errors of Ba constructions in actual use.Within the framework of cognitive semantics,the present study introduces into the analysis the conceptual structure model proposed by Talmy.Ba constructions,the macro-event,are thus further divided into four different event types.Combining the theory of construction grammar and typological studies,this study explains the errors concerning Ba constructions in the interlanguage by means of analyzing the constraints and the syntactic manifestation of the conceptual structure.

This thesis consists of seven chapters.The first chapter is an introduction,in which the significance,content and method of the study are included.

Chapter Twois the literature review,which aims to identify the research questions and the breakthrough point of the present study by thoroughly reviewing the previous related studies of Ba constructions in such areas as the origin,semantics,syntax,pragmatics,cognition,typology,TCFL and Second Language Acquisition（SLA）.

Referring to the shortcomings of the current research methods,the third chapter introduces Conceptual Structure Theory and illustrates the significance of the theory in error analysis of Ba constructions.

Byanalyzing the Ba constructions expressing a motion event as the framing event,the fourth chapter explains the errors concerning the conceptual structure of the students of TCFL in their acquisition of such constructions.It is found that the reason behind the omission of the verb lies in the different lexicalization patterns of various languages.The verb-direction construction“S+ba+N+V+（RC）+（lai/qu）”cannot be transformed into the SVO word order due to the formal constraint of the conceptual manifestation; the formal difference between the two verb+preposition constructions of“S+ba+N1+V gei+N2”and“S+ba+N1 gei+N2+V+R”is caused by the different degrees of cohesion in the combination of the verb and the Path.Through error analysis of the Ground of the Ba constructions expressing a motion event as the framing event,a fundamental rule of Ground manifestation can be testified,namely,with different degrees of salience,different elements of location,or Ground,generally appear in the syntactic positions of the corresponding degree of salience.

Chapter Five analyzes such sentences as“yī wǎn fàn jiù bǎ tā chī bǎo le”under the guidance of Conceptual Salience Theory.The speaker uses jiù to express a subjective small quantity,which must be in correspondence with the concept it makes salient.Therefore,the sentence“*fàn jiù bǎ tāchī bǎo le”is incorrect because the numeral-classifier expressing a subjective small quantity in the Agent is missing.

The errors can also be caused by the different lexicalization patterns of the verb in the event of state change.This is mainly because of the learners' unawareness of the corresponding lexicalized causative constructions of specific stative verbs in the target language.

The errors of the complement and its conceptual structure in the Ba constructions expressing state change as the framing event show themselves in two types of sentences.1.The construction“NP1+ba+NP2+V+de+VP”is often interchangeable with SVO structure,which makes students of TCFL think they are completely equivalent.As a result,avoidance and errors concerning this construction prevails.The stative complement is descriptive,which tends to make itself the focus because of its specificity,informativeness,low predictability,and cognitive salience.Therefore,from the perspective of cognitive motivation,the salient complement tends to appear at the end of the sentence while the object should be pre-positioned.2.The conceptual structure related errors in the construction“NP1+ba+NP2+V+RC”can be explained in three ways:（1）the salience degree of the Ground is not in correspondence with the syntactic position;（2）the errors are caused by the causalization after the combination of the Path and the Ground;（3）the influence the Agent exerts is not in correspondence with the result represented by the Ground.

Furthermore,one more section is provided to discuss the Ba constructions expressing mental state change as the framing event.The intensity of mentality is regarded as a continuum from the weakest to the strongest,which explains the formation and frequency of Ba constructions in language use.

Chapter Six analyzes the Ba constructions expressing realization as the framing event.The verb in the realization event is first classified semantically into the intrinsic-fulfillment verb,the moot-fulfillment verb,the impliedfulfillment verb and the attained-fulfillment verb,whose uses and constraints in Ba constructions are analyzed after that.The error analysis is then carried out in the three subordinate structures of the Ba constructions expressing realization as the framing event.The error in the construction“S+ba+N+V+RC”is related to the predictability of the complement because the realization event of the non-predictable result tends to be expressed by Ba constructions.Moreover,the errors in the construction“S+ba+N+V+de+VP/AP”can be explained based on the degree of cohesion between the major event and the minor event as well as the predictability of the descriptive complement.Finally,the errors in the construction“S+ba+N+V+DC”are mainly due to the unfamiliarity of the conceptual structure and the formal constraint of the conceptual manifestation.

Chapter Seven analyzes the Ba constructions expressing temporal contouring as the framing event,which refer to those constructed by the verb with such tense and aspect markers as“zhe”,“le”and“guo”,or by the verb-direction constructions“V+xialai”and“V+xiaqu”with the complement expressing tense and aspect.It should be noted that such tense and aspect markers as“shang”,“kai”,“qi”or“qilai”cannot construct the Ba constructions.These markers cannot manifest themselves in the object position of Ba constructions with the high degree of salience.This is because they can only serve as the expression of the beginning and cannot show the duration or the result of the event,which means the Figure does not receive much influence and therefore does not have a high degree of salience.

In the event of temporal contouring,the major event is the one with tense and aspect being contoured,where the Figure and the conceptual elements of the minor event are co-referential,and thus it is difficult to manifest the principles governing the degree of cohesion between the major event and the minor event as well as the predictability of the event.Therefore,the analysis employed in the other three event types cannot be completely applied to the event of temporal contouring.This is due to the fact that the formation of the conceptual structure in the event of temporal contouring is mainly associated with the tense and aspect expressed by the Ground as well as the event type represented by the Figure and that the two must correspond to each other.This principle is applied throughout the error analysis of all types of Ba constructions expressing temporal contouring as the framing event.

Key words: errors; events; conceptual structure; constraints; syntactic manifestation