Towards the Experiential Grammar of “chi” in Modern Chinese

Systemic Functional Linguistics holds that grammar is a theory of human experience, and lexis is most delicate grammar. Based on Systemic Functional Grammar, the paper analyzes the experiential structure of "chi" and its collocations with the linguistic data from three Chinese corpuses. The analysis shows that besides being used as a verb to realize a Process, "chi" can also be used as a noun and an adjective to realize Thing and Quality, which can play different participant roles in different processes. The collocational and meaning potential of "chi" in modern Chinese reveals that it is a complex human experience.