Abstract：“X is a walking Y” is a popular construction in Chinese Internet slang. However, no previous research has touched on the meaning of this construction. With an aim to analyze the construction meaning of “X is a walking Y”, this paper utilizes a multi-interaction model with a combination of qualitative and quantitative method, deriving data from both entrenched expressions in corpora and updated utterances in the internet by Python. The major findings show that the positive evaluation meaning and the fictive motion meaning of this construction are the result of the joint efforts of linguistic and extralinguistic interaction. The linguistic interaction refers to the grammatical level which incorporates the constructions, components and lexemes, whereas the extralinguistic interaction refers to the pragmatic level which involves the function of the ex‐ ternal factors which include the embodied experience, social context, style and cross-language constructions which coerce constructions and components together. The nature of such interactions is the combined force of the distinctive form, meaning and function of the multi-interactional mechanism.
Key words: “X is a walking Y”, interactional construction grammar
