The research on the subjectivity of the Adverb “Jianzhi” has always been limited to “hyperbole” and “emphasis”. This paper attempts to break through the lack of analysis on the specific characteristics of its subjectivity. On the basis of cognitive linguistics theory and subjectivity theory, it focused on the analysis of the characteristics of “Jianzhi” in the two dimensions of Subjectivity——directional dimension and measurement dimension, and explained the characteristics behind the phenomenon So as to clarify the pragmatic conditions of “Jianzhi”. “Jianzhi” has three characteristics——“forward”, “reverse” and “deviation” in the directional dimension of subjectivity. In the context of expressing “identification” and “progressive” semantics, it is expressed in a straight direction; in the context of expressing “denial” and “derogation”, it is expressed in a reverse direction; in the context of expressing “accident”, it is expressed in a deviation. “Jianzhi” shows the characteristics of “subjective increment” and “subjective decrement” in the measurement dimension of subjectivity.

The adverb “Jianzhi” is used frequently in modern Chinese, but most of its previous research focused on “subjectiveness”. To break through this limitation, this paper focused on the syntactic features and main semantic functions of the adverb “Jianzhi”. Firstly, in syntactic features, by organizing the structure with high frequency of “Jianzhi”, it is found that the common feature presented in the verb structure is to pay attention to the characteristics of the nature of the things, and in the adjective structure is to show that mainly modifies the high degree of complements. Secondly, we found that “Jianzhi” has two main semantic functions. The first one is “non-true value marking function” and the other one is “boundary function”. The former means the speaker reminds the listener that the central meaning in the “Jianzhi” sentence is not true, and the latter means when “Jianzhi” is modifying the degree component, it will set a boundary for the component, indicating the degree limit. The commonality of these two semantic functions is [+ default], so the main semantics of “Jianzhi” can be summarized as a temporary default to reach a certain amount or form a certain result, situation.

As an adverb with high frequency of usage, “Jianzhi(简直)” is widely used. However, there are still many problems unsolved in the past. Based on the grammaticalization theory and cognitive theory, this paper dis-cussed the conditions and mechanisms during the grammaticalization process of “Jianzhi”. and clarified the relationships among the meanings of “Jianzhi”. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: Firstly, When “Jianzhi” is located before other adjectives, it obtains the adverb function through reanalysis mechanism, and modifies adjective predicate and verb predicate. Secondly, under the influence of metaphor mechanism, the semantics of “Jianzhi” is mapped from spatial domain to mode domain. And “Jianzhi” derived the meaning of “fearfully”. Thirdly, through conceptual blending process “Jian” and “Zhi” generated the meaning of “completly”.