This paper focuses on the expressive zhenshide in Modern Chinese as well as how it came
into being from the perspectives of constructionalization and multiple sources. The string
zhen shi de 'really yes' is used as an emphatic positive response to confirm the prior
proposition, and an expressive that expresses speaker's negative attitude at the utterance
time (Potts, 2005, 2007). From a constructional perspective, the expressive construction
[zhenshide]*[expressive] is instantiated in use by constructs and can be combined with other …