A Cognitive Approach To Linguistic Categorization Of Simple Sentence Structure In English (SSSE)

The present study is an attempt to explore the theoretical models involved in linguistic categorization and apply these models to the categorization of simple sentence structure in English (SSSE), thus trying to give an integral explanation within a cognitive framework.Categorization refers to the process by which people, in using language, necessarily categorize the world around them. And language itself is also part of the world. In speaking of nouns, verbs, phonemes, and grammatical sentences, linguists are undertaking acts of categorization. The title of the thesis is to be understood in this sense. Categorization is fundamental to all higher cognitive activity. Lakoff (1987: 6) points out that 'without the ability to categorize, we could not function at all, either in the physical world or in our social and intellectual lives. An understanding of how we categorize is central to any understanding of how we think and how we function, and therefore central to an understanding of what makes us human'. Cognitive linguists postulate several theoretical models to linguistic categorization, i.e. the prototype model and the profile-frame/domain model. Meanwhile, the issue of basic grammatical relations such as subject, direct object, and indirect object which are of prime importance to the description of clause structure remains a controversy. Attracted by the controversy of the issue of basic grammatical relations and that of cognitive approaches to linguistic categorization, especially by no prior study on an integrative explanation of SSSE within a cognitive framework, the writer has made the present research.The thesis consists of six chapters, with the introduction as Chapter 1. Chapter 2 sets up the theoretical framework underlying the cognitive approaches to linguistic categorization, where the classical approach to categories, the prototype model of categorization and the profile-frame/domain model of categorization are evaluated. Chapter 3 applies prototype theory to the explanation of SSSE, assuming that, for the subject of the clause, the prototypical subject is the agent in a transitive clause and all other subjects deviate from this definition in certain ways. Chapter 4 discusses how the principle of prominence, which underlies the figure/ground alignment, is at work in the structure of language, offering a cognitive explanation of SSSE by introducing Langacker's cognitive models, summarizing that a subject is prototypically an agent, human and the primary figure, whereas a direct object is a patient, a physical object and the secondary figure, and an indirect object is an active experiencer. Chapter 5 first introduces Charles Fillmore's 'frame' notion and his classic example, the [COMMERCIAL EVENT] frame, arguing that every sentence evokes a certain cognitive perspective on a situation by the choice of the verb and the particular syntactic pattern that it governs; the perspective from which we view a situation depends on what attracts our attention; and then discusses Talmy's notion 'event frame' which can be conceived of as being a much more basic cognitive phenomenon that underlies a wide variety of real-world situations and is shared by all human beings, and applies Talmy's theory of windowing of attention to analyze adverbials of simple sentences which are simply neglected in Langacker's approach, thus trying to give a comparatively comprehensive explanation of SSSE. Finally, Chapter 6 draws conclusions out of the above findings and points out remaining problems and possible directions future research can pursue.