A Cognitive Study Of The Selection Between Infinitives And-ing Participles When They Are Used As Object And Object Complement

Infinitives and-ing participles are two important components of the nonfinite verb forms in English; the selection between them when they are used as object and object complement is regarded as a confusing grammatical point to many English learners. Therefore, the differentiation between infinitives and-ing participles is of great practical significance to understanding and using English correctly and appropriately.Traditional grammarians have made descriptive studies on infinitives and-ing participles by providing long lists of verbs which can take them as object or object complement, failing to provide systematic theoretical explanations. Some scholars have attempted to explore the meanings of these two nonfinite forms from the semantic, pragmatic or cognitive perspective, and they have made valuable achievements. However, their research findings fail to highly generalize and reveal the motivation of the meanings of them. Under the guidance of some fundamental theories of cognitive linguistics, this thesis has looked into the concepts and image schemas of infinitives and-ing participles from the perspectives of conceptualization and image schema. On the basis of this, the thesis has, according to the principle of semantic selection, provided a systematical account of the selection between infinitives and-ing participles when they are used as object and object complement.Within the framework of cognitive linguistics, meaning is equated with conceptualization, and concepts are formed through bodily interaction with the physical world. The study of this thesis reveals the following two facts:(1) the experiential basis of the concept of infinitives is that each action has a beginning and an end. People live by transition from the stop of an action to the start of another action;(2) the experiential basis of the concept of-ing participles is that there is a process between the beginning and the end of an action, and each action lasts for a period of time in one way or another.In addition, in light of cognitive linguistics, meaning is regarded as the basis of syntax, and syntactic structures reflect their conceptual contents. The study of this thesis reveals the nature of the meanings of infinitives and-ing participles, that is, the nature of the meaning of infinitives is "Start-Stop", which emphasizes the initiation or the completion of an action, and the nature of the meaning of-ing participles is "Process", which highlights the whole process or a portion of this process from the beginning to the end of an action.The principle of semantic selection is a universal principle which should be followed when linguistic units are combined together. It maintains that only when the meanings of linguistic units are consistent with each other, can they co-occur as a combination. According to this principle, this thesis has done enough research on the selection between infinitives and-ing participles when they are used as object and object complement. This thesis holds that, when they are used as object, the selection between infinitives and-ing participles is determined by the consistency between the "Start-Stop"/"Process" meanings of infinitives/-ing participles and the meaning of the predicate in the main clause; and that, when they are used as object complement, the selection between infinitives and-ing participles is determined by the compatibility between the "Start-Stop"/"Process" meanings of infinitives/-ing participles and the meaning of the "predicate+object" construction in the main clause. Based on this, the thesis has classified the predicates in this case into different groups according to their semantic characteristics, and then made detailed analyses on the selection between infinitives and-ing participles when these predicates take them as object and object complement. The analyses show that the selection between infinitives and-ing participles when they are used as object and object complement accords with the general principle of semantic selection; and that a full understanding of the "Start-Stop" meaning of infinitives and the "Process" meaning of-ing participles and a good grasp of the semantic characteristics of different predicates are of great reference value to language users and researchers in mastering the usage differences between infinitives and-ing participles when they are used as object and object complement.