A Cognitive Grammar Approach To The English Nominative Absolute Construction

The Nominative Absolute Construction (hereafter called the NAC (e.g."All the officials having arrived" in "All the officials having arrived, the meeting was declared open.")) frequently appears in literary works and senior English examinations. Its oddness lies in that it functions as a subordinate adverbial clause but it has no subordinator or finite verb in it. Moreover, it looks like a postmodified nominal phrase but there is no postmodifying relationship between the heading noun or pronoun and other elements behind. The strangeness of the NAC causes difficulty in the learning and teaching of it.In order to get out of the difficulty, this thesis makes efforts to make a comparatively comprehensive study of the NAC from a cognitive linguistic view. This study is summarized as follows:Firstly, the thesis explores the nature of the NAC. Three reasons determine the NAC is a clause. First, the relationship between the noun or the pronoun and the non-finite structure in the NAC is in fact the same as that between subject and predicate. Second, the NAC functions as a subordinate adverbial clause. Third, the NAC is interpreted as a full finite clause in our mind whenever we try to comprehend the whole sentence or use the NAC. Thus, the NAC is in nature a kind of non-finite or verbless clause which usually functions as a subordinate adverbial clause. Moreover, the NAC is thought to be reduced from a finite clause to achieve language economy. In this process, its explicitness is also reduced. Fortunately, context and gestalt perception play a significant role in the recovery of the reduced information in its interpretation. And the left information in the NAC becomes more prominent, thus more expressive. As a result, a better expressiveness with fewer words makes the NAC favored in literary works.Secondly, the thesis explains the existing mechanism of the NAC with the Event-domain Cognitive Model (hereafter called the ECM). The NAC and its matrix clause constitutes an EVENT domain, in which the NAC corresponds to a sub-event while the matrix clause a super-event. The hierarchical levels of events explain the hierarchical structure of the sentence that the NAC belongs to. Because the factors in a domain are relevant and closely related, default information is allowed in the ECM, which appropriately explains the possibility and the process of reduction in the NAC. In a word, the ECM appropriately explains how the NAC is syntactically organized.Thirdly, the thesis explores the cognitive basis of the NAC with the Construal Theory from the five dimensions which affect the construal. Specificity partly explains the possibility and the process of reduction in the NAC. Scope offers a cognitive domain, in which the NAC functions as part of the base while the matrix clause a profile. Scope also indicates that the NAC and the matrix clause as well as other factors within it are relevant. Thus scope offers part of the context for the understanding of the NAC. Perspective determines the vantage point of a sentence, the relationship between the NAC and its matrix clause, and the prominent information in an NAC. The principle of prominence explains the hierarchical structure of the sentence with the NAC. Most importantly, this principle together with specificity explains the possibility and the process of reduction in the NAC. Background offers the reference points for the recovery of reduced information in the NAC. Background and scope together constitute a whole context for the understanding of the NAC.To sum up, the thesis explores the nature, the existing mechanism and the cognitive basis of the NAC with the help of the ECM theory and the Construal theory so as to achieve a better understanding of it.