A Corpus-based Cognitive Exploration Of English Concessive Conditional Construction

Concessive conditionals widely used in English possess the characteristics of both conditionals and concessives.Researchers have carried out a series of studies on this unique construction.However,previous studies mostly focus on the conventional semantics and syntax is seldom discussed.Different researchers put forward diversified terms and classifications of this construction,which makes the relevant researches very unsystematic,inconsistent and incomparable.Meanwhile,theories of cognitive linguistics have been extensively applied to interpret various languag e expressions,cognitive research on Concessive Conditional Construction(CCC)is rarely found and moreover,the underlying cognitive motivations of CCC are worthy of being explored.Therefore,a relatively comprehensive investigation of English CCC is of great value and significance.Based on Brown and LOB,researcher of this paper gives a detailed description and analysis in terms of syntax and semantics of CCC and also tries to provide reasonable explanations for the properties of syntax and semantics from cognitive perspectives.This thesis aims to address the following research questions:1.What are the syntactic properties of English CCC?2.What are the semantic interpretations of English CCC?3.What cognitive motivations underlie the syntactic and semantic properties of English CCC?In this research,a number of related linguistic materials were retrieved from Brown and LOB according to the connectives of English CCC.After screening,776 eligible sentences are collected,of which 163 are scalar variants,175 alternative and 438 universal.With regard to the three research questions,answers are as follows:1.The integral structure of CCC is represented by (?) p,q.Specified by different manifestations of (?),the scalar variant is structured as even if p(clause),q and even if p(XP),q;the alternative whether p or not,q;whether p(… or …)and whether XP1 or XP2,q;the universal no matter wh-/how p,q and no matter wh-/how,q;wh/h-ever p,q and wh/h-ever XP,q.The positioning of component clauses is realized in three ways,i.e.p located before q,in the middle of q or after q with the apodosis q set as the fixed base.Compared vertically,the percentage of different positioning that each variant takes up inside its effective data shows that before q placement of alternative accounts for the least,the other two having similar proportions.2.English CCC is generally characterized with the semantic properties of semifactuality,entailment,incompatibility and implication.The scalar variant is semantically classified into six categories,namely the scalar CCC of quantity,identity,degree,complementation,alternation and polar scalarity.The meaning of scalarity is the result of interaction between the variant construction and the elements that distinct each category.Different from the former five categories,antecedents of polar scalarity lies on the negative or positive pole of a certain scale.13 sentences among the 163 effective ones approximate or overlap concessives in semantics.The alternative variant is featured by two alternative antecedents disjuncted by or not,one the negation of the other;or in other cases exhaustive and non-overlapping options connected by or.The last three categories of scalar variant are semantically equivalent with the alternative and are structurally interchangeable.The distinctive property of universal variant lies in the nature of quantification which manifests itself as universal quantification and free choice quantification.It is achieved by the interaction of ?irrelevance prefix? no matter with interrogative pronouns as well as by pragmatic scales invoked by ever interacting with wh-items.Semantic comparison between variants shows that they share the properties of relational indifference and anticausality or partial anticausality.The alternative variant lack the quantificational force and variables of scalar are gradable rather than equal.3.The internal cognitive motivations of CCC are analyzed integrally and respectively.In the aspect of syntax,the demarcation of general structure,basic structures and sub-structures is applicable to three levels of categorization.Based on the second model of prototype theory,the abstract cognitive schema is described both unitarily and separately to clarify CCC as an independent construction.Different positioning of protasis and apodosis is influenced by the degree of subjectification of the conceptualizer or language user.At the semantic level,superordinate level and basic level categories are differentiated according to the overall and distinctive semantic attributes.The basic category members are of unequal membership and typicality.Structural interchange between variants roots in the internal homogeneity among category members.The dynamic construal of English CCC and its variants involves multiple dimensions of focusing and antecedent prominence.When conceptualizing these variants,language users also go through different mental scanning modes.This study is of both theoretical and practical values.On one hand,CCC in American and British English is systematically investigated from the perspective of cognitive linguistics in an attempt to expand and enrich the research in this field.On the other hand,this study is beneficial to the teaching and learning of this construction.By clarifying the fuzzy delimitation and classification of this construction in traditional grammar,teachers and students are supposed to achieve a cognitive balance among conditionals,concessive conditionals and concessives.Meanwhile,exploration of the underlying cognitive motivations is helpful for language learners to acquire this construction more precisely and use it more properly.