A Usage-based Study On "a N1 Of N2" Classifier Construction

Nouns are closely related to things in the outside world and classifiers closely relate to the way the world interacts(Denny,1976,p.125).Although English has no word class as classifier,it has vocabulary that can be used to express the concept of number or quantification,which is mainly realized by nouns.It is generally believed that the phrases,such as “a piece of bread”,are equivalent to classifiers in Chinese s in terms of function,semantics,rhetorical effects and contexts,which are named as classifier structure.“a(n)N1 of N2” is a kind of classifier construction,and it is very common in English.However,the academic researches on “a N1 of N2” classifier construction is relatively few.From the perspective of cognitive construction grammar,we believe that “a N1 of N2” classifier construction,like other classifier constructions,is not only structurally productive,but also semantically polysemous.In order to verify the above hypothesis,the usage-based construction grammar is employed as the theoretical perspective and COCA(American Contemporary Corpus)as the source of the corpus.Moreover,covarying collexemes analysis is used to study the “a N1 of N2” classifier construction from the conditions how the combination of nouns N1 and N2 enters the target construction and constructional meanings.This thesis aims to further explore the internal characteristics and operational mechanisms of the target construction,making people further understand “a N1 of N2” classifier construction.Based on above analysis,this thesis intends to specifically answer the following three questions:(1)What kind of nouns may occur in the slot N1 and slot N2?(2)What are the characteristics of noun pairs of N1 and N2 in “a N1 of N2” classifier construction?(3)What are the cognitive mechanisms that may affect the emergence of “a N1 of N2” classifier construction?The major findings are listed as follows:(1)Among the 4230 pairs of N1 and N2 collected from the corpus,we find that the nouns entering the N1 slot can be divided into two categories: 1)N1 can reflect certain attributes of N2,including the quantity attribute,shape attributes,container attributes,action attributes,organization attributes,and location places,such as lot: a lot of students,piece: a piece of paper,glass: a glass of wine,sip: a sip of water,group: a group of people,nest: a nest of mice,etc.,2)N2 and N1 have similar characteristics,including strength,quantity,behavior,and shape,such as flood: a flood of memories,sea: a sea of people,swarm: a swarm of bees,lump: a lump of ice,etc.Nouns entering the N2 slot are usually unbounded,including plural forms of countless nouns and countable nouns.(2)Based on the classification criteria for classifier construction of McEnery & Xiao(2007),this thesis classifies 116 pairs of N1 and N2 with the highest association strength in “a N1 of N2” classifier construction into different types.The results show that these “a N1 of N2” classifier constructions are mainly divided into 8 categories: 1)measure,2)quantity,3)shape,4)part and whole,5)verbal nouns and substance 6)arrangement,7)container and content,8)collective nouns and substance.Among them,the collective nouns and substance,verbal nouns and substance relationship appear frequently and highest in the target construction,accounting for 23.2% and 21% respectively,followed by arrangement relationship,container and content relationship,shape relationship,measure relationship and quantity relationship,and part and whole relationship.(3)Metonymy and metaphor mechanisms play vital role in the emergence of “a N1 of N2” classifier construction.Through the collostructional analysis,the types of collective nouns and substance and verbal nouns the target construction appear more frequently and have strong association strength with the target construction.Through the conceptual metaphor and metonymy mechanisms,the nouns N1 and N2 are combined with the target construction with semantic coherence.Through the conceptual blending theory,the first input space is the relevant attribute of the noun entering the N1 slot,and the second input space is the noun entering the N2 slot.The target phrase construction provides a semantic framework for conceptual blending,and the two slot nouns provide specific vocabulary information.N1 and N2 are respectively integrated into the N1 and N2 slots of two known configurations by selective projection,forming a “a N1 of N2” classifier construction.The typical collostructional meaning is that the noun of the N1 slot can not only express the number of N2,but also describe some attributes of N2 or similar features,including such as motion attributes,organization attributes,state features and shape features.As various nouns of N1 and N2 continue to enter the target classifier construction,and the frequency their use is also increasing,making the productivity of “a N1 of N2” classifier construction very strong.The results show that the “a N1 of N2” English classifier construction is a highly productive construction,and its semantics are obviously influenced by the noun combinations,which is the result of the metaphorical and metonymic enhancement on the basis of usage.The research result offers enlightenment on the acquisition and teaching of construction,meanwhile it provides guidance for the study on usage-based construction grammar.