| Idiom variation is very common both in written and oral expressions.It is a kind of language variation phenomenon in which language users adjust,change,add or delete some component or components of an idiom so that the form or meaning of the idiom changes.Early in the 1970 s,scholars have focused on English idiom variation.Fraser(1970)admits the transformational potential of idioms and proposes a list of Frozenness Hierarchy of the idiom.The higher the frozenness is,the lower the transformational potential of idioms is.After that,different scholars both at home and abroad such as Nunberg(1994),Fernando(1996),Moon(1998),Cignoni,L.et al.(1999),Langlotz(2006),Wulff(2008),Huang(2013)and Attila(2017)have conducted researches on the definitions,classifications,textual functions,pragmatic effects and other aspects from different perspectives,covering such comprehensive domains as rhetorical perspective,stylistic perspective,pragmatic perspective,and other perspectives.However,the scope of the previous research subject is relatively broad and researches specified on the variation of one kind of idiom are insufficient and less intensive.Then,most of the researches focus on the descriptive accounts of idiom variation instead of its cognitive and generative mechanisms and most of them are just a description of language facts and variation phenomenon.Usage-based theory takes the view that language knowledge originates from language experience and that language meaning is based on use and experience.As a broad research perspective of language,usage-based theory takes construction as the basic unit of language.And with the development of usage-based model,this model and theory are more and more applied to interpret construction grammar.Fillmore's cognitive construction grammar,Goldberg's construction grammar and Croft's radical construction grammar are all based on the opinion that construction is related to use.Idiom,as an important part of the language,is connected with usage-based theory.Since construction grammar derives from the study of the idiom and “idiom is construction;construction is idiom”(Wulff,2013;Yan & Li,2018),the study of idiom variation can be deemed as a kind of the study of construction grammar.In terms of concept,idiom variation is a kind of language variation,the process of which is to alter some component or components of the idiom and the result of which is altering the form or meaning of the original idiom.However,constructional change is the change of some internal feature of the construction and constructionalization results in a new form-meaning pair,that is,new construction.In terms of research perspective,constructional change and constructionalization are based on the perspective of construction grammar while the perspective of idiom variation is uncertain.Therefore,it is of relative theoretical significance and practical value to study idioms and idiom variation combining construction grammar and usage-based theory.Based on life experience,caused-motion event is not only very common in daily life,but also helps accumulate substantial knowledge of life.In order to conduct deep research on idiom variation,this study considers caused-motion constructions as caused-motion idioms(CMIs),from the perspective of usage-based construction grammar,and then probes into the formal and semantic features of idiom vartation.Three research questions are aimed to be solved:1.What are the characteristics of English CMIs?2.What are the types and characteristics of the variation of English CMIs?3.How does the variation of English CMIs occur?In order to answer the above questions,this study,on the basis of COHA,COBULID Idioms Dictionary and collect OXFORD Idioms Dictionary(Second Edition),observes the phenomenon of English idiom in caused-motion constructions,classifies and interprets this kind of phenomenon.The main research findings are shown as follows:1)Caused-motion events are very common in people's daily life both in oral and written expressions.Based on the 9316 cases of idioms collected from the two idiom dictionary,it is found that English CMIs take up nearly 7% of the whole idiom list,which indicate that English CMIs are relatively common.English CMIs not only own the characteristics of idioms but also own those of caused-motion constructions.The most common verb morpheme of English CMIs is “put”,followed by “take”,“get”,“keep”,“make”,“throw”,“bring” and “set”.The most common preposition morpheme of English CMIs is “to”,followed by “in”,“into”,“out of”,“at” and “off”.The top three common collocations of English CMIs are “put” and “on”,“put” and “in”,and “keep” and “on”.2)Nearly 75% of English CMIs have the phenomenon of idiom variation,which means that English CMIs experience considerable variation in use.It is found that there are two major types of idiom variation in English CMIs: formal variation and semantic variation,and both of them can be divided into three subtypes.Formal variation can be divided into component substitution,component addition or deletion,and component rearrangement while semantic variation can be divided into lexical variation,component exchange,and component insertion.The formal variation of English CMIs occurs more often than the semantic variation.Moreover,the variation of English CMIs have some characteristics in semantic,and pragmatic aspects.3)English CMIs varying from prototype constructions to variant constructions are mainly influenced by the four cognitive mechanisms of idiom variation which are metaphor,metonymy,iconicity and analogy.These construing mechanisms provide ways to understand idiom variants and offers corresponding cognitive interpretation.This thesis combines usage-based theory and construction grammar,by virtue of the linguistic data,and then conducts a relatively systematic analysis and discussion on English CMIs,providing a new perspective for the studies on idiom variation and construction grammar and having the reference values in idiom teaching and learning. |
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