A Study Of Grammatical Metonymy Based On The Analysis Of Chinese Syntactic Structures

As a basic way of thinking and cognitive operation, metonymy operates at all levels of linguistic structure including phonology, lexical semantics, grammar, discourse, pragmatics and so on, but research on metonymy in grammar has visibly been underrepresented, and the previous studies lack systematization. Based on the theory of conceptual metonymy, this dissertation attempts to treat grammatical metonymy (GM) as a sub-branch of conceptual metonymy and explore it with reference both to theoretical construction and empirical analysis. It aims at disclosing the cognitive motivation underlying grammatical structures in general and enriching the theoretical research of conceptual metonymy and extending its applicability in particular. This dissertation addresses three aspects of GM:1) the definition and characteristics of GM.2) the operational model of GM.3) the way GM behaves in Chinese grammatical structures. The major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly, a comparatively systematic study has been conducted on GM, ranging from its definition, motivations, characteristics, functions and the realization patterns of its source. Based on the review of previous definitions concerning GM and the implication of grammar, this dissertation distinguishes GM in the broad sense and in the narrow sense. The former refers to conceptual metonymies reflected in the grammatical system, and the latter refers to conceptual metonymies which have an impact on the distribution of syntactic elements or the overall organization of the sentences. This dissertation holds GM in its narrow sense and takes syntactic structures as the prototypical grammatical structures. Therefore, the research explores GM on the sentence level.The operation of GM is motivated on multiple dimensions. The production of thinking for speaking and the embodied philosophy provide the philosophical basis, and the Law of Pragnanz and Spreading Activation Theory lay the psychological foundations. Furthermore, the conceptual motivation of language and the principle of economy in linguistic expression constitute the linguistic grounding for grammatical metonymy.As a sub-branch of conceptual metonymy, GM is characterized by the following two features:1) GM is understood as a conceptual phenomenon and serves as a cognitive mechanism; 2) GM has grammatical reflections and is bound to have an impact on grammatical structures. GM, conceptual in nature, differs from grammatical metaphor in Systemic and Functional Grammar, which is regarded as a kind of linguistic phenomenon. A comparative study of GM and other kinds of metonymies shows that some referential metonymies are categorized into GM for they not only change the semantic meaning of source but also its grammatical meaning, which leads to the change of the distribution of syntactic elements. It is also discovered that GM is hierarchically structured from the high-level metonymies to the low-level metonymies, which differs from the view of Ruiz de Mendoza and his collaborators that GM is limited to high-level metonymy. The research evidences that GM and lexical metonymy form a continuum and the boundary between them is blurry and fuzzy.Apart from the general functions of conceptual metonymies, GM plays crucial roles in the following aspects:1) GM is a general guiding principle of meaning construction for grammatical structures; 2) GM is the cognitive motivation for creative expressions; 3) GM is a kind of syntactic strategy. The linguistic realization of the source in GM is multifarious and complicated. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, verb-object constructions, subject-predicate constructions, modifier-head constructions and even whole sentences can all act as the source of GM, which differs from the traditional view that the source of metonymy is restricted to nouns.Secondly, the operational model of GM has been constructed and some important factors related to its operation are elaborated. It is argued that bi-directional interaction exists between grammatical structures and conceptual metonymy. On the one hand, conceptual metonymy has an important regulatory and motivating role in grammar, which in turn can license and constrain metonymic processes on the other. This dissertation puts forward the notion of chained GM, indicating that GM may work in chains and that grammatical structures may be motivated by a sequence of reference and mental access. Context can accommodate and regulate the operation of GM. There are two ways in which GM motivates grammatical structures:1) GM changes the grammatical meaning as well as the lexical meaning of the source, which has consequences on the distribution of grammatical elements; 2) The target meaning of metonymy licenses the reconstruction of grammatical structures.Thirdly, the research elaborates on how GM behaves in Chinese grammatical structure. Three case studies are carried out in order to testify and complement the theory of GM.The case of Chinese resultative construction (RC) from the perspective of GM aims to disclose the impact of GM on the generation of grammatical structures and the rearrangement of grammatical elements. The generation of RC embodies the metonymic thinking PART FOR WHOLE. RC is a semantic structure consisting of caused event and causing event. When it is represented explicitly, profiling different aspects of the whole scenario will lead to different grammatical forms. Explicit linguistic coding merely acts as a reference point to provide mental access to the whole scenario. The causer in RC can be realized in various ways, which allows a distinction between the prototypical causer and the non-prototypical causer. The former generally indicates event or activity, while the latter can be further divided into the internal and the external non-prototypical causers. The internal non-prototypical causer is motivated by grammatical metonymy SALINET SEMATIC ROLES FOR CAUSING EVENT; By contrast, the external counterpart is motivated by the chained grammatical metonymies. GM can provide a unified explanation for the variety and complexity of causers in RC.The investigation of Chinese imperative construction with adjective acting as predicate aims, on the other hand, to testify the impact of GM on the whole construction. The analysis of imperative construction ("Adj+dian") shows that it is the grammatical metonymy RESUTL FOR ACTION that sanctions the stative adjectives to enter action constructions. It is much easier to characterize the adjectives in the construction when its cognitive motivation is disclosed. The adjectives are restricted to those denoting the resultative state brought about by the action, so "controllable" and "measurable" are the typical properties of these adjectives.The analysis of object change in Chinese verb-object construction is expected to explore the overall impact of GM on the shaping of grammatical structure. It is found that object change is motivated by three kinds of grammatical metonymies. First, the object change is caused by the metonymic operation on nouns acting as object. The nouns acting as object are conceptually contiguous and one of them can provide mental access to the other. Second, the object change is caused by the metonymic operation on the semantic roles in action ICM. The semantic roles are conceptually contiguous, so the salient semantic role can take the place of patient by means of metonymic operation. Third, the object change is caused by the metonymic operation on verbs. The metonymic operation changes not only the semantic meaning of a verb but also its grammatical properties. Accordingly, the object followed the verb is changed. The findings not only display the impact of GM on the distribution of grammatical elements, but also its shaping effect on the whole construction.The analysis of the above structures has illustrated the consequences of GM on grammatical structure on different levels and disclosed the cognitive motivation underlying the grammatical structures. Moreover, the study evidences that GM and grammar are mutually dependent and that context plays a crucial role in accommodating the metonymic operation.To sum up, this dissertation proposes that GM is a sub-branch of conceptual metonymy. The study not only makes a detailed investigation of the theory of GM but also analyzes the operational mechanism of GM in several Chinese syntactic structures. The study is of significance in shedding light on the cognitive mechanism of grammatical structures, disclosing the relationship between the basic way of thinking and language faculty. Furthermore, this study opens up new avenues of research on conceptual metonymy to some extent, extends conceptual metonymy to its wider applicability, and provides further evidence for its explanatory power.