A Study Of The Interaction Between Lexicon And Constuction

The dissertation presents the results of a meticulous and in-depth investigation of the interaction between lexicon and construction, which is carried out to uncover the underlying mechanism and patterns of the dynamic changing process of lexical and constructional meaning, thereby contributing to the deeper insight of the meaning conflict between lexicon and construction, the coercion effect of constructional meaning on lexical meaning and the motivation of meaning change of lexicon and construction. Some important theoretical issues related to the topic are also discussed in the dissertation.According to Construction Grammar Theory, the meaning of language expression comes not only from words it contains but also from the contraction formed by these words. Taking sentence as an example, its meaning consists of lexical meaning and the meaning of argument structure construction. This view entails an explanation about the relationship between the lexical meaning and constructional meaning. Goldberg, who founded one version of constructional grammar theory, has made a profound analysis of the static relation between verb meaning and constructional meaning, but her analysis of the"fusion"of verb meaning and constructional meaning, which violates some basic tenets of cognitive linguistics including encyclopedic view of word meaning and the usage-based thesis, is thought to be inadequate. Therefore, a thorough and in-depth analysis of the interaction between lexical meaning and constructional meaning proves to be necessary, which provides the motivation for the present study.To fulfill the purpose, however, the author has to first examine the existing theories on this topic and clarify some theoretical issues related to the topic.Firstly, since presently there is much confusion about the definition of construction, and construction is a key concept in the present study, it is essential to set an appropriate definition for the term. According to Langacker, one of the founders of cognitive linguistics, construction is an array of symbolic structures linked by correspondences and categorizing relationships, including component structures and the composite structure formed by their integration. Simply put, both grammatical patterns and their instances are constructions according to Langacker. Considering both the viewpoints of traditional theories and the basic standpoints of the cognitive linguistics, the paper holds that the definition provided by Langacker is more appropriate comparing with those set by other grammarians, because it balances the requirements of theoretical inheritance and innovation. On the one hand, it conforms with the traditional concept that has been adopted widely and for a very long time, so Langacker's definition could avoid concept confusion to the utmost extent; on the other hand, it makes reasonable innovations upon the concept by including instances of grammatical patterns as well as grammatical patterns themselves as constructions, so as to bring the concept under the framework of usage-based theory.Secondly, before discussing the interaction of lexicon and construction, the dissertation analyzes the nature of lexical meaning and constructional meaning.Adopting the encyclopedic view of cognitive semantics, the paper lays much emphasis on the role of semantic frame or domain that the word activates in the construal of word meaning. According to cognitive semantics, while words do have relatively well-entrenched meanings stored in long-term memory (the coded meaning), word meaning in language is protean in nature. This means that the meaning associated with a single word is prone to shift depending on the exact context of use. Thus cognitive semanticists argue that the meaning of any given word is constructed'on line'in the context in which it is being used. Therefore, the present paper holds that in different constructions, the meaning of the word varies because the different facets of frame is profiled. By analyzing the interaction of lexicon and construction, we can describe the dynamic process of meaning construction of lexicon.While adopting the encyclopedic view of cognitive semantics in the analysis of lexical meaning, the dissertation does not deny the advantage of lexicalist approach in analyzing word meaning. On the contrary, the paper attaches great importance to the semantic feature analysis of lexical meaning which is proposed mainly by lexicalists. Semantic feature analysis is useful in the present study because it could clearly show both the characteristics of lexical meaning and the semantic constraints construction sets upon the words that are to enter the construction. So the change of lexical meaning could be clearly reflected through feature analysis.As to the nature of constructional meaning, although it does not deny the polysemy of constructional meaning, the dissertation holds a different view on the formation of construction polysemy compared with Goldberg's Construction Grammar. According to Goldberg, constructions are associated with a family of closely related senses rather than a single, fixed abstract sense, and these senses are linked through different inheritance modes. Such a view just exhibits the static relationship between the different senses of construction, and could not reflect the hierarchical nature of constructional meaning. In addition, Goldberg failed to notice the indissociability of lexical meaning and constructional meaning. According to Croft, constructions are structured in a taxonomic network. That is, constructions exhibit different levels of schematicity or generality. The higher a construction places in the taxonomic network, the more abstract its meaning is. For a schematic construction, there may be several constructions serving as its daughter constructions. And the meanings of these daughter constructions are slightly different from each other. This is the reason why Goldberg holds that construction is polysemous. But from our analysis, which is in conformity with usage-based thesis, the different meanings of construction are closed linked with the different classes of words associated with the construction. So it is unreasonable to say a construction has several meanings without mentioning the association of the meanings and the different classes of words.Last, based on the above analysis, the dissertation presents an interaction model of lexical meaning and constructional meaning.Based on Talmy's cognitive representation system and Michaelis'Override Principle, the dissertation argues that lexical meaning is coerced by constructional meaning when they conflict with each other. This happens when unconventional word enters a construction. Since the conventional meaning of the word generally does not accord with the semantic requirements of the construction, under the coercion effect of constructional meaning, the meaning of the word shifts so as to live in harmony with the constructional meaning. On the other hand, with the association of construction with unconventional words, the meaning of the construction also shifts because constructional meaning is associated with the meaning of words it includes. Thus a new construction comes into being.In the end, the new model formulated in the dissertation is verified in the analyses of the interaction phenomenon of lexicon and construction in the Chinese existential construction and the formation process of Chinese"adverb + noun"construction.