Chinese Mode Of Inheritance Relationship And Cognitive Function

Based on the Cognitive Construction Grammar that is represented by Adele. E.Goldberg, linked with the achievements from modern Chinese studies, and combinedwith analyzing the typical demonstrations, the dissertation discusses the issue ofconstruction inheritance, especially focuses on the motivation links. The subject ofthe dissertation consists of nine sub-programs:1) to introduce the similarities anddifferences among four main schools of the Construction Grammar.2) to explain theinheritance net according to Goldberg’s monograph in1995.3) to analyze themotivation links according to Goldberg’s monograph in2006.4) to interpret theconstructional polysemy in a syntactic category.5) to expound the semanticextension depending on cognitive domains shifting.6) to discuss the interactionbetween constructional coercion and lexical access.7) to explore the specificconstructions semantic meaning by the integration of chunks grouping.8) to indicatethat linguistic forms are driven by pragmatic competence.9) to set the changes ofchunks grouping as parameters to examine the aberrance of constructions.Chapter1is a general introduction. The Cognitive Construction Grammar isderived from the academic circles turning over and criticizing the TransformationalGrammar. It gradually comes to be the valid approaches to interpret and solve theproblems we met in studying linguistics.Chapter2focuses on the theoretical studies of four main schools of theConstruction Grammar. The chapter explores the similarities and differences amongthe four theoretical models by the analysis of the grammatical information containedin the syntactic categories and patterns, also in the constructional and hierarchicalsystems.Chapter3does the further explanation on inheritance links according to “AConstruction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure” and “Constructions at work:The Nature of Generalization in Language”. The relations of the individualconstructions can be taken as an inheritance hierarchies net. The argument structureconstructions constitute the starting steps of language acquisition by link the motivation with a corresponding mind category.Chapter4investigates three Chinese constructions as the “NP antedisplacementand topicalization” construction, the “progressively comparative” construction andthe “lian”sentence construction to describe the basis for sub-constructions that havea identity in the pairing of form with semantic meaning or discourse function, toanalyze the motivation for semantic parameters inheritance, to prove that theprominence of the potential semantic meaning are caused by chunk’s aberrance. It isinferred that the motivation for sub-constructions extension is due to the semanticextension of the relevant chunks by the mechanism of metaphorical mapping.Chapter5does the research on the “serial verb” construction’s cognitivehierarchy, the “ba” sentence construction’s displacement schema and the“event-term NV” construction’s extension to explore how the constructional partialproductivity acts on sub-constructions extension. It is concluded that the causes formetaphorical links are closely related to the event mapped on the cognitive structure,the concept invoked on image schema and the metaphorical push-like effect.Chapter6takes Chinese ditransitive construction to demonstrate thatconstructional coercion determine upon some verbs access, takes “V bu dao na li qv”construction to illustrate the causes in cognitive domain why some adjectives couldbe acceptable, takes “hen+NP” construction to prove that the potential semanticfactors have to be invoked when some nouns tries to get into the construction“intensifier+adj.”. When a lexical item’s features could not be accepted by a specificsyntactic structure. The mechanism of constructional coercion would provide themandatory requirements to enable the item to be compromised with the argumentstructure construction.Chapter7compares “ba” sentence with subject-predicate sentence to revealthe internal connection and differences between them, takes self-causativeverb-resultative construction “NP+VP” to release that the information-bearingchunks affect on construction’s semantic drift, explores the interaction betweenchunk’s and construction’s semantic meaning by drawing out “you” sentence’spositive tendency from the diachronic and synchronic observation. The studies indicate that chunks bear relatively independent semantic meaning for aconstruction. The integrity semantic meaning of a specific construction is built up bythe chunks it has.Chapter8puts forward a concept as “Context Relevancy”, it indicates that theusage-based constructions are subjected to the context. Speakers’ judgment bysubjectivity on the context causes the construction “NPpatient+VPt+QM” wordorder’s change. Speakers mind presupposition affects their decision on choosing thecombined or the adhesive predicate-complement structure. Speakers mood variationdetermines upon the pragmatic realization of the construction “kan ni A de”. Itdemonstrates that constructions usage are related to the scene construal from thespeakers. The discourse is encoded by constructions function.Chapter9explains that chunk positions flow causes the aberrance of “V qi lai”construction. Chunk prosodic features change makes the constructional homonymy“V+N”constructions (2+2→2+1) presenting the degree of tightnesscorrespondingly both on the melodic tier and the syntactic structure. The looming ofthe chunk that bears the quantity sequence leads to more common comparativemeaning being prominent from the “progressively comparative” construction. It goeswithout saying that information the specific chunk bears is the parameter in aconstruction to prompt its constructional meaning and its discourse function.Chapter10is a conclusion and thoughts update. To continue the research onfunctionalist frameworks in pragmatic, semantic and syntactic planes. It is expectedto exhibit the inheritance net for Modern Chinese constructions by combing thetangled links followed.