A Cognitive Study Of English Caused-Motion Construction:Semantic-Syntactic Interface Between Verbs And Caused-Motion Syntactic Variants

The dissertation explores the semantic-syntactic relation between verbs and English caused-motion construction from a connectionist view of Conceptual Frame. Positing six syntactic variants, the dissertation discusses the relation between variant semantics and the core caused-motion sense, and that between variant semantics and semantics of prototypical caused-motion verbs, contact-by-impact verbs, motion verbs and break verbs. The research shows the fusion of verbs into variants is licensed by connection between verbs and variants or semantic linkage between conceptual structures in conceptual frame.On the basis of previous research, the dissertation addresses two problems regarding English caused-motion construction:1) why verbs participate in some syntactic variants while being blocked from others;2) why some verbs of the same class are accepted in the variants while others are not, if argument structure construction licenses their participation.To answer the questions, the dissertation identifies six syntactic variants of caused-motion event:location variant, final location variant, conative variant, contact variant, transfer variant and causative variant. They have the same schematic sense, but each bears its own extended sense by means of elaboration on certain participants in semantic structure. The elaboration on the path of motion not only profiles different portions on the path, but also shows the relation between theme and location from different perspectives. The dissertation then discusses the semantic relation between verbs and the six variants. The fusion of verbs into each variant involves distinct semantic features encoded by verbs. Verbs and variants that share the same semantic features are connected. The creative use of verbs, however, is licensed by semantic linkage between conceptual structures in conceptual frame.The research in the dissertation shows that the relation between verbs and caused-motion construction can be explained properly by semantic linkage between conceptual structures in conceptual frame and semantic connection between verbs and syntactic variants. Therefore, the semantic-syntactic interface is not only based on argument structure at the verbal or constructional level, but also on conceptual frame.