A Cognitive Study On The English Caused-motion Construction

Previous studies on the English caused-motion construction mainly fall into four domains: the transformational approach of argument structure, the projection approach, the compositional approach and cognitive approach. However, each has its inadequacies. Mainly based on the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar of Goldberg and the Encyclopaedia View, this thesis conducts a study on the English caused-motion construction adopting the method of top-down and bottom-up.According to Construction Grammar of Goldberg (1995), the prototypical sense of the English caused-motion construction involves"manipulative causation and actual movement", other meanings are the extension of this meaning. All these meanings contact with each other constitute a category. English caused-motion construction is a gestalt. Only if we grasp the whole meaning of the construction can we give a corresponding generalization for the grammar phenomena which appear in this construction. The construction limits its constituent parts, but the parts as well have contribution to the construction. Based on these studying results, firstly, this thesis mainly discusses the interaction between the English caused-motion construction and its arguments. The English caused-motion construction inherently decides the choice of arguments such as whether an argument is proper influences whether a concrete construction is meaningful and can be accepted by persons. Although animate entities and some inanimate entities can act as an agent argument, the archetypal one is a person. The choice of the theme argument closely relates to the causative manner and the type of causative force. At first, if causative force is the physical force and there is physical contact between the causer argument and the theme argument, at this time, the theme argument can be any entity. Next, if causative force is not physical force and there is no physical contact between the causer argument and the theme argument, at this time, only animated entities can act as the theme argument. Furthmore, if causative force is the language force, at this time, only human being can act as the theme argument. Influenced by"polysemy"of the caused motion construction, the path argument also has the semantic property of"polysemy", which can be summarized as realism, uncertain and subjunctive. According to above study, we re-examine the relation between direct causation and cognitive decision from the side of transmission manner of causative force. The Construction Grammar of Goldberg (1995) argued that no cognitive decision can mediate between the causative event and the entailed motion. However, this thesis believes that if language force appears in caused-motion construction, the medium function of cognitive decision can not be negated. Because at this time, whether a motion can be entailed mainly depends on three factors: the transmission of causative force, the will of a theme argument, and the strength of the causative force. Relating to our experience, all of these factors will not be realized without human being's cognition.Secondly, although Goldberg's construction grammar have given a more detailed study on the relationship between English caused-motion construction and its verbs, however, as a matter of fact, she only studies the interaction between the English caused-motion construction and the lexical meanings of its verbs, this studying method not only violates the view of cognitive semantics or encyclopaedic, but also cause her to exaggerate the function of construction,thus some queries still exist for some of her studying results. Because of this reason, mainly based on the theoretical framework of Encyclopaedic View, the second problem which we mainly discuss in this thesis is the relationship between the English caused-motion construction and the cognitive semantics of its verbs. According to Construction Grammar, constructions themselves carry meanings which independent the words. Simple clause constructions are associated directly with semantic structures, which reflect scenes basic to human experience. Based on these studying results, the thesis argued that the construction meaning of a verb could be regard as a kind of contextual meaning. It is a subset of encyclopaedic meaning of a verb. It is a selected encyclopaedic meaning. Relating to human being's experience, thus it is not added by construction. The main contribution of the English caused-motion construction for the causal interpretation of a verb lies in: Construction meaning, a kind of contextual meaning, provide a coerce for the lexical item entering to its construction, select and profile the congruent meaning which is prompted by the lexical meaning of verbs, and suppress other incompatible meanings. Finally, this thesis further discuss the question whether this explanation negates some advantages of the construction account. The thesis argues that this explanation does not negate some advantages of the construction account. First, from the perspective of cognitive semantics, the caused-motion construction meaning of a verb is a subset of encyclopaedic meaning of a verb, it arises from the encyclopaedic knowledge which is prompted by the lexical meaning of a verb, it is not a new sense of a verb. Thus this explanation not only can avoid implausible verb senses, but also can enable semantic parsimony. Next, this explanation does not negate the contribution of caused-motion construction. That is, this explanation imply that the meaning of an expression is the result of integrating the meanings of the lexical items into the meaning of construction, which is also preserves the principle of compositionality in a weakened form.