A Cognitive Approach To Nominal Indirect Anaphora In English

This thesis conducts a qualitative study of nominal indirect anaphora within a cognitive framework and aims to expose the cognitive mechanism of nominal indirect anaphora.As a linguistic phenomenon, nominal indirect anaphora plays an important role in anaphora research. It differs from the common anaphora in that there are no explicit antecedents in the preceding discourse and therefore anaphors and antecedents are not co-referential. Formal and pragmatic approaches to nominal indirect anaphora adopted by a great many scholars cannot give an adequate explanation of the characteristics of nominal indirect anaphora mentioned above. And some scholars at home and abroad have taken a cognitive approach to the exploration of nominal indirect anaphora but there is still a lot to do on the perfection of the cognitive mechanism of nominal indirect anaphora.In view of the limitations of the earlier studies and the characteristics of nominal indirect anaphora, the thesis proposes a resolution mechanism of nominal indirect anaphora based on profile-base organization, cognitive context and two principles of relevance in order to elaborate how people interpret nominal indirect anaphora. The thesis holds that as for form, nominal indirect anaphora is made up of antecedent indicators and nominal anaphors, and that, as for meaning, nominal indirect anaphora is essentially a profile-base organization. Profile is the meaning of an anaphor in discourse. Guided by Cognitive Principle proposed by Sperber & Wilson, the profile activates cognitive context. Base, on the other hand, is a particular cognitive context triggered by an antecedent indicator in cognitive context under the guidance of Principle of Relevance. The blending of profile and base forms the interpretation of nominal indirect anaphora. In this way, our resolution mechanism...