A Cognitive Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Comparative Construction

This thesis, based on the generality between languages, is devoted to a contrastive study of the Chinese and English comparative construction (CCC and ECC) from the perspective of cognitive linguistics in the effort to account for the similarities and differences between the two different languages based on the cognitive study of CCC and ECC.'Comparison' is one of the fundamental ways of thinking and the comparative construction is the reflection of man's comparative abilities and activities. CCC and ECC share the same semantic feature, i.e. [+COMPARATIVE]. It is argued in this thesis that the CC, a combination of two propositions, is syntactically symmetrical and semantically ambiguous. The comparative object(X) acts as a reference point, through which the comparative subject(Y) is identified. We try to explore respectively the syntactic and semantic features of CCC and ECC and go further to examine some non-prototypical comparative construction like A barley-corn is better than a diamond to a cock in English and "物价比兔子跑得还快" in Chinese. Such construction shows university and productivity; however it receives little attention inthe literature. Moreover, it is claimed that the comparison between the variables--X and Y, according to cognitive semantics, can only be carried out within the same category with the same syntactic and certain semantic features. Otherwise the main cognitive mechanisms i.e. metaphor and metonymy should be used to guarantee the success of comparison on the implied comparative point though other theory to a certain degree can explain it well. And the comparative point, as an essential part, will be discussed in detail especially the issue of how to recover it. The conclusion indicates that as for the interpretation of syntactic phenomenon, only through cognition and semantics can we achieve satisfactory explanation and certain degree of prediction. The thesis consists of five parts:The first part addresses the general aims, the theoretical framework, the objectives, and the significance of the present study and then gives a brief review of previous research and points out the problems concerning this issue.The second part goes on to introduce the adopted cognitive semantic theories including the theory of categorization, metaphor and metonymy.The third part is a detailed cognitive study of CCC and its counterpart in English. We proceed to examine the semantic constraints on comparative items of comparative construction and its cognitive mechanism as well.The fourth part is devoted to investigating the underlying principles leading to the similarities and differences between ECC and CCC.The last part summarizes the major findings and then discusses its positive implication for translation and language teaching. The limitations and the proposals for further research will also be pointed out.