The Basic Cognitive Structure Of Chinese Topic Sentences And Word Order In Chinese And English-From The Figure-Ground Perspective

Topic sentences are prominent and popular in Chinese which has long been asubject of interest for linguists. The articles concerned about them in the previousstudies are not less than one hundred, mainly covering the structural, semantic andeven pragmatic specialties of them and a thorough discussion has been done centeringon the properties and applications of Chinese topic sentences. However, few studieshave explored the reasons why topic sentences exist and are popular in Chinese. As anew approach to language studies, Cognitive Linguistics aims to explore and explainthe underlying laws of language phenomena. Based on the question proposed above,the present study has conducted research on topic sentences using the "figure-ground"theory in Cognitive Linguistics with the aim to find out the cognitive structure oftopic sentences, demonstrate the relationship between topic sentences and Chineseword order and thereby explore the distinction and its reason in the word order inChinese and English. To serve all the purposes, the present study has integrated theconceptualization and characteristics of "figure-ground" in language (Talmy, 2000)into topic sentences and made further analysis of the figure-ground relations in topicsentences.In the study, the properties of topic sentences have been put forward first. Andthen the theory of "figure-ground" has been introduced. Next, the relations of"figure-ground" in topic sentences have been drawn out through the analysis ofexamples according to the conceptualization and characteristics of "figure-ground" inlanguage. Finally, the basic cognitive structure of word order in Chinese and Englishhas been discussed in terms of three levels-level of phrase, level of single sentenceand level of complex sentence.Through the analysis of examples, a final conclusion has been drawn andsummarized into four points:First, the basic cognitive structure of topic sentences is from "ground" to"figure": "topic" provides "ground" and "comment" is "figure";Second, the basic cognitive structure of word order in Chinese is different fromthat in English: Chinese follows "ground→figure" model and English follows"figure→ground", which also offers the reason for the distinction in word order ofChinese and English.Third, the "regularity" in Chinese word order has been reflected through the harmony in the cognitive structure between topic sentences and Chinese word order;Fourth, because of the agreement in the cognitive structure between topicsentences and Chinese word order, the question why topic sentences are prominentand popular in Chinese but not English has been finally answered.For the end of the study, the thesis has presented a conclusion of the foregoingefforts herein, the implication and limitations of the research as well as somesuggestions for further research.