Realization Of Subjectivity In English Tenses: In Light Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Subjectivity is unconsciously a pervasive linguistic phenomenon in various discourses or verbal communication. It can be realized in almost every aspect of language. The scholars at home and abroad have made studious researches in a variety of levels, such as lexical, syntactic, discourse levels and so on. However, the research on the subjectivity in English tenses has not been deeply conducted yet. Only a few scholars have ever touched upon the topic in their papers. However, there is no systemic analysis on this topic. This thesis, based on their achievements, intends to analyze and disclose the internal cognitive mechanism of subjectivity generation and comprehension in English tenses in light of the conceptual blending theory.Conceptual blending theory developed by Fauconnier from the mental space theory is one of the central areas of research in the more general field of cognitive linguistics. It applies conceptual mapping between mental spaces and conceptual blending to analyzing the meaning construction and reasoning mechanism in linguistic domain. Under the guidance of the conceptual blending theory, this thesis analyzes the internal cognitive processes of subjectivity generation and comprehension in a relatively deep meticulous way. The generation of subjectivity in English tenses is actually a cognitive process of cross-space mapping. The speaker/writer, driven by some motivation, produces subjective utterances by blending that involves a complex four-space blend. The comprehension of subjectivity has similar cognitive mechanism as the subjectivity generation. The difference between them lies in that comprehending subjectivity involves some both internal and external factors. By utilizing this theory, correctly understanding and effective interpretation of subjectivity in English tenses can help English learners to study tenses better and achieve more success in verbal communication.This thesis consists of five chapters. They are organized as follows:Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the study, including the definitions of subjectivity and subjectification, the rationale and significance, the methodology adopted for the present study and the design of the paper.Chapter 2 is a literature review, which is divided into three sections. The first section gives a brief survey of the researches on subjectivity and subjectification, including the views of three representative linguists: Lyons, Traugott and Langacker, who have made significant contributions to the issue. And then the second section gives a brief introduction to English tenses from both the multi-tense system and bi-tense system, and points out some inadequacies. Based on the previous studies, another view on tense is presented in this section. Section Three is a summary.Chapter 3 presents a detailed description of the conceptual blending theory, which serves as the theoretical basis of the research being done. The first section clarifies the mental space theory, which is the theoretical foundation of conceptual blending theory. The second of the chapter is devoted to the exposition of conceptual blending theory, including some of its basic concepts, its three operational principles—COMPOSITION, COMPLETION, ELABORATION, the blending process and its Optimality principle. Conceptual blending theory is a cognitive operation which serves a variety of cognitive purpose. In blending, structures and concepts from two input mental spaces are projected to a third space-the "blend" (Fauconnier and Turner, 1994). The projection is based on observed similarity between the two input spaces, marked by a cross-space mapping across elements from the two input spaces. Section Three is a summary.Chapter 4 is the core of this thesis, in which, the conceptual blending theory originated by Fauconnier and Turner is employed to interpret the generation and comprehension of subjectivity in English tenses. The first section explores motivations for the "contradictory use" of English tenses. The second section applies the conceptual blending theory to analyzing the generation and comprehension of subjectivity in English tenses. Section Three is a summary.Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the whole paper, which is made up of three parts. Part one summarizes the major findings of the study. The rest of the chapter presents the limitations of the paper, as well as suggestions for further research.In a word, the cognitive approach—conceptual blending theory adopted in this thesis is a new attempt on the study of subjectivity in English tenses. In fact, the contradiction between language facts and English tenses is the product of a dynamic blending of tenses in different mental spaces. The conceptual blending theory provides a new perspective for the interpretation of the subjectivity in English tenses.