A New Orientation In Possessive Relation Research

Possessive relation has been an important subject in the linguistic circle, especially various possessive expressions, including nominal phrases like "N 1+ N 2", "'Rd' structure (N 1+的+N 2)", and clauses like "N 1+有/领有+N2", "N2+属于+N1", "N 2+是+N1-的" etc. in Chinese, "s/of" structure, and clauses like "Peter has a piano" and " the piano is Peter's" in English. Most of those theorists, however, took a formal approach and focused on grammatical properties such as grammatical categories and phrasal or clausal structures, leaving the clausal level, conceptualization of the possessive relation, and the realization between the deep level and surface level essentially unexplored. Therefore, systematic and detailed discussion of this domain, especially to study possession clauses from cognitive functional perspective, is urgent and necessary. It is not only favorable to describing and accounting for the peculiar expression of English and Chinese Possession Category, but also helpful in translating possession clauses, teaching the two languages and developing language processing in machine. A cognitive functional model simulating cognitive process of language is put forward by Prof. Cheng Qilong. It points out a new way of studying possession clauses from cognitive perspective.The thesis is attempted to test the feasibility of the conceptual frames composing a cognitive functional model and study the similarities and differences of English and Chinese possession clauses with the conceptual frames.The Introduction firstly shows the purpose and the importance of the present research, the principle and research methodology adopted in it, theoretical background and theoretical framework of the thesis. Possession clauses are worthy of dedicated study from cognitive perspective due to the fact that there are few researches on the process of conceptualization, the cognitive motivation and clausal level. The present study takes both form and meaning into consideration. Chapter 7 is a review of various theories on language and linguistic system, cognition and syntax, and a clarification of the purpose of the linguistic research as studying linguistic system from cognitive perspective, and giving consideration to grammatical realization. Chapter 2 builds up the cognitive functional model of possession clauses under Cheng's guidance. The model is a relational, multidimensional and operational network, composed of three strata by three systems: concepts, semantics, and grammar, among which the former two form a junction named conceptual semantics. It is constructed under the principle of realization, which is similar to Halliday's term. Conceptual domain is aimed at elucidating conceptual semantics while conceptual frame consisting of presupposition, process and entailment is to model cognitive process of clauses. Process is the state or event closely related to linguistic expression and can be accounted by one of the three basic conceptual structures: space, action and causation. Due to different profiling and conflation of concepts or semantic roles, one conceptual structure can be realized by different semantic and syntactic structures. Semantic stratum refers to the stratum that expresses grammatical meaning in a clause.In Chapter 3 and 4, the author constructs the possession frame based on the previous chapter, incorporating other related views in studying possessive relation in both English and Chinese expressions, to find out the similarities and differences between Chinese and English clauses on the conceptual, semantic and syntactic levels. The feasibility of Cheng's cognitive functional model is tested and complemented by the author with her humble opinions at the same time. Chapter 5 indicates that the present study will help to promote possession clauses translation and language teaching, but there are still some areas that need to be explored in the future research. The Conclusion provides a summary of the thesis.Throughout the thesis, attempts have been made to test and demonstrate the theoretical and practical significance of the cognitive functional model, espcially conceptual frame. Comparative studies of English and Chinese possession clauses can be found in major chapters.