A Subcategorizational Study Of The Selection And Transformation Between Premodifiers And Postmodifiers Of English Nouns

The premodifier and the postmodifier are two important components of the noun phrase in English and, therefore, are important topics of study in English grammar. Previous studies on the premodifier and the postmodifier of English nouns fail to provide systematic theoretical explanations to them from the same angle. By employing the deductive method, this thesis has made a cognitive study of the selection and transformation between the premodifier and the postmodifier of English nouns, and has provided a systematic account of the two from the perspective of subcategorization.The thesis has made a systematic study of subcategorization. It points out that subcategorization is an important part of the theory of categorization, that its function is to classify categories into subcategories and that it is characterized by suggesting the existence of contrastive subcategories and taking the attributes possessed by category members as the reference point. The products of subcategorization are subcategories, whose linguistic representations are simple words, compound words and phrases either in the form "Premodifier+Head" or in the form "Head+ Postmodifier".Guided by the theory of subcategorization, the thesis has investigated into the cognitive functions of the premodifier and the postmodifier, their major characteristics and their constraining influence on the premodifier and the postmodifier. The result of the investigation reveals the following facts:(1) The premodifier performs the cognitive function of subcategorization on nouns. It classifies the category denoted by the noun into subcategories with the attribute it reflects as the reference point. The subcategorizational function of the premodifier is characterized by suggesting the existence of contrastive subcategories and taking permanent attributes of category members as the reference point, and its products are frozen subcategories. (2) The postmodifier falls into classifying and non-classifying postmodifiers. The classifying postmodifier also performs the cognitive function of subcategorization on nouns. It also classifies the category denoted by the noun into subcategories with the attribute it reflects as the reference point. The subcategorizational function of the classifying postmodifier is the same as that of the premodifier in that it also suggests the existence of contrastive subcategories, but it is different from that of the premodifier in that it can take either permanent or temporary attributes of the category members as the reference point and its products are half-frozen subcategories and non-frozen subcategories. The non-classifying postmodifier plays the cognitive function of supplementation on nouns. It supplements the category denoted by the noun with the attribute it reflects. (3) The different cognitive functions of the modifiers, together with their different characteristics, pose different constraints on the modifiers.Based on the investigation above, the thesis has provided a systematic cognitive account of the selection and transformation between the premodifier and the postmodifier of English nouns. In regard to the selection between the premodifier and the postmodifier, the thesis holds that they are different from each other on three levels and the differences are all caused by their cognitive functions and their semantic characteristics resulting from their cognitive functions. On the macroscopic level, premodifiers are generally realized by words while postmodifiers are generally realized by phrases and clauses. This difference is caused by the fact that words can generally satisfy the requirements of the subcategorizational function of the premodifier while phrases and clauses generally fail to satisfy those requirements, because words reflect universal and typical attributes, the attributes they reflect are mostly permanent in nature, and their combination with nouns results in frozen subcategories, while phrases and clauses do not reflect universal or typical attributes, the attributes they reflect are mostly temporary in nature, and their combination with nouns results in half-frozen or non-frozen subcategories. On the middle level, nouns only function as premodifiers and adverbs normally function as postmodifiers, but adjectives and participles can function either as premodifiers or as postmodifiers. This difference results from the fact that nouns reflect permanent attributes and adverbs reflect temporary attributes, while adjectives and participles behave differently:some reflect permanent attributes, and some reflect temporary attributes. On the microscopic level, some words can sometimes function as premodifiers and sometimes function as postmodifiers. This difference is related with the duality nature of these words:they reflect permanent or temporary attributes in different contexts. As regards the transformation between the premodifier and the postmodifier, the thesis points out that there are evolutional transformation and non-evolutional transformation between the premodifier and the postmodifier. The evolutional transformation between the two is unidirectional and permanent. It involves only the transformation from the postmodifier to the premodifier and results in frozen subcategories. The non-evolutional transformation between the two is a two-way and temporary transformation. It involves not only the transformation from the postmodifier to the premodifier but also that from the premodifier to the postmodifier, and it does not cause any change in the semantic feature of the modifier or in the nature of the subcategory.The study made in this thesis can enrich the theory of categorization in cognitive linguistics and be of reference value to students, teachers and language users in their learning, teaching and using the premodifiers and postmodifiers of English nouns.