Study On Double Object Construction In Chinese Based On The Prototype Theory

Double Object Construction (DOC), symbolized as NP-V-NP1-NP2 has always been a hot topic in the linguistic field at home and abroad. It is a grammatical structure with one verb followed by two nouns, one of which acts as a direct object and the other of which acts as an indirect object. In general, the predicate is acting with a giving verb or a taking verb, and the subject is a noun of agent with intention, such as"他给我一本书"and"He gives me a book". However, many double object sentences do not have the two characters in use, which causes the arguments on the definition, the classification of DOC and the derived relation between DOC and DC (Dative Construction). Up to now, the research in DOC is mainly carried out from the traditional approach, the structural approach, the generative approach and the cognitive approach.Based on Construction Grammar, Goldberg analyzes English DOC from the cognitive perspective successfully. She (1995, p.92) proposes that the prototypical meaning of English DOC is"animate agent successfully causes recipient to receive patient with intention". She also analyzes the generative mechanisms between the prototypical meaning and the non-prototypical meanings based on the semantic features of the sentence elements. The research results are applied to the study on Chinese DOC concededly by many domestic researchers and the differences between Chinese and English are ignored, which causes the inadequate explanation of some complicated Chinese double object sentences. Therefore, with Goldberg's research in English DOC as an instruction and the Prototype Theory as a theoretical basis, the author focuses this study on the prototypical meanings of Chinese DOC, the generative mechanisms between the prototypical meanings and the non-prototypical meanings of Chinese DOC, and the hierarchy of all the meanings of Chinese DOC. This research aims to make a comparatively adequate explanation of Chinese DOC from a cognitive approach and supply a reference for the further study on DOC.This thesis contains seven chapters. Chapter One is about the research background, the research questions, the research methods, the research significance and the organization of the thesis. Chapter Two is about the definition and the research history of Chinese DOC. Chapter Three is on the concepts of the Prototype Theory, the theory of"metaphor"and the theory of"metonymy". Chapter Four is a statement on the prototypical meanings based on the criteria of typicality, the easiest mental processing and the generativity. Chapter Five is about the generative mechanisms between the prototypical meanings and the non-prototypical meanings with the analysis of the semantic features. Chapter Six is a classification of the Chinese double object sentences on the basis of the research results in Chapter Five. Chapter Seven is a conclusion of the research.This study shows that Chinese DOC is a prototypical and hierarchical category with two prototypical meanings, and it is based on both metaphor and metonymy generative mechanisms that the non-prototypical meanings are generated from the prototypical meanings. The prototypical meanings of Chinese DOC contain two elements: two central senses and four prototypical features. The two central senses are"agent causes recipient to receive patient"and"agent gets patient". The four prototypical features are listed as the followings: the subject and the indirect object are animate; the direct object is the entity of spatial domain; the action of transference happens directly, realistically and successfully; the subject and the indirect object are not co-referential. Because of the absence of some prototypical features in some sentences, the non-prototypical meanings are hierarchical with some members of marginality.