A Cognitive Study Of The Derivational Mechanism Of English Clause Patterns

The clause is a fundamental unit in language, and the study of clause patterns is a fundamental study in all linguistic studies. Many linguistic schools, like structural linguistics, generative linguistics and functional linguistics, have their own views on syntax and have made their contribution to the study of clause patterns. However, these previous studies, including structural linguistics'immediate constituent analysis, generative linguistics'transformational-generative approach and functional linguistics'social-functional approach, fail to offer a comprehensive and adequate explanation for clause patterns.Cognitive linguistics which began to emerge in the 1970s and has been increasingly active since the 1980s, believes that clause patterns are gradually formed through cognitive processing based on our experience of the world. It is more reasonable for us to analyze English clause patterns within a cognitive framework, because we can reveal the cognitive motivations hidden behind them.Making a general survey, however, we find that there is rare prior study on the derivational mechanism of English clause patterns. For this reason, this thesis endeavors to apply the cognitive theories of prototype categorization, figure/ground principle and conceptual metaphor to the study of derivational mechanism of English clause patterns. In this thesis, the author explores the cognitive motivations of English simple clause and complex clause patterns, analyzes the factors influencing the derivation of English clause patterns and studies the derivational mechanisms of English inversions, cleft clause patterns and metaphorical clause patterns, which are all common clause patterns in English. In addition, this thesis also points out the implications of the study for English syntax teaching. Traditional syntax teaching merely concerns about the form of clause patterns, ignoring the meaning, hence fails to explain the nature of clause patterns. However, with the guidance of cognitive theories, the teachers will help the learners understand the nature of English clause patterns.