A Proposed Event Schematic Approach To English Argument Structure Constructions

This thesis aims to propose an event schematic approach to English argument structure constructions. Based on Goldberg’s Construction Grammar, it probes into the nature of verbs and constructions, as well as the interaction between them from the perspective of the symbolic nature of language, construal of conceptual content and event representation. It has drawn insights from Frame Semantics, Cognitive Grammar, and event-based theories. This event schematic approach to English argument structure constructions is carried out at three levels:the structured potential semantic frame of the verb; event schemas of constructions, and the integration of potential semantic frames and event schemas. To demonstrate the operation of the current approach, a case study of the verb "kick" and the eight argument structure constructions that "kick" occurs in, and a case study of constructional extension of way construction are conducted.Different from Goldberg’s claims of lexically encoded participant roles of the verb, this thesis makes initiative attempts in exploring the hierarchical structure within a verb’s semantic frame, and conducts analysis on the potential semantic elements that are typically non-profiled aspects in the background of the frame. The event schematic approach interprets construction as a particular type of event schema with skeletal event roles. The integration of verbs and constructions is the coercion of event schema on structured potential semantic frame of the verb, and the filling of the verb’s semantic elements into the event roles of the event schema.As constructions encodes information on the relevant scenes and event types that are basic to human experience, the realization of the verb with its arguments in argument structure constructions is actually construing the scene as a particular type of event. The event schematic approach proposed and adopted in present study can help us better understand the interaction between verbs and constructions, and give a better account in explicating the relations between lexical semantics of the verb and the syntactic frames it can occur in.