A/DA: A Cognitive Study Of Atypical Ditransitive Constructions Of Give In English

The ditransitive structure has been probed from the perspective of traditional approach,structural approach, TG (Transformational-generative) approach, constructional approach,cognitive approach and so on. However, those approaches focus on the interaction betweenverb and the construction and classify the ditransitive verbs according to different criteria, withno convincing account given for the atypical ditransitive construction of give. This thesisfocuses on the interaction between the arguments and give and the interaction between theelements and the construction. The features of the atypical ditransitive construction of give areanalyzed and described from the perspective of cognitive linguistics in the thesis. Then themain extensions from the typical ditransitive construction of give are investigated and discussedwith reference to the revised analytical model of A/DA (Autonomy/DependenceAlignment)(Niu Baoyi2011) in an attempt at revealing the mechanism of meaning generationand integrating motivation of its internal elements in such a complex linguistic phenomenon.It is discovered that the atypical ditransitive construction of give pertaining to thepolysemous prototypical category centered on the typical ditransitive construction of give,extends from it and exhibits strikingly distinct features, which inherits some respects of thesemantic structure of the typical ditransitive construction of give. They have the familyresemblance and are associated with the central sense by virtue of a certain kind of Ip-link. Thethesis identifies such six main extensions as follows.1) X communicates Z to Y. One commonfeature of this type is that the patient is duplicable and the agent shares the patient with therecipient.2) X enables Y to do something. The agent gives the recipient some right, chance ortime and something like that to bring about some condition or permit him to do something.3) Xperforms Z (an action) on Y. In the instances of this type, the patient is a deverbal combined with give to form some fixed phrases with the same meaning as the corresponding verb,denoting an act performed on the recipient.4) X causes Y to experience/undergo/enjoy Z. Inthe instances of this type, the recipient may benefit from, suffer from or just experience thepatient.5) X causes Y to produce/exhibit Z. The outstanding feature of this type of extension isthat the patient is endogenous, i.e. originates from the recipient itself.6) X performs/presents Zfor Y. The process of the patient being performed or displayed is one evolving with the elapse oftime and it’s required that people directed at by the activity must be present. The verb givedisplays the quality of polysemy in different extensions under the influence of different atypicalarguments, reflecting semantic assimilation of give.The analytical model of A/DA of the atypical ditransitive construction of give isestablished after the revised analytical model of A/DA and some restrictions are proposed toprevent the ungrammatical expressions. Then, the six main extensions are investigated andanalyzed respectively in detail within the frame of the established analytical model. As isdiscovered, the sense of the dependent element give profiles a schematic substructure trajectorand two substructures, landmarks, which are elaborated respectively by the semantic profile ofthe agent argument, the recipient argument and the patient argument to establish thecorresponding relationship between them and the three elements are integrated into thecomposite structure. The dependent component give takes on different meanings in differentextensions as a result of the elaboration of its salient substructure by the substructures profiledby the different autonomous elements, arguments, of which the patient plays the leading role inmiscellaneous extensions. The agent and the recipient play a less important part in theextensions. The overall meaning of the ditransitive construction of give inherits differentsemantic profiles of the dependent component give to behave as different extensions, i.e. theatypical ditransitive construction of give.As is observed from the above discussion, the correspondence between the constituents established by means of elaboration based on their autonomous and dependent relation is theintegrating motivation of the internal elements of the atypical ditransitive construction of give.Its overall meaning originates from the process of the elaboration and alignment of the internalelements.