The Analysis Of English Complex Sentences From Figure-ground Perspective

Complex sentence, as one important sentence type in English language, is of vital importance in English teaching and learning. The correct understanding of whose meaning is significant in communication and translation. So this thesis studies complex sentences. Complex sentence in English is composed of at least two clauses (one main clause and one subordinate clause). In this thesis, the two clauses are analyzed from figure-ground perspective. Figure-ground theory is from cognitive science, then it is introduced into cognitive linguistics to analyze linguistic phenomena and explain the meaning. In this study, the four types of complex sentences are analyzed:sentences with temporal adverbial clauses, sentences with reason adverbial clauses, sentences with conditional adverbial clauses and sentences with concessive adverbial clauses. The figure-ground relation is shown in each type of the sentences, and the figure-ground assignment in the sentences is made in-depth analyses. Through these analyses, the thesis has the following four findings:First, meaning is constructed, the major meaning or prominent meaning of a sentence is changeable with the speaker’s/writer’s communicative purpose/writing purpose. So based on the semantic relation, the figure/ground assignment in many complex sentences is not static, but dynamic. And the figure meaning may be made on-line analyses.Second, one complex sentence describes at least two events or cases. To a complex sentence with different sentence structure, the prominent part is different. So this study makes contrast analyses on sentences with different structures and shows that the prominent part is changeable with the different structure. Thus the figure/ground assignment is also changed with the different sentence structure.Third, the on-line complex sentence meaning is the meaning in practical context. In different context or with the change of the context, the major meaning or the prominent meaning of the sentence is different. Then the figure/ground assignment in the sentence is also changed. Communicators often make use of the context to make communication successful. Fourth, some complex sentence structures make certain parts of the sentences be the prominent parts. The integration of the meaning of this part and the sentence meaning makes the meaning of this part prominent.The significance of the study may be generalized from two aspects:Theoretically, the study broadens the application of figure-ground theory in language, which means the complex sentence analysis may be in a dynamic point of view, instead of static point of view. Or further the study makes the figure-ground analysis of complex sentence from linguistic meaning to actual meaning.Practically, the figure-ground analysis of the complex sentence makes the sentence learning easy and interesting. In English teaching, the figure-ground analysis of the sentence makes the sentence meaning easy and clear, thus the learners understand the sentence more quickly and easily. In bilingual teaching and in translation, the figure-ground analysis of the complex sentence helps the learners to make the correct figure/ground assignment in events, and thus choose the correct sentence structure to express meaning.