A Cognitive Construction Exploration Of Anticlimax

This thesis is a construction study of anticlimax; it probes into the structure andsemantics of anticlimax construction in the frame of construction grammar andcognitive category theory. The discussion mainly focuses on the alignment mechanismof the syntagmatic integration, the constructional semantic features and the motivationsto the semantic drop as well as the distinct drop intensities of this commonly usedrhetoric device.Based on the Autonomous/Dependence Alignment (A/D-alignment) study, thethesis carries out the analysis on the syntagmatic integration mechanism of anticlimax.It is argued that, in anticlimax, Narrative Items (NI) and Sudden Drop (SD),overlapping with each other by means of sharing same profiles, align with each othersyntagmatically by correspondence built between them. NI, profiling a schematicsubstructure specified as certain features or family resemblances of the correspondingcategory, provides an e-site; SD, profiling certain matrix in the entity or event,elaborates the e-site by instantiating the category.Semantically this paper classifies anticlimax into two classes based on thedistributions of semantic focus: NI-focused Anticlimax and SD-focused Anticlimax,each having its own special pragmatic functions respectively. This paper maintains thatcategory attributes profiled play an important role in the NI and SD alignment. Thesharing attributes can build a correspondence between NI and SD and enable them toaccommodate with each other and thus construct an alignment. The correspondence isnot a conventional one, therefore the reluctance and difficulty of construal andacceptance of it is the very source of the rhetorical effect, and the measurement of thedrop does accord with the distances between the typicalities units possess.The core of cognitive linguistics is the unity of form and meaning, yet formergrammatical theories such as the Generative Grammar emphasize only on the configurational construction and figures. As a rhetorical construction, anticlimax has itsfixed form and specific semantic features. The employment of the revisedA/D-alignment Analytical Model plausibly explores how the two component structuresintegrate together, and the Experiential Prototype Hypothesis of Categorizationrationally explains the cognitive motivation behind the semantic construction features,the corresponding pragmatic functions and rhetorical effects, and distinct dropintensities of anticlimax. In the frame of construction grammar, the combination of thetwo theories embodies the essence of the cognitive linguistics.