A Study On Nominative Absolute Construction In Literary Works From The Perspective Of The Construal Theory

The Nominative Absolute Construction(called the NAC in this thesis) is a special syntactical structure in English. The NAC syntactically functions the same as a finite clause while its structure is quite different from that of a finite clause. The NAC semantically plays the same role with a subordinate adverbial clause while it has no subordinate or finite verb in it. Moreover, it looks like a post modified nominal phrase but there is no post modifying relationship between the heading noun or pronoun and other elements behind. This thesis defines the NAC as a grammatical independent construction consisting of a noun or nominative pronoun and a predicate without a finite verb, used to modify the rest of the sentence.Different from the previous studies of the NAC at home and abroad, this thesis mainly aims to explain the working mechanism, cognitive basis and functions of the NAC in literary works based on the Construal Theory. This is from cognitive perspective so as to achieve a better understanding and therefore a better learning and teaching of it.Corresponding to the purpose of the study, this thesis mainly aims to solve three research questions: What is the working mechanism of the NAC in literary works?What is the cognitive basis of the NAC in literary works? What is the function of the NAC in literary works?This thesis adopts the method of qualitative analysis and mainly gathers the NAC from Selected works of Charles Dickens which contains selected literary workswritten by Charles Dickens, such as Oliver Twist, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities,and Great Expectation. Then analyze these examples based on the Construal Theory to get the answers of the research questions of this thesis.The author gets the working mechanism of the NAC in literary works, that is how the Construal Theory guarantee the default information of the NAC and effect the syntactical structures of the NAC. Through exploring the relationship between the NAC and the five dimensions of the Construal Theory, the author shows that it is the five dimensions of the Construal Theory that guarantee the flexibility and the variety of the NAC in literary works. The author also explores the functions of NAC in literary works from the prospective of the Construal Theory, such as to make the language in literary works more concise, to make the language in literary works more expressive, etc.