On VP+Hand Idiomatic Constructions Based On SMA Model

There are many expressions of VP+hand structure in English idioms. The basic meaning of the structure is an act to hand. However, the two elements of the structure: verb and hand could bear extended meanings. Only the meaning of verb extended in some idioms, and only the meaning of hand extended in some idioms, while both of them bear extended meanings in some idioms. So, how do these extended meanings form? And how do they affect the whole meaning of the structure? Scholars home and abroad did some researches about hand idioms and verbs from different perspectives respectively, but the study of VP+ hand in idioms is very rare.The paper regards VP+hand structure as a regular construction under the theories of Cognitive Construction Grammar. After integrated Schematization, AutonomyDependence Alignment and Metaphtonymy Coercion, a brand new model SMA Model comes into being to explain the cognitive mechanism of the construction and components embedded in it. And the author noticed that there are 395 idioms that contain hand in A Comprehensive Dictionary of English Idioms and Phrases(2006). In the 395 hand idioms, 212 items are structured as verb +hand. Then the cognitive mechanism of the closed corpus is powerfully explained with SMA Model in terms of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Here are the findings:1. At syntactic level, firstly, around 95% VP+ hand idioms consist of three, four, five or six words. Among them, four words idioms account for the majority. Besides, from syntactic structure perspective, idioms of vt.+hand structure and vt.+hand+adv. structure cover the most showing that transitive verbs collocate with hand cover the most in hand idioms. Meanwhile, from function perspective, the construction can be acted as predicates, objects, complements and independent sentences.2. Semantic extension happened on both two elements in VP+ hand constructions. The number of items in which hand bears extended meanings is much larger than that of verb. Metaphor is mainly applied in the meaning extension of verb, while metaphtonymy is a way of how meanings of hand in VP+ hand idioms are extended. As a consequence, metaphtonymy-based coercion has a big influence on the meaning formation of VP+ hand idiomatic construction.3. The extended schemas of VP+ hand idiomatic construction have some pragmatic features which are shown in human beings daily use, namely: a, Economy; b, Productivity; c, Vividness; d, Embodiment.Next are the significances of the research:To begin with, the paper is a first study about VP+ hand idiomatic construction. And a brand new integrated model is created the first time to explain the cognitive mechanism of VP+ hand idiomatic construction.Moreover, a closed corpus of 212 items of VP+ hand idiomatic construction is established the first time. Meanwhile, those items are analyzed from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic perspectives in detail.Last but not least, the research is a good evidence of embodied philosophy.