A Study Of English Direct Speech Compounds From The Perspective Of Fictive Interaction Theory

Language is composed of various words,and it plays a very important role in language learning.Compound words are one main stream in the complex world of English words,which have been widely concerned by domestic and foreign academic circles.In this study,the research objects are English direct speech compound words under nominal compound word category,which are relatively novel but indispensable part of nominal compound word family.Direct speech is a very important concept in English grammar.It not only belongs to the category of grammar and pragmatics,but also belongs to cognitive category.Because in direct speech,the speaker quotes words from others,which is also a process of reporting thoughts.Direct speech compound words are actually formed by combination of direct speech and noun.Cognition plays a key role in this process.It is a process of reflecting or applying a phenomenon to other phenomena,that is,the cognitive process of fictive interaction,conceptual integration and categorization.Direct speech compounds are a kind of new compounds formed by compounding.It not only reflects the flexibility of word formation in English grammar,but also is a cognitive process of thinking.In this process,the cognitive thinking ability is highlighted.The study shows that the English direct speech compound words are a common phenomenon of pragmatics.Example: “Who cares who” attitude.From its construction,we can see direct speech compounds are composed by direct speech and compounds,carrying dual characteristics of direct speech and noun.Although it is under the category of nominal compounds,it has differences from nominal compound words(for example: evening school,dressmaking).One prominent feature of direct speech compounds is the modifier is no longer a word,but a sentence,clause or phrase or even conversation.That is sentence / clause / phrase/ conversation + noun,which is embodiment of fictive interaction.Sentence,clause,phrase or conversationmaps their context onto central nouns,which can reflect the context and meaning of the central noun,and meanwhile make the communication between communicators more smoothly.The author thinks that the direct speech of compound words is a special grammatical phenomenon in English.It is not the basic contents of English grammar,but "re-creation combination use of grammar content".Just like “syntactic amalgams” proposed by Lakoff(1974:321).The re-creation of grammatical content is closely related to people's cognitive style.People's thinking is not fixed but it will innovate based on the needs of expression and imagination.The author calls it "demand innovation",which is closely linked with pragmatics.Therefore,we can draw the conclusion that pragmatic demand,cognitive thinking and grammatical innovation are in a unity and complement each other.This study selects English direct speech compounds as study objects from the corpus of contemporary American English(COCA)and mainstream comprehensive search engine Google,Baidu,etc.Taking fictive interaction theory,interactional linguistics and related cognitive semantic theory as the theoretical foundation and taking the method of the combination of introspection and empirical study,the study will analyze direct speech compound words combined with its examples.This paper attempts to explore the following research questions:1)What are the pragmatic functions of English direct speech compounds? How are they realized?2)How do English direct speech compounds reflect fictive interaction?3)What are the cognitive motivations of English direct speech compounds?The study shows that the main realization ways of English direct speech compounds are “(determiner)+ sentence/ Clause/ Phrase/ Conversation + Noun”,which possess distinctive features respectively.According to expression needs,they not only can convey the simplicity and economical principles of language use but also they can express detailed context.What's more,as newly creative compounds,the usage of English direct speech compounds is also the embodiment of human cognitive thinking.Metaphor,metonymy,categorization and conceptual blending are cognitive motivations of English direct speech compounds.Besides,English direct speechcompounds are used both in formal and informal style.They play roles of expressing emotions and attitudes,acting as intermediary bridges,manifesting concrete actions and behaviors,and classifying specific category,which manifests similar results with related research by Pascual and other researchers.In summary,English direct speech compounds reflect the complex process of human cognition by the simple forms,show the dynamicity of language development,improve the creativity of language,manifest integration capability of language,meet the needs of language use,enrich the function of language expression,and expand the form of grammar.