A Corpus-based Cognitive Study On V-ING Nominalization Construction

V-ING nominalization constructions are formed by means of adding ING to the original verbs,designating a process in which verbs of processual relations are transformed into nouns profiling events.The symbols of language are limited,while the demands of people's expression are infinite.Verbs and nouns are two common categories of expression,the shift between which is vitally important.Cognitive studies on V-ING nominalization constructions,on one hand,can probe into the common features of V-ING nominalization constructions and enrich language expressions.On the other hand,they can dig the relationship between V-ING nominalization constructions and human cognition,revealing the cognitive mechanisms hidden behind language,understanding language indeed and applying language more properly.V-ING nominalization construction appeals to many researchers on account of its convenient construction and good adaptation.During the past few years,Jespersen representing structuralism and Chomsky standing for TG have both touched on V-ING nominalization constructions,while,they focus their attention on rank-shift and the transformation from the surface structure to deep structure,ignoring the meaning.Systemic-functional grammar,represented by Halliday,has paid attention to semantic and function,but leaves out construction features and cognitive mechanisms.Langacker and Heyvaert have done research on some of V-ING nominalization constructions,making a leap forward in terms of cognitive shift,however,they lay particular emphasis on theory foundation,not combining actual corpus and ignoring construction features.Therefore,few studies make a systematic and all-round analysis of construction features.In addition,lack of the support of the scientific corpus and exploration for the cognitive mechanisms hidden behind language makes their studies not very comprehensive and deep.In view of such case,the thesis takes V-ING nominalization construction as its object,attempts to analyze the language phenomenon of the typical and representative V-ING nominalization construction,summarizes its construction features and uncovers the cognitive motivation and mechanism behind language change,from the perspective of cognitive and construction grammar,with the assistance of COCA and qualitative and quantitative methods.It aims to answer the following questions: 1)How many typical types of variants are there in V-ING nominalization construction? What are the formal and semantic characteristics of them? 2)For different types of V-ING nominalization construction variants,what are their cognitive mechanisms? 3)As for different V-ING nominalization construction variants,why does an interactive relation exist between lexical items and constructions,and between different constructions?In order to answer these questions,the thesis combines cognitive linguistics and corpus linguistics under the guide of cognitive grammar and construction grammar.It chooses samples,collects and analyzes COCA data.First,it samples the top 100 V-ING target constructions according to the occurrence frequency in the newest 2015 COCA corpus.Second,it indexes the target construction one by one,locates the top 500 sentences of each target construction and selects target construction variants one by one,without repetition.Last,detailed classification and calculation are made,along with quantitative analysis.Additionally,qualitative analysis is employed to list some examples of every construction variant and explore construction features.Furthermore,combination of cognitive and construction grammar,exploration of the cognitive meaning and digging of the cognitive mechanisms contribute to an all-round,reasonable,in-depth and systematic explanation.The findings are as follows:1)Through the analysis of data collected,it is found that V-ING nominalization construction includes three different variants,V-ING + ?(30.73%),V-ING OF(12.32%),V-ING +(N)(56.95%).V-ING + ? mainly includes six sub-variants,expressing meaning of profiled action,product or result,patient,time,place and manner,which are either a countable noun or a homogenous uncountable noun and can also have function of type,grounding,quantifying and instantiation like common nouns.V-ING OF nominalization construction,however,includes three major sub-variants,such as V-ING OF,Article +V-ING OF and Possessive +V-ING OF,indicating atemporal relation and still having the meaning of action but losing the meaning of time.Formally,the trajector or landmark of the stem verbs still remains.Likewise,there are mainly four sub-variants in V-ING +(N)nominalization construction,V-ING +(N),Logic Subject + V-ING +(N),Possessive + V-ING +(N)and Article + V-ING +(N)included.Cognitive meaning of three types of construction variants is shift from time domain to space domain,transference from verbal dynamism to nominal statics and a kind of conceptual reification.However,because of different cognitive mechanisms,every construction variant has its special meaning.V-ING + ? expresses the meaning of entity.V-ING OF,differently,means a kind of atemporal relationship.V-ING +(N)is still a processual relation,similar to a sentence formally,possessing the features of nouns and verbs.2)The generation of different variants is not arbitrary but depends on different cognitive mechanisms.V-ING + ? is determined by both profiling and metonymy.Different profiling of action,product,content,result,manner,time and place generates different construction meanings.In addition,the central meaning of V-ING + ? is reified action,metonymy mechanism explains other profiling elements,such as action for product,action for content,action for result,action for manner,action for time and action for place.V-ING OF is atemporal relation resulting from the change of scanning,form sequential scanning to the summary scanning.V-ING +(N)still expresses the processual relation,profiling the processual participants.3)Three different types of construction variants are not isolated and there exist relations between lexical items and constructions and constructions themselves under the theory of cognitive and construction grammar.Firstly,having experienced the categorization and decategorization,V-ING + ?,V-ING OF and V-ING +(N)enter new construction category and possess the family resemblance,showing the shift from relational meaning to substantial meaning to different degrees.Within the whole family,the degree to which V-ING + ? is nominalized is the highest,while V-ING +(N)is located between verbs and nouns,possessing the features of them.Three types of construction variants contain many sub-variants,forming a construction schema and construction network,associating with each other.Secondly,there exist different degrees of coercion between different degrees of constructions.V-ING + ? coerces verbs fully and completely,making them submit to constructions.In V-ING OF,interaction coercion between lexical items and construction exists.OF coerces the whole construction,making the original trajector and landmark left.However,verb coercion plays a leading role in V-ING +(N),making it dual feature.Therefore,three different types of construction variants are located in different places in the same family.The research is beneficial to making a systematic and all-round analysis of V-ING nominalization construction and also adding some important information to previous studies.