A Cognitive Study On The V+UP Construction And Its Presentation In ECLDs

The V+UP construction is frequently used in the English language.Its polysemy and flexibility cause a lot of difficulties in Chinese EFL learners' acquisition of it.This thesis tries to reveal the semantic features of the V+UP construction which is extracted from COCA in the light of prototype theory,conceptual metaphor,image schema theory.Then it discovers the deficiencies of current learner's dictionaries,hoping to optimize the entry-making of the V+UP construction with a new proposal with the help of multidimensional definition theory and construction grammar,which can eventually facilitate learners' acquisition of the V+UP construction.The top 300 most frequently used phrasal verbs with UP are retrieved from COCA.After analysis they are classified into different groups based on their metaphorical meanings with the help of conceptual metaphor theory and image schema theory.In this way,the semantic formation and extension of these phrasal verbs are clearly disclosed.Moreover,a study on the errors of the V+UP construction which Chinese EFL learners have made is conducted on the basis on CLEC.The error analysis shows that Chinese learners not only have some problems with the usage of the phrasal verbs with UP,but also tend to avoid using them while writing English essays.Also,it is found that there are some problems with the entry-making of the phrasal verbs with UP through an analysis on ECLDs.Therefore,it is necessary to improve the presentation of the V+UP under the guidance of MDT and construction grammar.By means of the above study,there are some findings which include:(i)there are four image schemas that can describe the top 300 frequently used phrasal verbs with UP in COCA,including dynamic upright image schema,path image schema,container image schema and contact image schema;(ii)Chinese EFL learners make a lot of grammatical and semantic errors of the V+UP construction for they are not familiar with its image schemas;(iii)there are some deficiencies of the presentation of the phrasal verbs with UP from the current ECLDs,with regard to inappropriate definition,examples,example translation and the lack of usage notes.Based on the above findings,this thesis thus proposes a model for the presentation of the V+UP construction in ECLDs which optimizes the deficiencies of ECLDs and reveal the image schemas of phrasal verbs with UP by means of construction grammar and multidimensional definition theory.