A Corpus-based Cognitive Study On The Coercion Phenomena Of KEEP ON V-ING Construction

Based on Coercion Theory,the present thesis makes a corpus-based study on the coercion phenomena inside the KEEP ON V-ING construction by means of digging into its semantic features.Most of the existing studies related to English KEEP ON V-ING construction pay their attentions to the semantic differences between the KEEP V-ING and KEEP ON V-ING constructions.Unfortunately,none of them centers on the inner meaning s of KEEP ON V-ING construction in particular the preposition ON.What kind of role does it play in the construction?Cappelle(1999)considers that the preposition ON combines with the verb KEEP and strengthens the semantic independence of KEEP itself.While in Guo's(2014)opinion,the semantic independence is due to the coercions.However,none of them gives detailed explanation s about the coercion phenomena inside the KEEP ON V-ING construction.To figure out these coercion phenomena,the study compares the data collected from COHA and finds that KEEP ON V-ING occurs later than KEEP V-ING construction.According to the Principle of Least Effort,difference of usage indicates different semantic requirements.In order to confirm that,the present thesis compares the data in terms of verb-type choosing and semantic features.Through the comparison,the most prominent semantic difference between KEEP ON V-ING and KEEP V-ING constructions lies in that the former expresses a longer time span than the latter does.And this is due to the coercion phenomena of the construction.KEEP ON V-ING coerces the verb and the preposition ON to achieve semantic changes.In turn,preposition ON's semantic extension will function as a lexical coercive mechanism,which enlarges the semantic coverage of the construction.The constructional coercion,combined with lexical coercion,forms into an interactive coercion,allowing the KEEP ON V-ING construction to express a longer span than KEEP V-ING construction does.