Construal,Categorization And The Argument Realization Of Inverted Resultative Construction

The Inverted Resultative Construction(IRC)(for example,xiao shuo kan ku le ma ma),whose argument realization is inconsistent with the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis(UTAH),has aroused the interest of many researchers.The previous accounts of its argument realization are based on both the Generative and Cognitive approach.To explain this phenomenon,the generative linguists propose a causative hierarchy based on the thematic hierarchy and argue that the argument realization of Resultative Construction has to satisfy both hierarchies.If the two hierarchies are in conflict,the causative hierarchy coerces the thematic hierarchy.However,the proposal of the causative hierarchy has no theoretical foundation and the phenomenon is explained with no assumptions.The accounts within the cognitive framework can be further divided into event structure perspective and constructional approach.The former argues that IRC denotes a casual event,which contains two sub-events,the causing event and caused event,represented by the two arguments of IRC respectively,with the operation of grammatical metonymy.And the latter argues that the arguments of IRC is realized by the causative construction coercion.However,the former claim is pretty subjective,focusing on its meaning and neglecting its syntactic form,while the latter is oversimplified,neglecting the interaction between IRC and its components.Different from the previous accounts,this thesis analyzes its syntactic and semantic properties and explores its argument realization with the 'tools' of construal and categorization from Cognitive Grammar.By studying IRC and other related constructions,this thesis draws the following conclusions:Firstly,this thesis argues that IRC is a grammatical category,including a range of more specified instances,including both prototypes and non-prototypes.Secondly,IRC is used to designate a change-of-state process,in which a participant comes to be in a different state as a consequence of a process,which is the conceptual content of IRC,and which can be construed in alternative ways.Therefore,the argument realization of IRC is determined by the situation it designates and how does the conceptual izer construe the situation.Thirdly,the thesis argues that IRC and general Resultative Construction(RC)share the same syntactic structure of[S VR O]inherited from the Transitive Construction(TC).However,general RC(for example,jie jie xi jing le yi fu)is the prototypical sub-type of TC,which profiles an action chain relationship,while the IRC is the non-prototype of TC,profiling a[cause to effect]relationship,which is an metaphorical extension of the action chain relationship.