A Study Of The Conceptual Blending Of English Basic Modal Auxiliaries And The Past Tense

Due to the limitations of human beings? cognition,it is impossible for them to master all the truth,so modal expressions are commonly used in language.English modal auxiliaries express the speaker?s judgment of and attitude towards the potentiality of an event or a state.Specifically speaking,they can express likelihood,necessity,willingness,obligation,speculation,and speech-act meaning.Linguists at home and abroad have made profound and extensive studies on English modal auxiliaries from different perspectives.However,few researchers explore the meaning construction process of the different grammatical meanings of the past tense forms of English modal auxiliaries(“M-ed” for short)from the perspective of conceptual blending,and give a systematic and consistent explanation of the various uses of their past tense forms.In this light,this thesis is to answer the following three research questions:(1)What is the relationship among the grammatical meanings of the past tense of English verbs?(2)How are the grammatical meanings of the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries constructed?(3)What is the relationship between the various pragmatic functions of the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries?Based on the Conceptual Blending Theory and the Theory of Three Domains,through analyzing vast linguistic facts,this thesis groups the grammatical meanings of English basic modal auxiliaries into three different conceptual domains respectively.Besides,it blends the grammatical meanings of five English basic modal auxiliaries with the grammatical meanings of the past tense of English verbs,thus constructing the polysemy networks of the grammatical meanings of the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries.Accordingly,it makes a systemic and consistent explanation of the relationship between the various pragmatic functions of the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries.This thesis has the following major research findings:Firstly,the past tense of English verbs is actually polysemic,and its various grammatical meanings take the type of radiation with the reference to the past time at the core.In the socio-physical domain,the past tense of English verbs can not only express a one-off event or a habitual action or state in the past,but also express an anterior time in the future;in the epistemic domain,it can express a counterfactual speculation or presupposition made at the speaking moment;in the speech-act domain,it can express a tentative or polite attitude.Secondly,this thesis constructs the polysemy networks of the grammatical meanings of the past tense forms of five English basic modal auxiliaries,namely,could,might,should,would and must respectively.In the socio-physical domain,the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries express the likelihood that certain event or certain state may happen in the past according to related ability,permission,willingness or obligation;in the epistemic domain,they express that the speaker makes a speculation or presupposition about the less possibility that certain event or certain state may happen according to related ability,evidence,property and necessity;in the speech-act domain,they express the speaker?s tentative or polite requests or suggestions.Thirdly,this thesis reveals the metonymic relationship between the various pragmatic functions of the past tense forms of the English basic modal auxiliaries.English modal auxiliaries are performative in nature.To realize the speech-act function,four felicity conditions which constitute the speech acts have to be satisfied,namely,the preparatory condition,the sincerity condition,the proposition content condition and the essential condition.By asserting or questioning one of the four conditions,the speaker can activate the whole frame of the felicity conditions.Through the metonymy operation(i.e.PART FOR WHOLE),English modal auxiliaries can refer to the indirect speech acts of request or order,etc.Modal auxiliaries are the main expressive means of modality.It concerns human communication in the socio-physical world,the epistemic world,and the speech-act world.This thesis uses Conceptual Blending Theory to construct the polysemy network models of the grammatical meanings of the past tense forms of English basic modal auxiliaries.It can provide reference and help for the further study and learning of English modal auxiliaries.