A Constructional Approach To [Don't X Me]

This thesis is an analysis of a particular type of English expressions,such as Don't Sheldon/Harvey me.These expressions are identified in this thesis as instantiations of the construction [don't X me].In this construction X is defined as words other than a verb in its basic form as required by an imperative construction.Using data retrieved from COCA,COHA,TV,and Movies Corpus,the thesis analyzes the syntactic,semantic and discourse properties of the construction.Drawing on constructional studies on the English imperative and the concept of inheritance links,the thesis also analyzes the constructional meaning of [don't X me] and tentatively suggests some commonality underlying all such expressions.The thesis finds that [don't X me] has some distinct features in syntax,semantics,and discourse.And the constructional meaning is of a very abstract nature.The [don't X me]expressions are an example of creative language use.To study such expressions from the constructional approach tests the ability of Construction Grammar to account for language innovation.Since the construction is of colloquial nature,there is concern on its consistency.