A Cognitive Grammar Analysis Of The Complex Locative Construction In English

This thesis explores the complex locative construction which is comprised of two or more consecutive simple locative expressions in English.Though much research has been contributed to locative prepositional phrases and simple locative construction,little has been done to unravel the mystery of the integration of simple locative expressions into complex ones.Therefore,this thesis aims to investigate the four following research questions specifically:Firstly,what are the components and types of the complex locative construction? How to classify the complex locative construction reasonably?Secondly,what are the syntactic features of the different kinds of the complex locative construction?Thirdly,what are the semantic characteristics of the distinct categories of the complex locative construction?Fourthly,what is the meaning construction mechanism of each class of the complex locative construction?To begin with,based on the linguistic data retrieved from the corpora and previous literature,the thesis analyses the components of simple locative expressions which make up the complex locative construction.The complex locative construction consists of simple locative expressions which encompass spatial prepositions and noun phrases.The constitutive simple locative expressions in the complex locative construction may also include spatial adverbs and measure words compared with common simple locative expressions.Thecomplex locative construction can be classified into the nested locative construction,the quasi-nested locative construction and the chained locative construction.The nested locative construction can be further grouped into the ascending nested locative construction and the descending nested locative construction.Moreover,the complex locative construction can be placed in the initial,medial and end position of a clause.As a whole,the complex locative construction may function as the complement of the verb,adjunct of the clause or postmodifier of the noun.Nevertheless,the internal structure of the complex locative construction appears to be complicated.In the ascending nested locative construction,one component locative expression serves as the postmodifier for the noun phrase in its previous locative expression.In the descending nested locative construction,the component locative expressions work as parallel complements,adjuncts or postmodifiers.In the quasi-nested locative construction,while some components serve as the postmodifer for the noun phrase in the previous simple locative expression,the rest function as the parallel complements,adjuncts or postmodifiers.In the chained locative construction,the components feature a parallel relation.Moreover,in terms of the distribution of complex locative construction,the ascending nested locative construction accounts for the most significant share of complex locative construction while the descending nested locative construction has the second highest percentage.The quasi-nested locative construction is the third most popular complex locative construction and the chained locative construction is the least utilized complex locative construction.Thirdly,different types of the complex locative construction exhibit distinct semantic features.Even when they share some common features,they differ with respect to the degree.The ascending nested locative construction features expansiveness,definiteness,and granularity.The descending nested locative construction features contractility,definiteness,and granularity.These two types of the nested locative construction resemble each other in that a sense of definiteness is endowed to their component locative expressions.Even if an indefinite article is involved in the component locative expressions,they are interpreted with a certain degree of definiteness.The two categories of the nested locative construction are also alike in granularity that each constitutive locative expression describes a region of different scale from its adjacent one.The difference lies in that the ascending nested locative construction is comprised of component locative expressions with monotonically increasing scales while the descending nested locative construction is composed of constitutive locative expressions with monotonically decreasing scales.Due to such differences,the ascending nested locative construction unfolds in an expansive manner,resulting in the zoom-out effect while the descending nested locative construction displays in a contractive manner,causing the zoom-in effect.The quasi-nested locative construction demonstrates semantic features including discreteness,dynamicity and wholeness.The quasi-nested locative construction consists of simple locative expressions with search domains featuring non-monotonic variations;therefore,when the quasi-nested locative construction unfolds,the mental path the conceptualizer follows indicates a combination of both zooming in and zooming out,creating a more dynamic viewing effect.Meanwhile,when the conceptualizer changes the viewing direction along the mental path,the boundaries of the reference objects of different scales become clear so that the conceptualizer comes to identify the reference objects as discrete entities.But as for the reference objects which are of the same scale in the same locative expression,they are conceived as one mass no matter whether they involve things of the same kind or different types.Furthermore,the chained locative construction features continuity and dynamicity.In the chained locative construction,the continuity emerges from the fact that each component locative expression describes a path and the endpoint of the one path is theorigin of the following one.The dynamicity reveals itself as the conceptualizer follows the paths depicted by each component that form a complete one leading the conceptualizer from the current position to the object to be located.Fourthly,the meaning construction mechanism of the complex locative construction can be analyzed based on the reference point model.Each component locative expression describes a search domain which functions as the reference point and/or the target in the nested locative construction.On one hand,each locative constituent confines the trajector to a certain dominion;on the other hand,the search domains of the landmarks also exhibit certain spatial relations,i.e.one reference point might also be the target of another reference point.The sequence of the reference points depicts the mental path a conceptualizer follows to locate the trajector.Different categories of the complex locative construction feature distinct mental paths.