A Cognitive Study Of The Generation Of The English Middle Construction

The English middle construction which displays unique semantic and syntactic features has always been a hot topic in linguistic research.Some studies have been made on this unique construction with focusing on its formation and so on,which lays a solid foundation for further studies.However,previous studies mostly have explained its formation from the perspective of generative linguistics by holding the lexical approach and syntactic movement,which cannot successfully account for some special instances and overlooks the role of human cognitive operation.In attempting to better account for middle formation,this thesis aims to study the“S_non-agentive+V+Adv”English middle construction from a cognitive perspective.After generalizing the semantic and syntactic features of the English middle construction and making a description of its subtypes,this thesis aims to analyze the generation of the English middle construction on the basis of Talmy's Force-dynamic Theory and Langacker's Construal Theory by adopting a qualitative method.Finally,this thesis also tries to explore the selectional restrictions of the components in the English middle construction when it is generated.There are three research questions of this study:?1?What are the semantic and syntactic features of the English middle construction?What are the subtypes of the English middle construction??2?How is the English middle construction generated??3?What are the selectional restrictions of the English middle construction when it is generated?According to the above research questions,this study has summarized the semantic and syntactic features of the English middle construction and then has described its subtypes.By applying Talmy's Force-dynamic Theory and Langacker's Construal Theory,this thesis has analyzed the generation of this unique construction,with selectional restrictions of its components being discussed in the end.The findings of this study are as follows after analyses and discussions:?1?The semantic features of the English middle construction are property ascription,modality and stativeness;the syntactic features of the English middle construction include a non-agent subject and an implicit agent as well as the obligatory adverbial modification.What's more,verbs in the English middle construction take the present tense and appear in active form.Besides,the English middle construction can be divided into two subtypes,namely the patient-subject English middle construction and the non-patient subject English middle construction which includes the instrument-subject English middle construction and the location-subject English middle construction.?2?The conceptual base of the English middle construction is the opposition between two force entities.Based on the speaker's subjective evaluation,the patient-subject English middle construction is to highlight the direct facilitating or hindering functions of the Antagonist's inherent properties,while the non-patient subject English middle construction is to emphasize the indirect functions of the subject entity's intrinsic quality which plays the role of instrument or location in the conceived event.?3?The licensing conditions on the subject of the English middle construction are responsibility and minimal agentivity.The selectional constraints of its verbs are volitionality and high transitivity.The adverbial modifiers are restricted in their compulsiveness and semantic orientation.