A Study On The Referential Function Of English Gerund Construction Under The Grounding Theory

Construction is the pair of form and meaning/function,which not only includes the semantic features but also discourse and pragmatic function.Present-day English gerunds are deverbal nominalizations ending in-ing with the syntactic features of both nominals and verbs,but serve the same grammatical function as nominals.Recent studies on the function of gerund constructions mainly adopt a referential perspective.As one of the basic functions of language,referentiality helps speaker and hearer to associate language expressions with their referent,and is mostly studied with personal and indicative pronouns,nominals or proper nouns.Under the grounding theory,the scope of referential expressions was extended to the grounded nominals and finite clauses.As one kind of verbal nominalization,gerund constructions would adopt both nominal and verbal grounding mechanisms,so it is a type of grounded infinite clauses.As a result,gerund constructions are also referential expressions and have referential function in discourse,referring to some event or situation.With the difference of form structures(or different grounding elements),gerund constructions can be divided into two types: nominal gerunds and verbal gerunds,the referential functions of which are correspondingly various.Gerund constructions have the traditional referentiality same as prototypical nominals: definiteness,specificity and actuality/virtuality.But there exist discrepancy about the concept defining of definiteness and specificity,and the logical subjects of verbal gerunds were regarded similar to possessives,leaving some issues on the referential functions of gerund constructions.In regard of their forms,seldom studies schematize their form structures under the grounding theory,though there has been relative elaborate description.Additionally,it is obvious that nominal gerunds are higher than verbal gerunds on the degree of nominalization from the aspect of form side,but whether their referential functions show the similar gradience need to be further investigated.In view of such case,this thesis mainly explores the form structures,referential functions of all kinds of gerund constructions and tries to analyze their degree of nominalization from the aspect of referential functions.On the basis of grounding theory in cognitive grammar and some theories in construction grammar,three layers of referentiality including definiteness,specificity and actuality/virtuality,are analyzed with both gerund types.The concepts of these three kinds of referential functions are firstly disentangled.And then with both qualitative and quantitative analysis,the form structures of both gerund types are presented schematically with the help of COCA.And the correlation between their referential functions and grounding elements is examined with Chi-square test in SPSS.Finally,the nominalization degree of both gerund types is analyzed by comparing their referential functions with that of prototypical nominals.Specifically,the following research questions are solved:1.What are the formal structures of English nominal gerunds and verbal gerunds under the grounding theory?2.How are the referential functions of both gerund subtypes related to their grounding elements?3.Does the referential functions of both gerund subtypes show the similar gradience of nominalization degree to its formal structures?In order to answer the research questions,500 nominal gerunds and 500 verbal gerunds are collected randomly from COCA.Their grounding elements,form features and referential functions are analyzed and recorded.By qualitative and quantitative analysis,their form structures under grounding theory are concluded schematically,and the corresponding referential functions are detected by the grounding elements.Major findings are presented as follows:1.Within 500 nominal gerunds,the internal grounding elements include the,possessives,a/an,this/that/those,some/any/?,no and every.Because of intended referential function from the speakers,most of these nominal gerunds are also expressed with an of-phrase,especially when the internal grounding element is the,this/that or one possessive.As a result,the form structure of nominal gerunds can be expressed like this:(Articles,Possessives,Demonstratives,some/any/?,no,every)+ V-ing +(of +NP).The kinds of grounding elements are much less when it comes to the collected 500 verbal gerunds,just including logical subject and possessives.And the other part of these verbal gerunds are bare,in this case we can say they take the nominal grounding mechanism ?.So the form structure of verbal gerunds can be expressed like this:(Logical subject,Possessives,?)+V-ing +(NP).2.In gerund constructions,definiteness,specificity,actuality/virtuality should be treated separately because their concept have different emphasis.Definiteness is mainly related to the familiarity,identifiability or accessibility of the event,and involves a variable context,which can be within a sentence,within a discourse,or within the shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer.Specificity means a particular event through referential anchorage.Actuality/virtuality is mainly related to the occurrence of events.Events that have happened or are happening are real.Events that will happen,will not happen or are assumed to happen in the future are virtual.The nominal gerunds with definite grounding elements generally have definite function,while with indefinite grounding elements generally have indefinite function.However,there are some exceptions.Nominal gerunds may establish generic reference in some special context,regardless of whether they are embedded in definite or indefinite grounding elements.Specificity of nominal gerunds is significantly related to their grounding elements----definite grounding elements would facilitate their specific function.Verbal gerunds with logical subjects by control relation have specific function because the control relation is a typical means of referential anchorage.Definite nominal gerunds are generally actual,because their definiteness will contribute to the actuality.However,subject-controlled gerunds are more flexible----their actuality and virtuality are difficult to determine.3.As for prototypical nominals,definiteness,specificity and actuality always unite in discourse.Majority of verbal gerunds are argued to move away from definiteness and indefiniteness except some with a genitive subject,while every nominal gerund can establish referential functions of definiteness/indefiniteness,specificity/non-specificity and actuality/virtuality.Therefore,nominal gerunds are generally in higher degree of nominalization than verbal gerunds.Among nominal gerunds,instances with the form structure of Definite article + V-ing +(of + NP)are at the most noun-like end of the cline since they typically form a unity of definiteness,specificity and actuality.Within verbal gerunds,those with a genitive subject and have generic function are the most nominal.Grounding element “possessive” in the former case seems to take over the function of a definite determiner,because these verbal gerunds typically establish specific and actual function.Verbal gerunds in the latter case can be said to resemble ordinary determinerless abstract nouns,as their generic function is consistent with their lack of definiteness markers.Subject-controlled specific verbal gerunds are found to be at the least noun-like end of the cline,because their referentiality is very different from that of prototypical nominals.These instances don’t adopt determiners and so have no the function of definiteness/indefiniteness.Instead,they establish specificity independently by control relation.And their existential status is more flexible.In brief,nominal and verbal gerunds show the similar gradience of nominalization degree,whether from form structures or referential functions.The above findings can not only provide methodology for the latter study of gerund construction and other nominalizations but also bring enlightenment for the application to the grounding theory,extending from nominals and clauses to discourse.Additionally,it can be examined or developed with other languages.