A Cognitive Study Of English Present Perfect Construction

Within the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar,this thesis concerns itself with a coercion theory approach to English present perfect construction,focusing on the interactive relationship between constructions and lexical items as well as that between lexical items.English present perfect construction has long been a hot topic in English Grammar studies.Previous studies have achieved fruitful accomplishments from traditional approach,generative approach,pragmatic approach and cognitive approach.However,little literature has been found that has systematically explored the internal dynamic mechanisms of English present perfect construction.Cognitive Construction Grammar maintains that constructions have their own meanings independent of verbs,but the analysis of language should be both top-down and bottom-up.As an important theory of Cognitive Construction Grammar,coercion has strong explanatory power over the incompatibility between grammatical construction and its lexical items.Coercion falls into construction coercion,lexical coercion and synergic coercion.This thesis,therefore,analyzes the internal dynamic mechanisms of English present perfect construction from these three perspectives,specifically devoting itself to the following three questions:(1)What are the mechanisms of construction coercion in English present perfect construction?(2)What are the categories of lexical coercion in English present perfect construction?(3)What are the mechanisms of synergic coercion in English present perfect construction?This thesis identifies itself as a qualitative study.The data are observed from the British National Corpus(BNC),grammars,Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary and TED Talk.The research findings are:(1)mechanisms of construction coercion in English present perfect construction comprise simple construction coercion and complex construction coercion;to be specific,English present perfect construction coerces a state verb,an activity verb or an accomplishment verb into an achievement verb,emphasizing the inception or termination of the event,and by means of metonymy,the inception or termination is used to substitute for the consequent state denoted by English present perfect construction;(2)categories of lexical coercion in English present perfect construction comprise negation word coercion,frequency adverb coercion,conjunction coercion,pronoun coercion as well as verb coercion,and these categories can coerce other lexical categories or English present perfect construction,licensing the felicity of the entire sentence;(3)mechanisms of synergic coercion in English present perfect construction present themselves as simple synergic coercion and complex synergic coercion;specifically,lexical coercion collaborates with construction coercion at different levels in coercing an activity verb or a state verb into an achievement verb,emphasizing the termination of the event,and the termination of the event is used to substitute for the consequent state denoted by English present perfect construction by means of metonymy.The research significance of this study is boasted as follows.For one thing,it attempts to provide a new approach to the study of English present perfect construction,and for another,it is expected to shed some light on English teaching concerned.