| The “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” language pattern is a common and frequent phenomenon in Shakespeare’s plays,and it can be regarded as “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction based on construction grammar.This paper examines the structure,semantics and pragmatic types,discusses the internal mechanism and cognitive motivation of the construction,and further compare “YOU / THOU / YE + NP” construction,the similar Chinese constructions and its Chinese translations.This study focuses on three research questions:(1)What are the typical structural,semantic and pragmatic features of the “YOU/ THOU/YE+NP” constructions?(2)What is the internal mechanism and cognitive motivations for meanings of “YOU/ THOU/YE+NP” constructions?(3)What are the similarities and differences among “YOU/ THOU/YE+NP” constructions in Shakespeare’s plays,its Chinese counterparts and the Chinese translation of “YOU/ THOU/YE+NP” constructions?The main findings of this thesis are as follows:(1)The “NP” items are construed as two types: non-metaphorical type and metaphorical type,and their lexical features are explained from the perspective of schema and category.According to the actual meanings expressed by “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” constructions in Shakespeare’s plays,they can be divided into six semantic types: reference,assertion,address,invocation,topic introducing,and result meaning.In terms of pragmatic functions,the expressions of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” constructions are rich,but they cannot be regarded as impolite constructions.From the perspective of constructional hierarchy,the abstraction level among the impolite construction,conventionalized impolite formula,and “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction in Shakespeare’s plays can be expressed as: impolite construction> conventionalized impolite formula > “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction.(2)Applying the “Autonomy-Dependence” relationship to analyze “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” constructions’ internal mechanism,it is found that “YOU/THOU/YE” as a dependent structure can activate a e-site;and “NP” is a autonomous structure,as a detailed description for e-site.The prototypical meaning of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction is “impolite reference”.The holistic meaning comes from the interaction between the lexical words and the constructions,which is represented in the phenomena of construction coercion,lexical coercion and selection-salience coercion.The cognitive motivation of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction is multi-inheritance,which partly inherit from the “DETERMINER+NP” constructions,“HEAD+COMPLEMENT” constructions,APPOSITIVE constructions,“SUBJ VERB NP” constructions,“SECOND PERSONAL PRONOUN+NP” constructions.(3)It is found that the translation forms of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction can be divided into six types.Both of the central prototype semantics of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction and the similar Chinese constructions are reference.The reason for this commonality is human experience or embodiment.However,the category comparison between them could be: “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction > its similar Chinese constructions.Based on the comparison above,it can be implicated or inspired to construe the semantic features of “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” constructions’ Chinese translations by ways of Focusing,Prominence and so on.When NP item is non-metaphorical type,the semantic construal of its Chinese translation is probably affected by background knowledge,regional culture,characteristics of the times,cognitive approaches and so on.While in metaphorical types of NP items,the construal of Topic meaning and Invocation meaning is distinctive because the cross-language metaphors replacement is subjective and obvious in the Chinese translation of novel metaphors.By comparing “YOU/THOU/YE+NP” construction and the Chinese counterparts,or its Chinese translations,this paper tries to make supplement for the current research results and also provides a new perspective for observing and studying Shakespeare’s plays. |
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