A Study Of Coercion Mechanism In The English Way Construction

The selection of this study is based on the following considerations.Since Goldberg elaborated the way construction([SUBJi [V [POSSi way]OBL]])separately and conventionalized its semantics,the study of the English way construction has received more and more attention from scholars at home and abroad.Our literature review illustrates that previous studies are mainly from the generative approach,special motion sense approach,cognitive approach,diachronic approach,cross-linguistic approach and so on.However,there are few scholars who explore the coercion mechanism in the way construction.As for coercion,it is a method to resolve the mismatches or conflicts between the construction and lexicon.The existing studies based on coercion are mainly concerned with either top-down construction coercion or bottom-up lexicon coercion.Neither of them reveals the problem thoroughly.As a result,it leads language studies from one extreme to the other.For this reason,this thesis attempts to integrate the two approaches and to propose an integrated model,that is synergistic coercion.Analyze the coercion mechanism of the English way construction from construction coercion,lexicon coercion,and synergistic coercion,and it will make a new thinking and a more comprehensive analysis on the generation of the way construction.Our study shows that,first,when a non-displacement verb matches an actual path,the English way construction has two interpretations.To be specific,the way construction admits force exertion verbs as well as body part related verbs via construction coercion and thus has a means interpretation;it admits sound emission verbs thus has an incidental activity interpretation;the manner interpretation dispenses with construction coercion.Second,categories of lexical coercion in the English way construction include verb coercion,noun coercion and preposition coercion,and these categories can coerce other lexical categories or the English way construction,licensing the felicity of the entire sentence.Finally,when a non-displacement verb matches a fictive path,the English way construction admits body part related verbs and a large number of behavioral verbs via synergistic coercion and has a means interpretation;it admits sound emission verbs and thus has an incidental activity interpretation;the manner interpretation does not exist in synergistic coercion.By synergistic coercion,the types of accessing verbs are diversified;the lexical meaning of way is gradually grammaticalized;the spatial path shifts to a metaphorical goal.It provides a reasonable explanation for the expansion of the way construction.The contributions are summarized as follows,in terms of theoretical contribution,on the one hand,the proposal of synergistic coercion can largely avoid the absolute view of syntactic and semantic analysis such as constructional dominance or lexical dominance.It will not only compensate for this one-sidedness more effectively,but also enrich the application of coercion theory.On the other hand,it suggests a new direction for the study of the way construction,and ensures the semantic and pragmatic rationality of the way construction so that we may have a more comprehensive understanding of the coercion mechanism of the way construction.As far as the application is concerned,this study not only conduces to inspire people to rethink the mechanism of change and evolution in language usage,but to improve people’s cognitive ability of the way construction as well.Besides,it has also a certain instructive effect on English teaching.