| The imperative construction is a common action construction which connotes rich pragmatic meanings.Hence,it is widely used in our daily communication.The independent imperative construction is an important type of imperative construction;it has been studied from the perspectives of semantics,syntax,functional theory,pragmatics,and cognitive linguistics.Related studies are mostly limited to the modular study of independent imperative construction.Syntactic,semantic and pragmatic investigations of this construction are not explored within a unified framework.Thus,they cannot offer a comprehensive explanation for independent imperative construction.In addition,scholars have principally examined independent imperative construction on its form,meaning and cognitive mechanism,but the pragmatic aspects of this construction have been less studied.Based on Construction Pragmatics,this study aims to investigate the constructional meanings and effects of independent imperative constructions systematically and contrast the pragmatic similarities and differences between English and Chinese independent imperative constructions.The thesis aims to solve the following three research questions:（1）What are the similarities and differences in the forms of English and Chinese independent imperative constructions?（2）What are the similarities and differences in the constructional force and pragmatic effects of English and Chinese independent imperative constructions?（3）What are the motivations that lead to the pragmatic similarities and differences between English and Chinese independent imperative constructions?To answer these research questions,this study applies corpus-based study,contrastive analysis method,and introspection method.Firstly,the relevant linguistic data is mainly collected from the online corpora COCA and CCL.Next,this study classifies independent imperative constructions into several types and analyzes their forms on the basis of the linguistic data.Secondly,the contrastive analysis is applied to explore the similarities and differences in the constructional force and pragmatic effects.Finally,this study discusses the motivations leading to such pragmatic similarities and differences.The following conclusions can be drawn in answer to the research questions above:Firstly,there are four types of independent imperative constructions:verb independent imperative constructions,adjective independent imperative constructions,adverb independent imperative constructions and noun independent imperative constructions.There exist similarities and differences in the forms.In terms of the similarity,verbs,adverbs,nouns and their phrases can be used alone both in English and Chinese.Besides,three differences are also found: 1)Adjectives can be used alone in Chinese independent imperative constructions while the construction“Be + adj.” should be used alone in English.2)Only the reduplication of verbs appears in English,but the reduplication of nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs can be used in Chinese.3)The additional components and mood particles are used mostly in Chinese with a few fixed constructions,but there are more fixed forms in English.Secondly,there are similarities and differences between English and Chinese independent imperative constructions in the constructional force.The more the additional components there are in an independent imperative construction,the weaker the force is.In other words,the shorter an independent imperative construction is,the stronger the force is.However,English independent imperative constructions mostly use additional components to represent the force.In contrast,Chinese has more choices to represent the force by adding modal particles,polite words or additional components before or after a construction.Thirdly,the pragmatic effects of English and Chinese independent imperative constructions are mainly embodied in communicative effects.Factors such as constructional force,speech act,pragmatic effect and constructional context should be considered in order to analyze the particular conversational implicature and the differences of independent imperative constructions.English and Chinese independent imperative constructions with high effectiveness can successfully achieve the communicative intention of the language users.Four primary motivations influencing the generation and the usage of independent imperative constructions are identified.They are effortlessness,appropriateness,intentionality and conventionality,which lead to the differences between English and Chinese independent imperative constructions in the constructional force and pragmatic effects.This contrastive study may enrich the research scopes of Construction Pragmatics and improve people’s understanding and use of English and Chinese independent imperative constructions.In addition,by combining constructional approaches with pragmatic approaches,this study examines the forms and meanings of independent imperative constructions and elaborates on the pragmatic issues of this construction.It is significant to establish and develop the theoretical framework of Construction Pragmatics. |
