The Study Of Idiomatic Variation In Chinese And English From A Constructional Perspective

Idioms, an important part of language, are the result of human cognition characteristic of conceptualization and representation of the objective world and national culture. The formation of idioms is a long-term process. It is universally acknowledged that there are large numbers of idioms in different languages. These special expressions are rhythmic in pronunciation, brief in semantic representation, humorous and metaphorical in nature. They commonly share the features of structural unity and semantic idiomaticity. Because of all these specialties of idioms, many scholars abroad have already given much attention to the research and investigation of these idiosyncratic expressions. Notable achievements have been acquired in many fields, such as stylistic studies, rhetorical studies and also semantic studies. These studies offer precious reference to the current study.However, with the development of society, science and technology, and also the increasing of the contact and merging of different nations and cultures, language itself is, and will be undertaking constant modification, variation and evolution. Based on specific pragmatic demands, idioms see different variations created by language users. These idiomatic variants are as valuable as their prototypes. Many scholars paid attention to the study of these variants from different perspectives, such as linguistic, cognitive, literature, rhetorical and sociological, etc. Nevertheless, there are still problems as follows:1) there is more description of phenomenon than explanation;2) the use of terminology is not unified;3) there is more diachronic study than synchronic study, as well as more static description than dynamic description;4) contrastive studies are lacking, especially from the perspective of cognitive theories.In this study, we believed that the output and understanding of the emergent meaning could not be explained by single cognitive mechanism, but by the integration of multiple cognitive abilities. From the Constructional perspective, taking the real data of Chinese and English idiom variants as the research subject, combining the approach of induction and deduction, qualitative and quantitative, we discussed the universal backstage cognitive mechanisms and working progress of this language phenomenon, described and explained its linguistic features. The main findings are as follows:Firstly, relevant terms are defined and unified, and the phenomenon of idiom variation and its linguistic features are described and classified. Meanwhile, contrastive study is carried out basing on the summary of general and individual features.Secondly, the phenomenon of idiom variation actually reflects the evolution of society as well as the internal rules of language development, which requires both the relative stability and relative flexibility. Similar features between Chinese and English data reflect the convergence in the development of these two languages, while different features reflect the divergence. The study of similarities and differences may help us explore the internal rules of development or evolution of Chinese and English.Thirdly, basing on the reference of previous literatures, we explored the backstage cognitive mechanisms of this phenomenon. In this study, we put forward that idiom variation of Chinese and English is a complicated language using fact, which demands the combination and integration of multiple cognitive mechanisms. The main theoretical values are as follows:1) Idiom variation is the result of repeated cognitive processing, which includes recategorization and semantic re-integration basing on the initial de-idiomaticity and decategorization. In this cognitive process, obvious general features exist in both languages. The understanding of emergent meaning of idiom variants forms a cognitive continuum, which is not clear but vague in boundaries.2) In the phenomenon of idiom variation, the working modes of coercion and inheritance are various between prototype construction and variant construction. Coercion is the first generating mechanism of idiom variation. The definition of coercion is extended and complimented beyond that in Construction Grammar. Lexical coercion, pronunciation coercion, aspectual coercion and multiple coercion are added, explained and testified by specific data.3) The second generating mechanism is the construe of construction. In the current study, we put forward that constructions are construable. Basing on specific data, we described and explained the function of five construal abilities in idiom variation phenomenon. We believe that every variated element corresponds with specific context or pragmatic information, which offers reasons for the context-dependency and pragmatic features of this phenomenon.4) The third generating mechanism is constructional integration. Basing on the two-dimensional four spaces model of conceptual integration established by Fauconnier et al, we introduced corresponding construal abilities and put forward the new three-dimensional cognitive integration model of this phenomenon. There are two main advantages of the new model. The first lies in its capability to represent the dynamic features of constructional integration process, while the other lies in its reflection of different cognitive abilities and hence available to represent homogeneous and heterogeneous features between different categories or between different languages.5) Beyond three generating mechanism, there exists one construing mechanism of idiom variation, which is the constructional motivations, i.e. metaphor, metonymy, iconicity, categorization and analogy, etc. This construing mechanism provides the way to understand idiom variants and offers corresponding cognitive interpretation. Fourthly, through the discussion and exploration of idiom variation, it is possible for linguists to make judgments on the tendency of language development and variation as well as its influence. As technology and internet develop even more rapidly, and as new concepts and new social phenomenons occur constantly, the variation of idioms will continue its development, according to language economy, the extent of irregularity may be higher then that of present status.The originality of the present research lies in the following four aspects:1) it provides the first large-scale empirical study and analysis of idiom variation phenomenon in both Chinese and English, while enclosed corpus of idiom variants is established;2) it is the first constructive study of idiom variation under the guidance of Constructional Grammar;3) it establishes the first three-dimensional dynamic cognitive integration model of idiom variation in both Chinese and English, which can not only represent the dynamic features of conceptual integration and its cognitive complication, but also reflect general and individual features between different categories and different languages;4) it first put forward that the phenomenon of idiom variation in Chinese and English is not simply a single mechanism process, but is a complicated cognitive process which is in need of multiple construe abilities.