| The existential construction is mainly composed of an existential verb and two arguments.The syntactic form of this construction is “NP+P+NP”,and its constructional meaning is "something or an event exists in a certain time or space".Existential construction is a classical topic in linguistic research,and it is also one of the central concerns in syntactic research.After studying the literature,we found that the research on the existential constructions in the past few decades mainly started from the perspectives of formal linguistics and functional linguistics.The previous researches explored a series of problems such as the formation process of the construction,the grammatical status of the noun in clause-initial position,the restrictions on the definiteness nouns after existential verbs,the textual function and information transmission of existential constructions.All these researches have lent much impetus to the development of some grammatical theories and hypotheses.For example,formal linguists believed that the predicate verbs in existential constructions were all unaccusative verbs,or verbs that have been unaccusated,and they adopted this method to support the "Unaccusative Hypothesis".In the past ten years or so,there have been studies from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,based on corpus or using new technologies to conduct cognitive researches on existential constructions.These studies have laid a solid foundation for the development of this research.This thesis mainly discussed the following three questions:(1)What are the formal evolution processes and characteristics of existential constructions in English and Chinese?(2)What are the semantic evolution processes and characteristics of existential constructions in English and Chinese?(3)What are the cognitive motivations and causes for the similarities and differences of existential constructions in English and Chinese?Based on this,this thesis contrasted and analyzed the similarities and differences of the evolution processes,characteristics and law of the existential constructions in English and Chinese.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,this research comprehensively used Prototype Theory,Construction Grammar and Constructionalization Theory,Subjectivity and Subjectivisation Theory,Construal Theory to explain the motivations and mechanisms hidden behind these similarities and differences.Regarding the similarities and differences in the diachronic evolution of the existential constructions in English and Chinese,we conducted a contrastive analysis from two dimensions of form and semantics.From the perspective of the characteristics of form evolution,the similarities between English and Chinese are mainly manifested in two aspects:(1)In the evolution,the basic elements in English and Chinese existential constructions are the same.These elements are: location,existential verbs and subjects.(2)Existential subjects all show an “indefinite tendency”,but they do not reject a certain number of definite forms.The differences between English and Chinese existential constructions are mainly manifested in four aspects:(1)In the diachronic development,the formal evolution of English existential constructions showed unicity and stability,while the formal evolution of Chinese existential constructions has experienced a more varied process.(2)There is only one form in the subject position of English existential construction.However,there are 6 different forms of syntactic representations in the subject position of Chinese existential constructions,like location,time,verbal phrase,body location,location words,location pronouns,etc.(3)With the development of the construction in the diachronic process,the adhesion between the English existential construction and there is closer and English existential construction is more stable.The stability of Chinese existential constructions is not as high as that of English.In the typical Chinese “You”-existential construction,the degree of adhesion between locatives and the existential verb “You” is not that high.The constructionalization of Chinese existential constructions is not as high as that of English,but Chinese existential constructions is more productive.(4)The frequency of definite noun phrases in the C-slot in Chinese existential constructions is higher than that of English existential constructions.It can be seen that the differences in the formal evolution of existential constructions in English and Chinese are greater than the similarities.From the perspective of the characteristics of semantic evolution,the similarities between English and Chinese existential constructions are mainly manifested in the following three aspects:(1)Both English and Chinese existential verbs have three pairs of semantic features: [±continuous],[±complete] and [±stative].(2)The entry of activity verbs of existential verbs in English and Chinese is subject to more and more restrictions,showing a gradually downward trend.(3)From the typical constructional meaning to the extended constructional meaning,they all start from the static meaning.The differences between English and Chinese existential constructions in the semantic evolution are mainly manifested in the following five aspects:(1)In the evolution process,the semantic expression of English existential constructions is relatively stable.(2)Chinese existential constructions have various internal forms,rich and complex meanings,and the number and semantic properties of existential verbs are greater and more complex than that of English.(3)In English,there are half of the noun phrases that show a concrete meaning and half of noun phrases show an abstract meaning,while the Chinese mainly use the noun phrases to represent concrete meanings.(4)The subjectivity of English existential constructions is not as strong as Chinese.The adverbs and constructions that express subjective meanings in Chinese existential constructions have undergone a subjectivisation process,and Chinese existential constructions are more subjective.(5)There are also some sentence patterns related to existential constructions in Chinese,like genitive existential constructions,noun-predicate existential constructions.It can be seen that the evolutional differences in the semantic features of existential constructions in English and Chinese are greater than the similarities.Through the description and analysis of the formal and semantic characteristics of the similarities and differences during the diachronic evolution of the existential constructions in English and Chinese,this study explained the cognitive motivations and causes for the similarities and differences in the diachronic evolution of existential constructions in English and Chinese.The differences of cognizing existential concept between English and Chinese resulted in the differences of forms and meanings in the evolution of English and Chinese existential constructions.The similarity of diachronic evolution between English and Chinese existential construction is mainly manifested in one aspect: There are three basic elements in English and Chinese existential constructions: location,existential verbs and existential subjects.The sequence in the construction of these three elements is similar.This demonstrates that the English and Chinese have similar cognitive choices in the prototype category.The cognitive sequence is the cognitive domain.The differences of diachronic evolution between English and Chinese existential constructions are mainly manifested in three aspects:(1)The differences in the constructionalization characteristics of the existential constructions in English and Chinese in the diachronic evolution process reflects their respective constructional mechanisms and motivations.This reflects the differences of“rational thinking” and “perceptual thinking” which influences their different analogy and reanalysis of existential concept.(2)Due to the different means to express subjectivity in English and Chinese,English mainly uses the tense,aspect and mood of existential verbs to show the speaker's subjectivity,while in Chinese,there are lots of adverbs and different forms of existential verbs to show the speaker's subjectivity.It was found that the subjective meaning in Chinese existential constructions is stronger and stronger.The subjectivity and subjectivitisation in Chinese existential constructions is greater than that in English.This reveals the “objective thinking”of English and“subjective thinking” of Chinese.(3)The differences in the perception of understanding between the English and Chinese people are reflected by the place of existence and the existential subject in the construction.Historically,Western native English speakers are better at abstract thinking activities,so the tendency of abstract thinking is also reflected in expressing existential locatives and subjects.In addition,English may use the operational means of vocabulary blurring to deepen the degree of abstraction of vocabulary semantics.The Chinese people have been good at intuitive thinking and image thinking since ancient times,so they tend to pay more attention to specific entities when expressing existential places and things.At the same time,Chinese lacks the means of lexicalization,so the degree of abstraction of lexical meanings is lower.In short,this study has extended the depth of the existential constructions in English and Chinese to a certain extent,made up for the lack of previous studies on the diachronic evolution of the formal semantics of the existential constructions in English and Chinese,and revealed the cognitive motivations and causes of the similarities and differences between English and Chinese.This thesis can also provide some guidance for comparative study,teaching and translation of English and Chinese non-canonical sentence patterns.It also can lay a foundation for language learners and researchers to develop a further research on sentence patterns. |
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