| The English verb Do as a lexical verb is widely used. When it combines with anoun phrase it will form the Do+NP construction, as do housework in expression Shedoesn’t like to do housework. This Do+NP construction is in fact the Verb-Objectconstruction (VO construction). This thesis mainly focuses on why and how themeaning of the Do+NP construction gets changed when the NP gets changed.Many scholars home and abroad have studied the verb Do in the Do+NPconstruction. Most of them concentrate on the meanings and function of the verb Do,but this thesis holds that their views are not comprehensive enough. Based on thismotivation, this thesis is going to study the Do+NP construction from the perspective ofcoercion which is an important notion of construction grammar.First, this thesis gives out the meaning of the verb Do in the Do+NP construction,and also the meaning of the Do+NP construction. Second, this thesis classifies theDo+NP construction into two subcategories, the Do+CNP construction and the Do+ENPconstruction. And then, this thesis discusses the construction meaning and semanticconstraints of these two constructions respectively. On the one hand, in the Do+CNPconstruction, the CNP refers to the common noun phrases as the car and the room inphrases do the car, do the room. Based on the lexical coercion, the meaning of the verbDo is coerced by the meaning of the CNP, and both the meaning of the verb Do and thatof the CNP contribute the meaning of the Do+CNP construction in terms of theconstruction coercion and lexical coercion. In the Do+ENP construction, the ENP refersto eventive noun phrase as a dance and some cleaning in phrases do a dance, do somecleaning. Unlike the Do+CNP construction, the meaning of the verb Do in the Do+ENPconstruction is almost missing, and only the ENP contributes the meaning of theDo+ENP construction. In addition, this thesis explores the semantic constraints on theCNP in the Do+ENP construction and the ENP in the Do+ENP construction. For onething, the common noun phrase can not function as the CNP unless its meaning matchesthe meaning of the verb Do well. For another thing, two types of words can be regardedas eventive nouns: verbal nouns (including the gerunds), as washing in phrase do some washing up; deverbal nouns as dive in phrases do a dive. That is to say, most heads ofthe ENPs in the Do+ENP construction are verbal nouns or deverbal nounsAt last, this thesis makes a systematic comparison between the Do+CNPconstruction and the Do+ENP construction, discussing their different and commonaspects from their way of coercion and their meanings. During the comparison, thisthesis finds out that some Do+CNP expressions are the most typical members of theDo+NP construction, but some Do+CNP expressions are the marginal or untypicalmembers of the Do+NP construction; Do+ENP expressions are typical members of theDo+NP construction;... |
