On The Profiling Of The Construction Of "N+Adj?Adj" Compounds

Compositionality is one of the key ways of generating word formation,but its explanatory power is decaying gradually in terms of word compounding.After tracing its historical development,we draw a conclusion that full compositionality,which is proclaimed by Structuralism and Formalism,fails to explain the newly generated linguistic phenomena.On the contrary,partial compositionality is innovated and has been applied successfully.In the field of cognitive linguistics,studies on different components in English phrasal constructions like “N + Adj?Adj”help to produce different construals in terms of validation,sequentiality and representation.Based on the constructional model proposed by Langacker(1978),profiling within construction and the reference point theory are combined to form a new model.Different compositions bring about different profiles due to their respective reference points,and they are further combined with the target at the cognitive level.The compositional structure conjugates with NPs to construct cognitive interpretations.Lexical forms and meanings generated are cognitively distinguished from those based strictly on their full compositionality.In this thesis,it is assumed that there are three kinds of profiling relation: adjective profiling,noun profiling and whole profiling.The data of compound words which are produced by “N + Adj? Adj” constructionare collected from COCA.54 American colleges are invited as the subjects for the research to finish the questionnaire derived from the data collected.The results prove there exist three profiling relations within the model and each component interacts with each other.Thorough analyses are conducted on the basis of the data,and they can be concluded as:when the adjective component is profiled,the interrelations between adjective and noun are directing,complementing and exaggerating;when the noun component is profiled,the interrelations between noun and adjective are directing,modifying and specifying.The conclusions not only verify the great explanatory power of cognitive linguistics but also provide cognitive mechanisms for this kind of compounds.Meanwhile,full compositionality and partial compositionality are basically distinguished.