A Cognitive Study Of The Semantic Interaction Between The Progressive Construction And The Lexical Aspect In Chinese And English

Previous studies on English progressive and Chinese progressive are abundant and they are mainly from the perspective of grammatical meanings,meanings of the verb,argument structure,semantic characteristics of the argument etc.,which laid an important foundation for our research.However,previous studies shed a little light on the central sense of Chinese progressives;neither are there comprehensive studies on the motives of the differences in grammatical meanings between Chinese and English progressive.Based on the previous studies,this thesis assesses the progressive constructions in Chinese and English through the combination of qualitative study and quantitative study aiming to investigate the central senses,formal representations,ways of lexical aspectual shift and the motives of the differences in grammatical meanings between Chinese and English progressives adopting construction grammar and conceptual blending theory.There are three research questions:(1)What are the differences and similarities in central senses and formal representations between Chinese and English progressive constructions?(2)What are the differences and similarities in the ways of lexical aspect shift between Chinese and English?(3)What are the motives of the differences in grammatical meanings between Chinese and English progressives?It is found that(1)The central senses of the Chinese progressives and the English progressive are temporary process and temporary process(+degree)respectively;despite the similar grammaticalization process,Chinese progressive markers are time adverbials with specific grammatical meanings,while English progressive marker is auxiliary with abstract meaning.(2)In ways of lexical aspect shift,Chinese and English are similar.The differences lie in: Chinese adopts the quantification of verbs,but English adopts prepositions,tense and subjects with agentive features in shifting.(3)It is held that the differences in grammatical meanings are because of the differences in central senses and the existence of “tense” and its grammatical meanings in English.The grammatical meanings of Chinese progressives are the result of the integration of lexical aspect and grammatical aspect and the grammatical meanings of the English progressive are the result of the integration of lexical aspect,grammatical aspect and tense.The grammatical meanings resulted from the integration of progressive aspect and activity/accomplishment in Chinese and English are similar.Their differences lie in the integration of progressive aspect and achievement and the integration of progressive aspect and state.Chinese progressives with achievement denote slow motion reading,temporary process,repetition and preliminary process through aspectual coercion and conceptual blending.English progressive with achievement encodes slowmotion,repetition,temporary process,preliminary process and denoting future actions.When combined with state,Chinese progressives derive temporary process,while English progressive can derive temporary process,gradual changing process and special pragmatic meanings.The thesis is of some theoretical and practical significance.When referring to theoretical significance,this thesis enriches the application of construction coercion and conceptual blending theory in the analysis of the interaction of lexical aspect and grammatical aspect.It also completes the study on Chinese and English progressive.As for the practical significance,the explanation of the generation of grammatical meanings in Chinese and English progressive contributes to second language teaching.