Study On Structural Types And Diachronic Comparison Between English And Chinese NAsp Construction

Based on the Construction Grammar,this thesis will be conducted by the method of qualitative and quantitative analysis.“NA_sp” construction is regarded as the research object,which will be discussed in the six chapters from three aspects: the similarities and differences in structural types between English and Chinese NA_sp construction,the similarities and differences between English and Chinese NA_sp construction in terms of diachronic development,the cognitive explanation to the these similarities and differences.The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the evolution rule in English and Chinese NA_sp structural types,the similarities and differences between English and Chinese,Most importantly,in-depth cognitive explanation will be given in the thesis.The study results are presented as follows: As far as the English and Chinese NA_sp construction are concerned,the similarities focus on: The English and Chinese NA_sp construction share three structures: two phrase structure: “Numeral + Measure unit + A_sp ” and “Numeral + Noun + A_sp”,a compound structure: “Noun + A_sp”.The absolute measurement or estimated measurement could be expressed in these three types.The differences on the Chinese NA_sp construction is more diversified.The 13 structures is unique in Chinese,Because the “Zhi（in Chinese Characters: 之;in English: liner verb）”,numeral auxiliary,adverbial could be embedded in the structure.By contrast,The English is much simpler,The restriction of English spatial dimensional adjective is more stronger.Meanwhile,the similarities in diachronic development are embodied in the following aspect: The phrase structure of “Numeral + Measure unit + A_sp” is the first structure to appear in English and Chinese history,the compound structure “Noun + A_sp” is followed.That is to say,the English and Chinese undergo the metaphorical evolution route that from absolute measurement to estimated measurement.The differences are described as follows: The Chinese structure goes through the general evolution route: starts from the structure of “Numeral + measure unit + A_sp”,then develops “Numeral+ Noun+ A_sp”,at last to the “Noun+A_sp”.There is a gradable difference in cognitive structure.In a word,the “NA_sp” gradable distribution is given like: NA_big/small >NA_long/short1/ NA_thick1/thin1 >NA_deep/shallow NA_high/short2/NA₉far/near) >NA_wide/narrow/NA_thick2/thin2.Besides,The English structure goes through NAmonospace construction to NAmultispace construction.Meanwhile,the Chinese NA_sp has a long historical development,which goes through simple to complicated and diversified.The general trends can be described like this: it origins in the Warring State period,developing in the Ming and Qin dynasty,growing popular after the Republic of China.It is the production of Chinese popularity.The English construction first appear in the 9C,as the time goes by,the usage frequency and the structure are increasingly expanded.However,it is later than the Chinese.At last,space is a cognitive register that the people most experience in the daily life,the language similarities is frequently reflected in space register.The semantic of English and Chinese NA_sp is generally identical.Absolute measurement is regarded as the core meaning and the estimated measurement is seen as the peripheral meaning,which makes the construction different and similar,the similarities is mainly concerned about the common cognitive method-metaphor,the language economy and affected by the semantic,syntactic and pragmatic.The difference is mainly embodied in the language method,development of the society,most importantly,the salient language feature that temporarily is expressed in English and spatiality is reflected in Chinese.