A Metonymic Study Of Chinese De Construction

De plays a pivotal role in contemporary Chinese because of its high occurrence frequency and its various distributions.Among them,there is one typical use of de called transferred reference.In spite of not mentioning the reference target,communicators both understand what this structure of de refers to.To realize this expression,a series of attributes before de is also necessary,simplified as X.Therefore,in this thesis,de construction refers to the structure “X+de”,which is already nominalized and can obtain its head in the context.Metonymy,as one of human basic cognitive methods,has its imperceptible influences on several linguistic phenomena.Shen Jiaxuan(1999)expounds the transferred reference of de from the perspective of cognitive metonymy.Since then,a few researchers swift their study angle from semantic and grammatical use of de into cognitive explanation.Therefore,this thesis attempts to explore mainly the classification of de construction from metonymy perspective,its textual function,as well as its influential factors especially from cognitive metonymy.The following three research questions will be investigated in detail:1.What are metonymy types of de construction?2.What textual functions does different metonymy of de construction have?3.How do these textual functions of de construction realize?Based on conceptual metonymy theory and construction grammar,the authentic oral data from 15 latest episodes of program in Let's talk are collected and analyzed.De constructions are picked out by the standard that the head has been omitted but can be found in the context.As a result,this study comes to the following findings:Firstly,de construction can be divided into five types according to its metonymy types: Location ICM,Possession ICM,Containment ICM,Category-and-property ICM and Action ICM.Secondly,de construction can realize three kinds of textual functions: referential function,focus-highlighting function and focus-comparison function.Referential function is the basic textual function for de construction through metonymy,which enables the discourse to be brief and accurate.Focus-highlighting function can make the feature of de construction salient and emphasize this feature in the discourse.In the course of embodying focus-comparison function,there are two or more de constructions in one sentence,which are generated according to the same taxonomic standard,thus reflecting comparison relationship.Ultimately,as for the realization of textual function of de construction,there are three main influential factors analyzed in the thesis.In the first place,it is taxonomic meaning of de construction realized by metonymy.Every de construction is a subcategory in a general category according to the X taxonomy standard.In other words,it is in Category-and-Member ICM.This acts as the cornerstone for the referential function in de construction.In addition,it is salience that influences the realization of textual function.Only if X possesses a certain salience,focus-highlighting and focuscomparison can be realized.Moreover,context is also imperative,which plays prominent role in confirming the head of de construction.It can not only regulate the salience of X,but also confine the reference.