A Constructionalization Approach To English Emanation Fictive Motion

Fictive motion depicts a stationary scene by motion-denoting constructions.Its two cognitive representations of factive stationariness and fictive motion have received much attention from fields including cognitive linguistics,cognitive neuroscience and phenomenology etc.However,the study of diachronic relation between factive and fictive motion has been relatively ignored.First proposed by Traugott&Trousdale in 2013,constructionalization was dedicated to exploring the diachronic development of constructions within the framework of construction grammar.Based on an investigation of micro changes both in form and meaning,constructionalization may provide a comprehensive illustration for the diachronic changes of English fictive emanation paths and the cognitive motivations hidden behind.Within the framework of constructionalization,this thesis is to explore the diachronic development of English emanation paths and its cognitive motivations based on the authentic data from Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA)and Corpus of Historical American English(COHA)by a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative approaches.To be concrete,in aid of corpus,the time when emanation paths appeared is traced between 1810s and 2000s.Then detailed form-meaning changes of English emanation paths and cognitive motivations behind are explored from the constructionalization perspective.The research findings are as follows:(1)Based on the data extracted and constructionalization theory,emanation paths follow two lines of change.One is the constructionalization of sensory paths from factive motion to prospect paths,shadow paths and radiation paths.Emanation paths with a simple frame emerge in this line.The second one is the constructionalization of targeting paths from factive motion to demonstrative paths.Emanation paths with a complex frame occur in this line.The first one starts with explicit form changes and the agent role vanishes gradually while the second one initiates with an implicit meaning change featured with an increasing number of agent role in the semantic frame.(2)During constructionalization,novel context meaning undergoes prominence,stabilization and expansion during preconstructionalization constructional changes(PreCxzn CCs),constructionalization(Cxzn)and postconstructionalization constructional changes(PostCxzn CCs).An ambiguous reading in the onset context facilitates the emergence of new construction.Contexts in Cxzn and PostCxzn CCs act as both promoter and hinder to the further constructional changes.(3)Profiling,subjectification and categorization are three major cognitive motivations underpinning the neoanalysis and analogization during the diachronic changes.Promoted by the profiling and subjectification,fictive emanation meaning is induced.In addition,the new construction,based on the agent-distal object model,makes a transformation from the factive motion category to the category of fictive emanation paths.In conclusion,by exploring the diachronic changes of English emanation paths from the perspective of constructionalization,this thesis reveals not only the diachronic relations between factive motion category and fictive emanation category but also a dynamic path of change of English emanation and the cognitive motivations behind.Additionally,it expands the research of constructionalization theory,verifying its explanatory power.It also sheds some light on the teaching of English emanation fictive motion.