A Study Of N Be N Construction From The Perspective Of Construction Pragmatics

English expressions as “love is love”,“boys are boys”,“wars are wars” are well known as nominal tautologies.They are literally uninformative but pragmatically meaningful and bear abundant pragmatic value.Thus they are frequently used in communication.According to Construction Grammar,these utterances are all form-meaning(function)pairs,and they are named N be N construction in this thesis.N be N Construction has been a hot topic of research since 1970 s,which has drawn a number of researchers’ attention.Based on their own research field,scholars at home and abroad have conducted numerous studies on N be N construction,including the pragmatic,formal-semantic,typological,functional,and cognitive linguistic approach to this construction.However,it is discovered that previous approaches indicate the modular study of N be N construction,namely,the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic investigation of this construction are not discussed within a unified framework.Hence,they can hardly offer a reasonable and comprehensive explanation to N be N construction.Besides,researchers have principally investigated N be N construction on its form,meaning and cognitive mechanism,however,the pragmatic study of this construction is to some extent inadequate.Out of these considerations,the study attempts to systematically and dynamically investigate the usage of N be N construction based on the Constructional Pragmatics Approach,an integrated approach which covers core viewpoints of Construction Grammar and Pragmatics,aiming to explore meaning,especially dynamic effect of construction.It is believed that this approach will provide a novel perspective for the discussion of N be N construction.The study attempts to find answers to three major questions:(1)What are the syntactic-pragmatic characteristics and constraints of N be N construction?(2)What are the constructional forces and pragmatic motivations of N be N construction as determined by those characteristics and constraints?(3)Under the drive of those forces and motivations,how does N be N construction realize its pragmatic effects in language use?By using several research methods,including literature research method,qualitative and quantitative methods,case study method,as well as introspection method,this study is implemented according to following procedures.Firstly,the study analyzes the syntactic-pragmatic characteristics and constraints of N be N construction from parts to whole through the close investigation on the 204 items of linguistic data that are selected from the online English corpus--COCA.Secondly,the study discusses and examines the constructional forces of N be N construction according to a number of linguistic data,then further analyzes the pragmatic motivations of this specific construction.Finally,the study analyzes the pragmatic effects of N be N construction from two aspects:pragmatic processing effect and communicative effect.Specifically,Levinson’s(2000)model of Three Level-Architecture of Presumptive Meaning are applied to depict the pragmatic processing of this construction,and its communicative effect is measured in terms of Effectiveness and Effectiveness principle that is proposed by Hou(2015b)as one of the thrusts of Lexico-Constructional Pragmatics.Corresponding to those three research questions mentioned above,several findings have been drawn in the thesis:(1)N be N construction is highly productive,which can be instantiated by different categories of nouns,some nouns are simultaneously licensed for different construction variants,but each of them has optimum collocation with a particular variant.The copula “be”varies from “is” to “are” and “be” due to the Number of nouns filled in and the modal verb “will”,and it will cause differences to detailed meanings of N be N constructions.“Will” in N be N construction functions as a reinforcement of attitudinal meaning of the whole construction.The constructional meaning of N be N construction is concluded as: profiling personal attitude or expressing individual judgment toward the referent of the “N” by means of the repetition of“N”.Instantiated N be N constructions inherit from this basic semantic structure and may have some subtle extensions.Besides,variants of N be N construction differ from each other in frequency,productivity and entrenchment degree.The syntactic-pragmatic constraints of N be N construction mainly reflected in: the grammatical constraints on the whole construction,the constraint on “N” and the constraints on “N” and constructional context.(2)N be N construction indicates many constructional force potentials,including the force of expressing category immutability of the entity nominated by “N”,emphasizing undesirability of specific entity,highlighting obligation that is related to the nominal “N” and marking discreteness or autonomy of specific entity;Effortlessness principle,appropriateness principle,adaptability to interlocutor’s salience of consciousness and conceptual metonymy are four major pragmatic motivations of N be N construction.(3)The pragmatic effects of N be N construction are mainly reflected in two aspects: pragmatic processing effect and communicative effect.The pragmatic processing of this construction indicates that the restriction and the enrichment of the second “N” based on Q-heuristic,I-heuristic and M-heuristic are needed for deriving the generalized conversational implicature(GCI)of this construction.Factors as constructional force,indirect speech act,rhetoric effect and constructional context should be considered in order to deduce the particularized conversational implicature(PCI)of N be N construction;In terms of the communicative effect,N be N is a construction of high effectiveness,its short form conforms to “three beauty principles” and always successfully achieves communicative purpose of language user,meanwhile,it always saves the face of participants and establishes good interpersonal relationships.This study is profound in enriching the linguistic explanation of N be N construction and improving people’s understanding and mastering of nominal tautology through a systematic and dynamic pragmatic investigation of this construction.Besides,by combining constructional approaches with pragmatic approaches,this study not only illuminates the form and meaning of N be N construction,but also accounts for the pragmatic issues of this construction,which has great significance for the establishment and development of the theoretical framework of Construction Pragmatics.