A Corpus-based Behavioral Profile Study On Near-synonymous Collective Classifier Constructions

All human languages have certain linguistic forms to express the concept of“quantity.” Although English does not belong to classifier languages,some binominal phrases such as a jug of wine,a loaf of bread,and a box of candy are similar to classifiers in terms of functions.These binominal NPs can be summarized as a quantifying structure of a NOUN1 of NOUN2,which is known as English classifier constructions.In recent years,English classifier construction has attracted a lot of attention and become the focus of many linguists’ discussions.However,the existence of “classifier” in English was a controversial topic in the early days,but linguists later discovered that there is also a knid of construction in English,whose usage and characteristics are very similar to those of “classifer”.The English classifier construction is one of the most important constructions in the English language,and it reflects the cognitive mechanism and way of thinking of the English-speaking people.However,as mentioned above,English classifiers did not exist in early English,but evolved through other word classes,and then developed into English classifer constructions with stable forms and semantics.In reviewing the previous literature,it can be seen that as one of the important classes of English classifier constructions,there is a certain degree of ambiguity in its chronological path.Therefore,this study specifically examines the following questions:(1)What are the subtle differences in the semantic structure and usage features of different English near-synonymous classifier constructions in terms of semantics and pragmatic categories at the synchronic level?(2)What are the similarities and differences in the chronological paths of the four sets of near-synonymous English collective classifier constructions at the diachronic level?(3)Are there any correlations between the differences at the synchronic level and the diachronic path,and if so,what are they?This thesis focuses on four near-synonymous English collective classifiers of a flock/herd/swarm/pack of and aims to uncover the differences in their semantic structure and usage features at the synchronic level and ravel out the path of their diachronic evolution.Specifically,based on the Corpus of Historical American English(COHA),the diachronic study divides its evolution path into three stages(noun-classifier-quantifier).Precisely,employing mosaic chart,this part visualizes the paths of their semantic changes.The thesis uses the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA)as the data source to extract all corpora containing the four English collective classifiers.In the synchronic study,cluster analysis results reflect that the four near-synonymous English collective classifiers are separated into two groups in which flock is more similar to herd,then swarm and finally pack.Secondly,correspondence analysis shows some subtle differences of the four near-synonymous English collective classifiers.For example,compared with a swarm/herd/flock of,a pack of shows more preference for nouns denoting negative meanings;a flock of distinguishes itself from a herd/swarm/pack of in that it often appear in magazines;as for a flock of and a herd of,the main difference lies in that a flock of tends to be frequently associated with poultry whereas a herd of is prone to modify herbivores with large body size.In the diachronic study,these results suggest that the diachronic evolution of these four English collective classifier constructions can be regarded as the result of grammaticalization and subjectification processes leading from head to classifier and classifier uses which involve changes in collocational patterning.The path leading to classifier constructions involves gradually extending the collocational range of the following Noun2 from some concrete nouns to abstract nouns.Finally,from the perspective of constructional grammar,this paper argues that the essence of this kind of evolution is the process of constructionalization.Specifically,the diachronic changes of a flock/herd/swarm/pack of are recursive processes involving constructional changes and constructionalizations.In that case,the changes affecting the string a flock/herd/swarm/pack of from the 1820 s onwards are best considered a part of constructionalization,which involves a neo-analysis in meaning and form.At the theoretical level,by classifying the four English collective classifier constructions and deciphering their diachronic evolutionary trajectories,this paper contributes to the study of constructional grammar at both the synchronic and diachronic levels,as well as to the study of cross-linguistic classifier constructions.As for methodology,this paper combines corpus linguistics and visual statistics analysis to provide a quantitative approach to studying language variation and evolution through multi-factor analysis.In terms of application,this paper can help English learners master the English collective classifier constructions more effectively.