Dissertation > Excellent graduate degree dissertation topics show

A Cognitive Grammar Analysis of Conversion between Nouns and Verbs in Modern Chinese

Author: GaoHang
Tutor: YanChenSong
School: PLA Foreign Languages ??Institute
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: Cognitive Grammar Conversion in Nominalization Nominalization The concept of materialized Reference point capacity The concept of autonomy Metonymy Subjective Mental scanning
CLC: H146
Type: PhD thesis
Year: 2007
Downloads: 1093
Quote: 14
Read: Download Dissertation

Abstract


Nouns and verbs are considered to be two universal grammatical categories, and they are opposed to each other in distribution. When a linguistic unit normally used as a noun occurs in the position of a verb, or vice versa, its lexical class changes. This is what is known as conversion in morphology. This dissertation focuses on conversion between nouns and verbs in modern Chinese.Previous studies of this phenomenon have concentrated on two areas. The first one is concerned with how to judge whether the lexical class of a linguistic unit has changed. In particular, this involves the nature of verbs that occur as subjects or objects in a clause, a controversial topic known as the issue of nominalization in Chinese linguistics. The other area is what motivates conversion between nouns and verbs and what mechanisms are responsible for it. Some researchers have begun to explore this area from perspectives of functional grammar and cognitive linguistics.Most previous studies, constrained by objectivist semantics, have ignored the role of general cognitive abilities in shaping linguistic structure and meaning. Most researchers have focused their attention on theoretical discussion without sufficient attention to corpus analysis. And the few studies on mechanisms of conversion have not offered a comprehensive description and explanation within a coherent framework. This dissertation has explored conversion between nouns and verbs in modern Chinese within the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG), concentrating on five issues, including the nature of verbs in the position of subjects or objects, the“N de V”construction, transferred designation in nominalization, verbalization of nouns, and predicative nouns. We have made the following discoveries in our exploration.First, conceptual reification as a general cognitive ability is the fundamental mechanism responsible for nominalization of verbs in modern Chinese. Whether monosyllabic or disyllabic, a verb always profiles a process. And conceptual reification, working on component states of a process, operates on the conceptual level. Consequently, there is no link between nominalization and the number of syllables. Processes on the various levels of conceptual organization, from verbs, verb phrases to finite clauses, can all be reified as a thing. Their nominalizations can all be considered nouns in CG, their differences residing in degrees of symbolic complexity, specificity, entrenchment, and conventionalization.Secondly, reference-point abilities and conceptual autonomy are the most important factors for description and explanation of the“N de V”construction. This construction, like typical possessive constructions, can be analyzed as a reference-point structure whereby one entity is used as a reference point for accessing another. And a corpus-based survey indicates that nominalization of monosyllabic verbs in this construction is highly restricted, and this can be attributed to conceptual and stylistic factors. Besides, conceptual autonomy is the most important factor that affects the acceptability of this construction. The higher the degree of conceptual autonomy of a verb, the more likely its nominalization occurs in the construction. All intransitive verbs can occur in this structure precisely because they profile autonomous processes.Thirdly, conceptual metonymy is a fundamental factor in nominalization, serving to shift the profile of a process to various semantic roles that participate in the process. In terms of frequency of metonymic reference, movers and products are the most important roles, followed by agents, instruments, and quantity, while other semantic roles are rarely accessed via processes. A corpus analysis reveals that the previous theory based on prominence alone is not sufficient to account for metonymic reference in nominalization.Fourthly, conceptual metonymy also works in conversion of nouns to verbs, and various semantic roles exhibit considerable difference in frequency of conversion and acceptability of metonymy. Nouns designating instruments, products, and movers are frequently converted to verbs, compared with those designating other roles. In terms of cognitive processing, accessing a process via an agent or patient is not an effective or efficient strategy. Instrument nouns are especially important in conversion, most of them capable of referring to a process via metonymy. There are three factors that determine whether an instrument noun can be converted to a verb, namely, manipulability of an instrument, its similarity with other instruments, and affectedness of patient.Finally, nouns in Chinese have a dynamic nature if serving as predicates in a clause. And this nature can be attributed to subjectification and mental scanning. A conceptualizer mentally scans along an abstract path (i.e. scale), and arrives at a particular position on the path. Acceptability of clauses with predicative nouns correlates with degrees of salience of the path, which can be reinforced by a contrastive context.In previous studies of conversion between nouns and verbs in modern Chinese, linguists have made their observations from perspectives of various research paradigms. Naturally, this has led to numerous views and disputes. Whatever paradigm one is working within, one’s description and explanation of this phenomenon must conform to reality of language. As this study indicates, a cognitive grammar analysis of conversion in Chinese will produce many new and interesting ideas and throw light on many traditional problems in Chinese.

Related Dissertations

  1. Studyon Thermal-Wet Comfort of Women’s Table Tennis T-Shirt,TS941.15
  2. The Research on College Students’ Participation in Ideological and Political Education,G641
  3. College Students’ Subjective Well-being and Influential Factors of the Training Path,B844.2
  4. Liang Li case studies,D924.3
  5. A Study on Relationship among Senior Students’ Physical Exercises and Academic Self-efficacy and Subjective Well-being,B844.2
  6. The Inspiration of Pre-Qin Confucian Educational Thought to Secondary Chinese Language Education,G633.3
  7. Comparative Rescerach on Subjective Happiness and Parenting Style between Sencondary School Student in Single-parent Families and Whole Parent Families,G78
  8. Search Engine Provider Copyright Infringement Liability Standard Discussion,D923.41
  9. Research the Most Important Influencing Factor in a Subjective Evaluation about the Acoustic Environment in Concert Hall,TU112
  10. A Study on Emission Limits of Structure-Borne Noise from Fixture Transmitted into Room,TB533
  11. Fabric softness subjective evaluation,TS101.923
  12. Type the phone menu ergonomics research,TN929.53
  13. Relationship between Psychological Factors and Lactose Intolerance in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients,R574
  14. Prone multi - model evaluation of GIS-based landslides in Guizhou Province,P642.22
  15. Farmers involved in the behavior of rural social old-age security research,F842.6
  16. The Research and Application of Rough Set Based on Information Entropy,TP18
  17. Trust Management Research in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Subject Logic,TN929.5
  18. Military Flight Personnel Status and Influence Factors of Subjective Well-being,E0-051
  19. A Research on Criminal Characterization of "Speculation Behavior of Pengci During Driving",D924.3
  20. Qualitative Analysis of the Crime of Abuse of Power,D924.3

CLC: > Language, writing > Chinese > Grammar > Modern,modern syntax
© 2012 www.DissertationTopic.Net  Mobile