英语论文网

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 The Background of the Study
The adjective selection constraints in the English resultative construction haveoften led researchers to despair. For instance, they find it difficult to explain why wecan say John hammered the metal flat but not * John hammered the metal long.In this thesis, the term of resultative construction is abbreviated to RC and theresultative adjective used in the RC is termed as RAP (AP resultative adjective phrase)for the convenience of analysis.According to Wechsler (2001), in view of Boas’s research achievement, there aretotally 24 adjectives which can be used as RAP (AP resultative adjective phrase) in theEnglish Resultative Construction which are showed as the following: However, according to Rundell (2003), there are at least 42 adjectives used as RAPin the English Resultative Construction. In fact, the number of resultative adjectives isnot confined to a certain number. In terms of language facts, the Chinese scholars LuoSiming & Wang Wenbin (2010), based on the corpus and the theory of typology, havequestioned the limitation of adjective selection in the RC and considered that aprobabilistic method instead of an absolute approach seems to be more reasonable andall-round in reflecting the constraints.Therefore, the research of adjective selection constraints in the English resultativeconstruction has attracted the attention of linguistics. But what factors really affectadjective selection in the RC? This thesis aims to solve this problem.
……………

1.2 The Objective and Significance of This Thesis
Based on the previous scholars’ studies of the RAP in the resultative construction,the objective of this thesis is to study constraints on the adjective complements used inthe resultative construction and aims to enlarge the selection scope of resultativeadjectives in the RC, covering the deverbal adjectives (e.g. cooked/confused/drunk)which are said to be banned as RAP(Wang Yin 2011) and interpret how typicallyunacceptable sentences *John hammered the metal safe can become acceptable, underthe given context .Generally speaking, this thesis is based on the linguistic view of the constraints onthe adjective selection in the RC and a coercion-based approach is proposed in order toaccount for the selection.This thesis will apply the scale structure of adjectives made by Wechsler (2001) tothe explanation of the adjective selection constraints on the English resultativeconstruction and clearly demonstrate the interaction relationship of the resultativeadjective and the verb.As to coercion, this thesis is, based on the bidirectional coercion theory putforward by Wang Yin (2011), to discuss the relationship of verbs and adjectives in theRC and prove some usually unacceptable sentences to become acceptable and extendthe selection scope of resultative adjectives in the RC.In fact, no existing formal model can account for adjective selection in resultativesentences. A more satisfactory analysis can be achieved by detailing the cognitive basisof the resultative construction. This thesis attempts to reanalyze the formal model putforward by Wechsler (2001) from the perspective of coercion theory.
…………

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies of the Resultative Construction
The本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。