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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background
The English resultative construction with fake objects (represented as the "S + V +Of + RP" construction in this thesis. "Of" stands for fake objects, and "RP" meansresultative phrases), as one member of English resultative family, has been studied bymany linguists from different points of view. Consider the following examples: In (1)a, they is the subject, drank is the verb, the pub is the fake object and theresultative phrase is dry. Because the pub is not the semantic argument of the verbdrank, which is usually used as an intransitive verb, it is called a fake object. Theresultative phrase dry describes a change of state of the fake object the pub. Similarly, in(1)b, the professor is the subject, talked is the verb, us is the fake object and into astupor is the resultative phrase. Following the intransitive verb talk, us is regarded as afake object, and it undergoes a change of state, which is shown by the resultative phraseinto a stupor.Linguists have studied the English resultative construction with fake objects. First,they have studied the prototypical resultative construction. According to Goldberg(1995), the English resultative construction is a kind of construction in which somearguments potentially undergo a change of state as a result of the action denoted by theverb. To be more exact, according to Halliday (1967), the resultatives describe aresultant state which is caused by the action denoted in the primary predication. Levin(1995) also does the study about the resultative construction, and he points out that theresultative phrase in this construction such as the pub in They drank the pub dry, usuallyrefers to “an XP which describes the state achieved by the referent of the noun phrase ispredicated of as a result of the action named by the verb”.
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1.2 The Purpose of the Study
To get a better explanation for the English resultative construction with fakeobjects, there is a need to go deep in it. Construction grammar has offered a bettersolution to the analysis of the English resultative construction with fake objects. As aconstruction coercion-based study, this thesis, on the one hand, attempts to explain thelimitations of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic approaches to the analysis of theresultative construction with fake objects. On the other hand, it mainly tries to clearlyexplain the resultative construction with fake objects, which is divided into four types inthis thesis. More exactly, the thesis is to adopt the notion of construction coercion in theanalysis of the four types of the English resultative construction with fake objects. Afterthe detailed analysis, some phenomena in the resultative construction can be wellexplained.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 The Syntactic Approach to the Resultative Construction with Fake Objects
When discussing the resultative construction, some linguists do it from the syntacticperspective. Simpson is the first one to observe RPs (the resultative phrases) and therelationship between them and their main verbs in the construction. She (1983) thinksthat RPs in the English resultative construction are to be predicated of NPs in objectposition, whether these NPs are arguments of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。