图形-背景理论视域下英语分裂句生成研究

A Study on the Generation of the Cleft Sentence in English from the Perspective of Figure-ground Theory

分裂句是英语学习过程中的重要语法内容,包括It-分裂句和Wh-分裂句两种句型。运用图形-背景理论对It-分裂句和Wh-分裂句的句法及语义特征进行阐释,通过探讨人们在英语表达过程中注意的焦点,揭示两种分裂句生成的认知理据。研究表明,It-分裂句和Wh-分裂句的生成遵循认知突显原则,英语表达方式也会随认知主体视角和关注点的变化而变化。

The cleft sentence is an important grammatical item in learning English,which includes Itcleft sentence and Wh-cleft sentence.In the present study,the figure-ground theory is used to analyze the syntactic and semantic features of the cleft sentence,aiming to explore the focus of attention in the process of speaking English and to reveal the cognitive motivation for the generation of the cleft sentence.The result shows the generation of the cleft sentence follows the cognitive prominence principle and the English expressions will change with the variation of the perspective and focus of the cognitive subjects.