英语“情感强化副词+形容词”构式的语义压制

Semantic coercion in the English “emotive intensifier+adjective” construction

本研究在构式语法理论下,采用压制的“词汇-构式-语境”分析路径,考察英语“情感强化副词+形容词”构式的语义压制问题。研究发现:1)当语义冲突在词汇和构式范畴内无法消解时,压制延伸拓展至语境层面,即语境参与压制,实现语言表达的重新解读;2)压制运行使得情感强化副词和形容词发生语义升格或降格,情感强化副词语义漂白,失去原褒扬或贬抑的情感色彩,解读为中性语义,形容词则解读为相应的反向意义;3)情感强化副词语义升/降格是人类转喻、隐喻及侧显认知机制发生作用的结果,形容词语义的升/降格则主要涉及转喻认知机制。

Within Construction Grammar,this article explores the semantic coercion in the English“emotive intensifier+adjective”construction with an approach of“lexicon-construction-context”.This study has found that:(1)when semantic conflicts fail to be resolved within the levels of lexicon and construction,the coercion extends to the contextual level,that is,the context exerts coercion for a reinterpretation of expressions;(2)coercion operation may lead to semantic upgradation or degradation of the emotive intensifier and the adjective.The emotive intensifier turns neutral,undergoing semantic bleaching of its original commendatory or derogatory emotional meaning,and the adjective is reinterpreted as having the opposite meaning;and(3)semantic upgradation or degradation of the emotive intensifier results from cognitive mechanisms of metonymy,metaphor and profiling,while semantic upgradation or degradation of the adjective is mainly associated with the cognitive mechanism of metonymy.