英语动-品型复合名词的历时和认知解析

A diachronic and cognitive expatiation of English verb-particle compound nouns

由动词和小品词组成的动-品型复合名词在英语中俯拾皆是。本研究首先从语言的体认性和认知的经济性阐释动-品型复合名词产生的理据,然后从历时和认知的视角系统探索这一类名词的形成在形式和意义上所遵循的识解机制。研究发现:1)形式上,动-品型复合名词是短语动词名词化的产物,二者之间存在语法隐喻关系,短语动词通过类的转移转化为动-品型复合名词,在具体的使用中类的转移直接引起表达式级阶的转移;2)意义上,动-品型复合名词与短语动词之间存在概念转喻关联,它们表达相同的命题意义、不同的表述意义;3)从短语动词向动-品型复合名词转化的过程中,以事件行为为起点,事件的不同侧面得到凸显,凸显的侧面包括事件整体、事件施事、事件受事、事件工具、事件地点、事件结果等。

English verb-particle compound nouns,composed of a verb and a particle,abound in English.This study first proposes that the embodiment of language and the economy of cognition are the emerging motivation of such nouns and then elucidates from a diachronic and a cognitive perspective the mechanism of construal that such nouns follow regarding their form and meaning.The findings are as follows:1)In terms of form,these nouns arise from the nominalization of phrasal verbs;the two are in a relation of grammatical metaphor and this process of metaphorization involves a class shift,which in turn results in a rank shift.2)In terms of meaning,the two are metonymic;they express the same propositional meaning but different expressive meanings.3)In the process of the transformation,different aspects of the event become prominent:from the action itself to the event as a whole,the agent,the patient,the instrument,the site,or even the result of the event.