轻动词短语GIVE A N(V)形成机制及认知原理分析

On the Formation Mechanism and Cognitive Principles of Light Verb Phrase GIVE A N(V)

轻动词,也称“弱语义动词”,语义内容含量少,无法独立充当谓语,需要其他实词补充语义内容,共同构成谓语成分。英语中常见的轻动词短语结构是“轻动词+不定冠词+名词(由动词转化派生)”,例如:GIVE A N(V),然而,GIVE同时也是一个语义内容充足的‘强语义动词’,可构成表“给予事件”的双及物结构。认知语言学认为语言形式与概念结构有仿拟关系,二者同构程度越高,越易存储和提取。这种仿拟可以是语码对经验的直接模仿,也可以是语码对图式化的其他语码的仿拟,本文认为轻动词短语GIVE A N(V)的形成机制就是对实义动词GIVE双及物结构的仿拟。仿拟一个语言结构必然会受到该结构概念的影响,本文认为轻动词短语GIVE A N(V)的认知原理是(GIVE)给予事件模型和N(V)中谓词事件模型整合生成的新事件模型。

Light verbs,also known as"semantically weak verb",have limited semantic content and cannot independently serve as predicates.They require other content words to supplement their semantic content and jointly form predicate components.The common structure of light verb phrases in English is"light verb+indefinite article+noun(derived from verb transformation)",such as GIVE A N(V).However,GIVE is also"a semantically rich verb"that can form a ditransitive structure expressing'giving events".Cognitive linguistics believes that language form and conceptual structure are related to some extent.The higher the degree of isomorphism between them,the easier it is to store and extract them.This kind of iconicity can be the direct match of code and experience,or the parody of code to other schematized codes.This paper argues that the formation mechanism of light verb phrase GIVE A N(V)is the iconicity of the ditransitive structure of the lexical verb GIVE.Imitating a language structure is bound to be affected by the concept of the structure.It is argued that the cognitive principle of the light verb phrase GIVE A N(V)is a new event model generated by integrating the giving event model and the event model of the verb in N(V).