On English Independent Structure Syntactic and Pragmatic Functions (英语论文).docVIP

On English Independent Structure Syntactic and Pragmatic Functions 　　Abstract 　　 Many western linguists began to pay much attention to small clause since 1980s. There is little specialized research on the structure of small clause, and the related explanations in the grammar book are about its surface features instead of its internal syntactic structure. Syntax as an independent science has not finished explaining all the linguistic phenomena, for the structure of small clause is a disputable topic which needs explanation and research. Last but not least, I would also like to thank with all my heart my parents for their love, understanding, support, and encouragement throughout my writing of the thesis and the complete two and a half years of graduate study. It was he who was always ready to solve my problems in studies and research. It was he who offered me suggestions and references for this thesis. And it was he who helped me in reviewing the whole thesis. My words are too weak to express my gratefulness to him. 　　Keyword: Independent Structure; Syntactic; Pragmatic Functions 　　H313 　　 　　 This thesis redefines English small clause and researches on its derivational process, its classification and syntactic features under the framework of transformational generative grammar. At the very beginning, based on the definitions given by Stowell, Chomsky and Rothstein, the thesis considers small clause as an independent constituent lacking Tense-feature and which has argument and predicate relationship and shares the logic structure [NP VP]. Next, the thesis summarizes the limitations of previous studies in order to find a new way to analyze the structure of small clause. To explain the derivation of small clause, the thesis uses the related theories such as the case theory, X-bar theory, the principle of economy in syntax and the nature of language and so on. Finally, this thesis analyzes the syntactic structure of small clause according to the basic logic frame