Chapter One Introductioii

1.1 Research Background

Cognitive Grammar, founded by Ronald W. Langacker in the late 20^ century,has provided a new perspective for language studies. The previous language studiesmainly focus on formalization, meaning or fiinction, but less attention was paidattention to the mental conception of human language. Since Cognitive Grammarappears on the stage, more and more scholars have tried to explain various aspects oflanguage phenomena from the perspective of mental conception (Taylor 2002; Xie2005, 2006a，b; Radden & Dirven 2007; Wan 2009). Then, Grounding Theorystands out and has become more and more popular. This theory was firstly putforward by Ronald W. Langacker (1991)，then simplified by John R. Taylor (2002)and applied into English grammar teaching by Radden and Dirven (2007). By now.Grounding Theory has mainly been used to explain the grounded nominals and thegrounded clauses (Langacker 1991，2008; Taylor 2002).Domestic researches on nominals from the perspective of Grounding Theory areseldom and just several scholars have paid attention to it. Xie Yingguang writessome theses on Grounding Theory, such as, "The Speaker and the Hearer in theConcepts of Ground and Context" (2005) in Foreign Languages in China，"TheConcept of Grounding in Cognitive Grammar" (2006a) in Shandong ForeignLanguage Teaching Journal^ "The Grounding Function of Tense and Modals" (2006b)in Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University and so on.

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1.2 Research Questions and Resarch Significance

This study is intended to conduct a detailed study of the head of Englishnominals from the perspective of Grounding Theory. The objectives of this studyare mainly to provide a generalized principle for head identification of Englishnominals, use the principle to figure out the head of some typical nominal structures，and finally apply the principles to some specific cases in an effort to prove the justiceof the principle. It follows that this dissertation is devoted to the following questions.First，what is the principle of head identification? Second, which element is the headin such typical structures as "plurality", "determiner + noun", "quantifier + noun" and"the + noun"? Third，can the principle be applied to some specific cases in English?This dissertation tries to find out a general principle for head identification fromthe perspective of Grounding Theory and is expected to make contributions to thestudies on English nominals. Besides, this dissertation is of great significance todeveloping Grounding Theory from many aspects.

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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter gives a brief review of the studies on English nominals and the headof English nominals respectively. The review of English nominals mainly focuseson the previous studies on nominals from various perspectives，and for the head ofEnglish nominals, the review turns to the great achievements of different approaches.The purpose is to examine the distinctions as well as the connections (or the sameprinciples) between these approaches and the Grounding approach. This review laysthe foundation for studying the head of English nominals from the perspective ofGrounding Theory.

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2.2 Previous Studies on English Nominals

Nominal plays an important role in English expressions and it is alwaysconsidered as the focus of the studies on English. Quirk et al. (1972:127) definesnominal as "that element in the sentence which typically fiinctions as subject, object,and complement. That is，without nominals, a sentence cannot have a completestructure，let alone express a precise meaning. The previous studies on Englishnominals mainly focus on their structures, functions and meanings. The Traditional Approach here is not absolutely equivalent to the so-calledtraditional grammar which is often defined "to summarize the range of attitudes andmethods found in the period of grammatical study before the advent of linguisticscience" (Crystal 1997/2000: 88). In this dissertation, the Traditional Approachmainly refers to the modem British grammar wiiich has changed from prescriptive to descriptive. The grammar works by Jespersen (1924/2008), Quirk et (1972,1985)，Huddleston (1984) and so on are classical representatives of the traditionalapproach. In domestic field, the traditional approach often refers to these grammarslike A Practical English Grammar (2008) by Zhang Daozhen and Bo Bing EnglishGrammar (1998) by Bo Bing.Grammarians of traditional approach pay more attention to the structures ofnominals and the studies mainly focus on the internal structures and modifiers ofnominals. For example, Quirk et al. (1972, 1985) insists that the internal structure ofa nominal includes determinative, pre-modification, head and post-modification andhe also defines these elements respectively. Determiners are divided intopre-determiners, central determiners, and post-determiners. Quirk et al. (1985; 1238)defines head as the part of an English nominal “around which (for the most part) theother constituents cluster and which dictates concord with other parts of the sentence".The pre-modification refers to "all the items placed before the head other thandeterminatives” (ibid: 1239), and the post-modification refers to “all the items placedafter the head” (ibid.). Huddleston (1984) attaches great importance to the internalstructure of nominals. He argues that a nominal consists of pre-head dependents,head，and post-head dependents, and that the determiner includes three types，determiner I’ determiner II，and determiner III.

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Chapter Three Theoretical....... (23)

3.1 Introduction .......  (23)

3.2 An overall view of Cognitive Grammar....... (23)

3.3 An Overall View of Grounding Theory....... (26)

3.3.1 Grounding and Construal .......(26)

3.3.2 Type and Instance .......(29)

3.3.3 Grounded Nominal and Grounded Clause....... (30)

3.4 Summary .......(32)

Chapter Four A Grounding Approach to Head Identification ofEnglish.......(34)

4.1 Introduction .......(34)

4.2 The Principles of Head Identification....... (34)

4.3 Head Identification of Typical Nominal Structures....... (36)

4.4 Summary  .......(47)

Chapter Five Case Studies on the Head of English Nominals InCiroirodm Theory....... (48)

5.1 Introduction .......(49)

5.2 Summary .......(55)

Chapter Five Case Studies on the Head of EnglishNominals in Grounding Theory

5.1 Introduction

The author in chapter four has pointed out English nominals are headed by thegrounding elements and the number agreement between an English nominal and theverb is determined by both the head and the mental meaning of its complement.This chapter, closely associated with the preceding chapters, is intended to apply theprinciples to some specific cases in an effort to prove the justice of the principle. The nominals with a number of and the number of are so familiar to us and theyappear frequently in daily conversations. They seem similar in structure butdissimilar in function as well as the mental meaning. Each of them can be used as arepresentative example for the construction alike respectively. This section firstlygives a comparative analysis of the two kinds of nominals by studying two examples,and then explores the head of nominals of these types.

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Conclusion

This concluding chapter marks the ending of this dissertation, intending tosummarize the main arguments in this study. English nominals play an importantrole in English grammar, so it is necessary to make a special study on the head ofEnglish nominals.In a construction the head, if the profile of JTis schematic for the profileof AT. In this schema, Fis the complement ofelaborates a substructure in thesemantic structure of X. The determiner is taken as the head of the nominal in that itis the determiner that gives the nominal its semantic character and sets up the relationbetween the expression and the ground. The ground, then, fiinctions as a point ofreference, allowing mental access to particular individuals. In other words, the barenoun designates the type and the determiner helps profile an instance of the typewhich can be identified from the ground. The profile of the nominal is inheritedfrom the determiner which receives the semantic content from the noun after it.Therefore，it is reasonable to take the determiner as the head.

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