Abstract:In the latter half of the 20th century, the research of linguistic constructions has developed in a dramatically swift manner. The theory of construction linguistics originated from the case grammar, especially the framework semantics by C. J. Fillmore in 1982. It emphasizes on the close combination of form and meaning, and suggests readers to understand and analyze the whole context against its specific background. Since it is challenging Chomsky’s classical theory of generative linguistics, construction linguistics has become a new and remarkable drive in the field of linguistics. There is broad space for its development. Because of its feature of comprehensive analysis, it will manifest its significance in the text analyzing.
When we observe the histories of all countries, it is quite obvious that political speech has become an indispensable part in the political activities. Inaugural speech, an important branch of political speech, helps the newly-elected political leaders deliver the domestic and foreign policies, strengthens the relations between the leaders and the masses, enhances the national unity, etc. Inaugural speech features in the solemnity and formality. In addition, it pays attention to the mainstream of the time and yields to the psychological need of the masses. In order to satisfy these requirements as well as to deepen the image of the speaker, constructions, which contain some certain meanings under the specific circumstances, are applied in the speech. According to the idea by Adele E. Goldberg and Croft et al, construction is the pairing of form a dreaming. All components, with the symbolic units from small morphemes to large S+V structures, can be regarded as constructions. In this research, the inaugural speeches of American presidents in recent years are selected as the examples which are studied with the help of corpus. The attention will be paid on the frequently-appearing vocabulary and sentence structures, such as verbs, prepositions, adjectives/adverbs, sentence types, etc. Then we can find their typical forms, characters and functions through this study.
Keywords: Construction grammar; inaugural address; constructions; corpus
摘要:构式研究在20世纪后半叶得到极为迅猛的发展。构式语法理论起源于格语法，特别是1982年C. J. Fillmore的“框架语言学”，强调形式和意义的紧密结合，在具体的背景下整体认知分析语篇含义，挑战了乔姆斯基的经典理论——生成语法，成为语言学领域一支不可小觑的新力量。构式语法可以发展的空间广阔，因其独特的整体解读特点，可在语篇分析方面大显身手。
回顾各国各时期发展，便不难发现政治演讲已经成为政治活动中必不可少的组成部分。就职演说作为政治演讲的重要分支，其作用包括帮助新上任的政治首脑发布国内外相关政策，密切政府与群众的联系，增强国民凝聚力等。就职演讲风格通常较为严肃正式，同时又顺应时代潮流，贴合民众心理。为达到这些要求，深化演讲印象，就职演讲可能使用一些在特定条件下具有特定含义作用的构式。根据Goldberg、Croft的观点，构式是音义结合体，任何象征单位小到语素大到主位结构都可以称为构式。由于本研究是语篇范围内的构式研究，所以本文将近几年来美国总统就职演说作为案例，结合语料库相关知识，将构式鉴定在词汇和句子层面，从动词类构式、介词类构式、形容词/副词类构式、句子构式和其他构式类别的角度挖掘就职演说中这些构式的普遍形式、特点和功能。
关键词：构式语法；就职演说；构式；语料库
