“It Be ADJ to V”构式中形容词与动词的语义关系探究
Exploring the Semantic Relationship between Adjectives and Verbs in the “It Be ADJ to V” Construction
摘要: “It be ADJ to V”构式是用于英语写作和日常交流比较常见的一种it-外置结构。本文基于构式语法和英国国家语料库(BNC)，通过结合共变搭配词位分析法和对应分析法来考察“it be ADJ to V”构式中形容词与动词之间的语义关系。本文拟解决以下两个具体问题：(1) 在“it be ADJ to V”构式中，形容词槽位与动词槽位共变词素的搭配强度是多少？(2) 构式中的形容词与动词的搭配强度是如何体现形容词–动词对的语义互动关系的？(3) 形容词与动词之间的语义互动关系揭示了何种语言认知规律？研究结果表明，在“it be ADJ to V”构式中，评价类形容词和正式语域中的情感类动词、认知类形容词与存在或关系类动词之间存在着紧密的语义互动关系。人们在使用这一构式时，搭配使用形容词动力或评价语义和动词认知、体貌、交流语义的认知已经固化。通过探讨形容词–动词对之间的语义互动关系，本文探讨了语言认知规律对词典编纂和英语教学的启示，并为同类研究提供了方法组合的不同见解。
Abstract: As one of the sub-types of it-extraposition, “it be ADJ to V” structure has been frequently used in English writing and our daily communication. On the basis of the framework of Construction Grammar and the British National Corpus (BNC), the current paper contributes to examine the semantic relationship between the adjectives and the verbs of “it be ADJ to V” construction through the combination of Co-varying Collexeme Analysis and Correspondence Analysis. This paper sets out to deal with two specific questions: (1) What are the co-varying strengths between the adjectives and the verbs occurring in the adjective and verb slots in the “it be ADJ to V” construction? (2) What do the co-varying strengths between the adjectives and the verbs in the investigated construction represent their semantic relationship? (3) What kind of cognitive pattern does the semantic interaction between the adjectives and the verbs reveal? The results show that in the “it be ADJ to V” construction, evaluative adjectives and formal emotional verbs are closely related to each other. Moreover, there is a strong semantic interaction between epistemic adjectives and existential verbs. The use of this pattern presents a cognitive entrenchment in the matching of dynamic or evaluative adjectives and verbs denoting epistemic, aspectual, and communication. By exploring the semantic interaction between the adjectives and the verbs of this pattern, this paper discussed the enlightenment that cognitive patterns of language gave lexicography and English teaching and learning, giving different insights into similar studies with a combination of different methods.
文章引用：莫晓涵. “It Be ADJ to V”构式中形容词与动词的语义关系探究[J]. 现代语言学, 2025, 13(8): 452-459. https://doi.org/10.12677/ml.2025.138857

参考文献

[1] Jespersen, O. (1933) Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles: Vol. 5. Syntax. 4th Edition, George Allen & Unwin.
[2] 王正雄. 英语“外置”关系分句[J]. 外语与外语教学, 1986(1): 32-36.
[3] Biber, D., Leech, G., Johansson, S., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E. (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman.
[4] Herriman, J. (2000) The Functions of Extraposition in English Texts. Functions of Language, 7, 203-230. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[5] 黄玲, 钟琳. 学术文本中的特征性it评价型式与意义——基于语料库的法学和医学学术文本对比分析[J]. 荆楚理工学院学报, 2023, 38(2): 31-41.
[6] Sapp, C.D. (2014) Extraposition in Middle and New High German. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, 17, 129-156. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[7] Féry, C. (2015) Extraposition and Prosodic Monsters in German. In: Frazier, L. and Gibson, E., Eds., Explicit and Implicit Prosody in Sentence Processing, Springer, 11-37. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[8] Jarvis, R. (2025) Raising and Head-External Relatives in Atchan. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[9] Hilpert, M. (2014) Collostructional Analysis: Measuring Associations between Constructions and Lexical Elements. In: Glynn, D. and Robinson, J.A., Eds., Corpus Methods for Semantics, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 391-404. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[10] 王冰昕, 卫乃兴. 认识论、学科文化与语言使用——以评价语言为例[J]. 外语教学, 2019, 40(2): 12-18.
[11] Wang, Z., Fan, W. and Fang, A.C. (2022) Lexical Input in the Grammatical Expression of Stance: A Collexeme Analysis of the Introductory It Pattern. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 762000. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
[12] Lakoff, G. (1987) Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[13] Hilpert, M. (2008) Germanic Future Constructions: A Usage-Based Approach to Language Change. John Benjamins Publishing Company. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[14] Fillmore, C.J., Kay, P. and O’Connor, M.C. (1988) Regularity and Idiomaticity in Grammatical Constructions: The Case of Let Alone. Language, 64, 501-538. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[15] Goldberg, A.E. (1995) Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. University of Chicago Press.
[16] Goldberg, A.E. (2006) Constructions at Work. Oxford University Press.
[17] Goldberg, A.E. and Jackendoff, R. (2004) The English Resultative as a Family of Constructions. Language, 80, 532-568. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[18] Langacker, R.W. (1987) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites (Vol. 1). Stanford University Press.
[19] Langacker, R.W. (1991) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Volume II: Descriptive Application (Vol. 2). Stanford University Press.
[20] Croft, W. (2001) Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective. Oxford University Press.
[21] (2008) BNC Sampler: XML Edition.
https://cqpweb.lancs.ac.uk/bncsampler/
[22] R Core Team (2018) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
https://www.r-project.org/
[23] 王家钺. 基于R的语言学统计方法[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社, 2019.
[24] Stefanowitsch, A. and Gries, S.T. (2003) Collostructions: Investigating the Interaction of Words and Constructions. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 8, 209-243. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[25] Stefanowitsch, A. and Gries, S.T. (2005) Covarying Collexemes. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 1, 1-43. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[26] Benzécri, J.P., et al. (1973) Analyse des Données. Tome 1: La Classification. Tome 2: L’Analyse des Cor-respondances. Dunod.
[27] Greenacre, M.J. (1984) Theory and Applications of Correspondence Analysis. Academic Press.
[28] 许家金. 语料库研究方法[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社, 2023.
[29] Greenacre, M. (2007) Correspondence Analysis in Practice. CRC Press.
[30] Glynn, D. (2014) Correspondence Analysis: Exploring Data and Identifying Patterns. In: Glynn, D. and Robinson, J.A., Eds., Corpus Methods for Semantics, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 443-485. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] 
[31] Herriman, J. (2000) Extraposition in English: A Study of the Interaction between the Matrix Predicate and the Type of Extraposed Clause. English Studies, 81, 582-599. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]