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[VP Pdown] in the corpus, so a stronger relationship between [VP Pup] and [Pin NP]
might be found.
4.2 Summary of the Chapter
In Chapter 4, we present the corpus distribution of the semantic meaning
categories of elements in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction. The results answer our first and second research questions, which ask about (a) how many of the Pup/down
in the first pattern of [VP Pup/down] and Pin in the second pattern of [Pin NP], and (b) what is the corpus distribution of each semantic meaning category of the first pattern and the second pattern. Along with the results of semantic meaning distribution, we presented the results of several SPSS Kruskal-Wallis H tests which examine if the elements in the targeted construction have relationships with each other. The statistic test results provide the answer to our third research question. And we found that most of the elements in the targeted construction have relationships with the other
components – there are certain co-occurrences of the semantic meanings of the elements. In Chapter 5, we discuss the major findings in this study under such a multi-level analysis of the complex of prepositions in a specific construction.
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CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION
In this chapter, we summarize the main findings in Chapter 4. The findings in comparison with what other researchers have found in previous studies are also discussed.
5.1 Major Findings and the Discussion of Results
This study is a quantitative corpus-based study investigating the constructions containing two co-appearing prepositions – {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]}. We examined the corpus data by conducting a multi-level semantic meaning analysis on (a) Pup/down
in the pattern of [VP Pup/down], (b) Pin in the pattern of [Pin NP], (c) the first pattern of [VP Pup/down], and (d) the second pattern of [Pin NP]. Based upon the semantic
meaning distribution of these four elements, the most prominent semantic meaning of each element in the construction was identified (see Figure 5.1: the left diagram is for the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} construction and the right is for the {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}
construction). The information in Figure 5.1 summarizes our responses to our first and second research questions, which inquired about the corpus distribution of the
semantic meanings of the elements.
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Figure 5.1 The Most Prominent Semantic Meanings of Each Element in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} Construction
Firstly, our findings about the two co-occurring prepositions indicate that most of the Pup/down in [VP Pup/down] and Pin in [Pin NP] are used metaphorically in the targeted construction – {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} – except for Pin in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} such as in A stall was set up in[lit] Liverpool’s Church Street . Our results prove that when two prepositions co-appear in a construction, both of them might be frequently used to refer to a non-spatial or metaphorical idea. This finding in our study goes against what Ayano (2004) has found. In Ayano’s study on a different construction consisting of two co-occurring prepositions a noun (i.e., [P P N]), those two prepositions are used literally (i.e. one preposition might be ‘directional’ while the other preposition is
‘locational’). The comparison between the results of our study and Ayano’s is
illustrated in Figure 5.2.
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Figure 5.2. The Semantic Results of Two Co-occurring Prepositions in Different Studies
In our study, the two co-appearing prepositions – one in the verb-preposition
sequence (in circles with long segmented line) and one in the prepositional phrase (in circles with dotted lines) – could have a literal/spatial meaning and also a
metaphorical/non-spatial meaning (e.g., stared down[lit] in[met] dismay, brought up[met]
in[lit] England). However, in Ayano’s work, he only looked at two prepositions in the
[P P N] construction and different functions of the prepositions were found. Take one instance from Ayano’s study for example. In Mary moved a car right from[+dir]
behind[+loc] the barn, the first preposition from refers to a directional/spatial meaning
while the second preposition behind describes the locational/spatial meaning. Our
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results, in contrast, add the analysis of literal and metaphorical meaning, and found that the co-occurring prepositions could be both literal, both metaphorical, or one literal and one metaphorical. The comparison between the results from two
constructions suggests that two co-occurring prepositions in different constructions could bear different semantic meanings.
Secondly, for the patterns containing prepositions, the most prominent semantic meanings carried by two patterns containing prepositions in our construction were found and are presented in Figure 5.1. Most of the [Pin NP] patterns in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} describe a ‘Space’ meaning (e.g., As posters go up in[lit] hotel lobbies …), while
that in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} refers to a ‘State’ (e.g., … we … sit down in[lit] silence).
As for the [VP Pup/down] pattern, we can see from Figure 5.1 that the dominant
semantic meaning of the [VP Pup/down] pattern is ‘Completive’ (e.g., I can imagine you could stand up in court and say …, … we mightn’t clean up in time).
In addition to the corpus distribution about the semantic meanings of each element in our construction, we also found the most frequent semantic meaning co-occurrence between the elements, which is presented in Figure 5.3 in the squares and arrows.3 The results answer our third research question querying about the relationships between elements. The semantic meaning relationship is marked in the
3 The abbreviation of the semantic meanings are used for (a) Pup/down and Pin: ‘Lit’=‘Literal’ and
‘Met’=‘Metaphorical’, (b) [VP Pup/down] patterns: ‘Com’=‘Completive’, ‘Con’=‘Continuative’, and
‘Inc’=‘Inceptive’, and (d) [Pin NP] patterns: ‘Spa’=‘Space’ and ‘Sta’=‘State’.
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alphabets from ‘a’ to ‘d’, explained below in (5.1).
(5.1) a. a relationship between Pup/down vs Pin
b. a relationship between [VP Pup/down] vs Pup/down c. a relationship between [Pin NP] vs Pin
d. a relationship between [VP Pup/down] vs [Pin NP]
Figure 5.3 The Most Prominent Co-occurring Semantic Meanings between Elements in {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]}
By comparing the most prominent co-occurrence of the semantic meanings between the elements in both the construction of the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} construction
(displayed in the left diagram in Figure 5.3) and the {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}
construction (shown in the right diagram), we notice that up and down could be
discussed against the claim about whether they form a contrasting pair or not.
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Considering the two constructions – {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} and {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} – with the only difference lying in the preposition up and down, we can claim that up and down do not form a contrasting pair because the semantic meaning relationships in one construction do not always reflect the reverse semantic relationships between elements in the other construction. Some similarities about the semantic meaning co-occurrence between these two constructions are found (shaded in gray in Figure 5.3). For example, in relationship ‘a’, two constructions share the similarity of having the two co-appearing literal prepositions such as sitting up[lit] in[lit] bed, and bedded down[lit] in[lit] doorways. As for relationship ‘b’, both constructions share all the most
prominent co-occurrences between a metaphorical up and down with (a) a
‘Completive’ [VP Pup/down] pattern (e.g., we’re usually booked up[met] in advance, and
Darwin settled down[met] in London), (b) a ‘Continuative’ [VP Pup/down] pattern (e.g., He’s got exams coming up[met] in April, and we'll go down[met] in posterity), and (c) an
‘Inceptive’ [VP Pup/down] pattern (e.g., they intended to start up[met] in business, and
the players have knuckled down[met] in adversity). Next, in the relationship of ‘c’, the
most frequently co-appearing [Pin NP] and Pin are the same in both constructions.
When Pin is literal, the [Pin NP] pattern has a ‘Space’ meaning (e.g., brought up in[lit]
England, and breaks down in[lit] America); when Pin is metaphorical, the [Pin NP]
pattern has a ‘State’ meaning (e.g., grew up in[met] poverty, and knuckled down in[met]
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adversity). For the last relationship, the similarity between the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]}
construction and the {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} construction lies in the condition when an
‘Inceptive’ pattern co-occurs with a ‘State’ pattern (e.g., start up in business and
touched down in Belgium). These similarities prove that up and down do not form a
contrasting pair; up and down are not opposites. This finding is consistent with the claim stated by Lindstromberg (2010) in his study of English prepositions.
In this thesis, we not only found the semantic meanings of the prepositions and the semantic meanings of the patterns containing prepositions in a constructions containing two prepositions (e.g., lie down in bed), but also discussed the
relationships between the prepositions and patterns. The relationship between the constructional elements has not been examined in previous preposition studies, which mostly considered only the semantic meanings of an element, either the prepositions or the patterns containing the prepositions. Our findings include both. This is our contribution to the field of preposition studies since we found that the semantic meanings between the elements in the construction could be associated.
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CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, we summarize each of the chapters in this thesis (Section 6.1).
Next, we provided the pedagogical implication based upon the comparison of our findings to the English learning materials (Section 6.2). In the last section, we state the limitation of this study and give suggestions to the future studies exploring the targeted construction (Section 6.3).
6.1 Overall Summary
In the beginning of this thesis, we address the background and motivation for conducting this study. The main motive for this study is to reveal the semantic meanings of each element in the construction containing two co-occurring
prepositions – {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]}. The elements include (a) Pup/down in the first pattern of [VP Pup/down], (b) Pin in the second pattern of [Pin NP], (c) the [VP Pup/down] pattern, and (d) the [Pin NP] pattern. In Chapter 2, we review the related research in previous studies regarding prepositions, the patterns containing prepositions and the corpus-based studies.
Next, in Chapter 3, the process of how we retrieved and analyzed the data is
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explained. The semantic meaning categories proposed in previous research were adopted and adapted to analyze the semantic meaning of each element in the
construction. Chapter 4 presents the results of the corpus distribution of each element, and the relationships between the elements as well. The most prominent semantic meaning of each element as well as the most frequently co-appearing semantic meanings between two of the elements were found.
In the fifth chapter of this thesis, we discussed our major findings along with the findings in previous studies. What we found in the semantic meaning distribution of the two co-appearing prepositions is different from that in the work by Ayano (2004) who studied a different construction with two co-occurring prepositions (i.e., P P N).
In addition, the results found in our study about the semantic meaning relationships between elements suggest that up is not always the opposite of down because, in our targeted construction, the meaning or relationship of the elements in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} and {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} do not form a contrasting pair. This is consistent with what Lindstromberg (2010) proposed in his study. In the following sections, the implications are given (Section 6.2), and the limitation and suggestions for future studies follow (Section 6.3).
6.2 Implications
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The findings about the two co-occurring prepositions and the patterns in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction are how up, down and in, and the [VP Pup/down] pattern and the [Pin NP] pattern are truly used in the English language. However, the presentation of these prepositions and patterns is different from what language learners are exposed to in their learning materials in Taiwan. Take some of the most commonly used high school textbooks and supplementary materials we randomly selected for example. In the textbooks such as English Reader from Fareast Book Company and English Reader from Lungteng Cultural Corporation, there is no introduction of the semantic meanings of the prepositions, and only the ‘Idiomatic’ [P NP] patterns are given (e.g., in vain). As for the supplementary materials such as Vocabulary 4000 and Vocabulary 4000-7000 by San Min Book Corporation, the
prepositions are presented with literal meanings only but with both literal and metaphorical examples. One of the examples presented in Figure 6.1 is drawn from the Vocabulary series.
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Figure 6.1. The Presentation of up in a Supplementary Learning Material
For the preposition up, the direct translation only provides the literal meaning (i.e., 登 上; 朝向…內部); however, the examples listed below include both literal instance
(i.e., flew up into the air) and metaphorical instance (i.e., burned up all the paper).
The meaning does not perfectly match the examples. In addition to the presentation of the prepositions, the patterns containing the prepositions are not adequately presented.
The examples drawn from the materials below in Figure 6.2 illustrate the problem.
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Figure 6.2. The Presentation of the Patterns Containing Prepositions in the Learning Material
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As we can notice from the Figure 6.2, the material neglect the presentation of the meaning relationships between a preposition and a pattern. The connection between them exists in the language, as what we found in this study, but is not the focus in the learning materials. In sum, we can observe that there might be a gap between what language learners learn and how the language is truly used about the semantic meanings of the prepositions, and about the relationships of the preposition in the patterns containing the prepositions. So based upon our findings in this thesis, our study could provide some pedagogical suggestions: (a) the learning materials could clearly state that prepositions have both literal and metaphorical meanings with examples respectively, and also relate the meaning of the preposition to the pattern containing the preposition. Once the information about prepositions is provided, language learners could be exposed to the knowledge about the prepositions and the patterns which are closely related to their genuine usages in the English language.
6.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Studies
Due to the space constraint, we could not provide a comprehensive analysis of the following parts, which are the limitations of this study, and could be further explored in the future. Firstly, we have observed that the aspect could influence the
semantic meaning of the [VP Pup/down] pattern. However, we could not provide
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systematic analysis about whether certain tense would lead to certain meaning of this pattern. Future studies could examine the influence of tense toward the semantic meanings of the [VP P] patterns.
Secondly, in this study, we consider the co-occurring [VP Pup/down] and [Pin NP]
patterns. However, we found that there are some instances in which these two patterns tend to have a much more indirect relationship such as the [Pin NP] pattern with a
‘Time’ meaning (e.g., The institute … closed down in September). It might be a
suggestion for future studies to analyze this type of instances with special care or treatment.
Lastly, we focused only on the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction, in which [Pin NP] pattern is the most frequent [P NP] pattern that co-occurs with [VP Pup], but the second most frequent [P NP] co-occurring with [VP Pdown]. The higher frequency of co-occurrence might lead to a closer relationship between the two patterns in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction. This could be the reason that we found weaker relationships or no statistical significance between [VP Pdown] and [Pin NP], and also between the two co-occurring prepositions, Pdown and Pin, in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}.
Future studies could investigate that whether choosing different [P NP] patterns would lead to different results or not.
In addition to the limitation of this study which could be further explored in
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future studies, we provide more suggestions for future studies to continue such work as the investigation of the constructions containing two co-appearing prepositions based upon our results and findings.
In this thesis, we found that the two prepositions, up and down, do not form a contrasting pair in the targeted construction – [VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]. Future studies which explore identical constructions could investigate other ‘contrasting pairs’ of prepositions such as out and in in the first pattern of [VP P] by replicating the
methodology we used to analyze the construction. In addition, it might be possible to see whether this construction could serve as a test to explore whether the paired prepositions are opposites or not.
This study reveals not only the semantic meanings of the elements in the targeted construction but also the relationships of the meanings. For future studies, two types of the learners’ data could be included to compare with the results found in this study in terms of the semantic meanings of the elements and their relationships: how
learners cognitively perceive and how they produce the constructions. For perception, questionnaires querying learners’ perception or understanding of the semantic
meanings and relationships could be distributed. As for the production of the construction, data from the learner corpus could be included in the future study in
order to compare whether there is a gap between the learners’ production of this
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construction and that of the general corpus. For example, if learners produce a sentence consisting of a [VP P] pattern and a [P NP] pattern when the semantic meaning combination of both patterns is not found in the corpus, teachers need to check whether it is an error or not. If it is a wrong combination of meanings, teachers should raise students’ awareness about this error.
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Another is that some guesses were quickly proved to have been wrong and ended up in bankruptcy.
We got out of the coach and walked through the gates to the stares of those gathered on the gravel, and over to a low metal hut in the corner of the compound where we were ordered to go inside and sit down in silence.
2. Area of activity:
In 1862 Smith set up in business on his own account .
CD players have come down in price, but the discs themselves are still about thirty per cent dearer than in America.
3. Descriptions of imaginary events:
And unlike most of the blondes popping up in Aussie soaps she doesn't fit into the bimbo mould either, which rules out many of the high-profile parts.
But the symbolic period point is overstressed to the verge of comedy , when in the final scene of destruction the figures of Marianne with her red cap of Liberty , the skeleton Death with his scythe and the Angel of Justice are hastily let down in tableau from the flies.
4. Feeling:
Horne heard a sound, jumped up in terror and stared at the apparition just next to the old wall.
Mould looked down in disbelief and was about to declare his disgust at their catch when the rope snapped, returning the lump of metal to the sea.
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during follow up in group 1 v the changes in group 2. When Vietnam and Watergate were over things simmered down in society and the urgency sort of fell out of film making; the directors didn't quite know where they were, they had no targets.
6. Manner:
As described in chapter 4, Quinton and Rutter (1983) found that positive school experiences appeared to help foster planning skills in girls brought up in care.
The sun slashed down in patterns of light and shade.
6-1. Degree:
The cells were cultured in DMEM, with or without the addition of calcipotriol (MC-903) at a final concentration of 10-5 to 10-9 M. All plates were set up in quadruplicate.
6-2: measurement:
As the signal builds up in intensity, immediately over the transmitter a Blue light is activated on the instrument panel, flashing the same signal.
The number of injuries is actually going down in proportion to the increased number of skiers.
7. Person:
Indeed it could be that the fullness of humanity summed up in Christ would be well represented by a woman and a man concelebrating.
7-1. mental product of things:
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Rather as I feared they would, babies have started showing up in Tod’s dreams.
7-2. part:
All the terrible things she had thought earlier rose up in Pat’s mind.
8. System formed by a group of people
The mayors' plan, targeting $35 billion in fiscal assistance, public works, community development black grants, job training, and low-interest small-business loans, has been taken up in Congress where it has met the famous legislated [wall], which prevents shift of military funds to social programmes rather than to deficit reduction.
Though his proposals were whittled down in Congress, the Revenue Act of
Though his proposals were whittled down in Congress, the Revenue Act of