英語被動語態的原型范疇研究的中期報告IntroductionThepurposeofthismid-termreportistoprovideanoverviewoftheresearchprogressontheprototypecategoryofEnglishpassiveconstructions.Passivevoiceisawidely-usedconstructioninEnglishgrammar,anditisknownforitsdistinctivesyntacticandsemanticfeatures.Agreatdealofresearchhasbeenconductedonthetopicinvariousdomains,includinglanguageacquisition,syntax,semantics,pragmatics,anddiscourseanalysis.However,theconceptofprototypecategoryhasnotbeenappliedtothestudyofpassivevoiceinEnglish.Thisprojectaimstofillthisgapbyadoptingaprototypeapproachtotheanalysisofpassiveconstructions.LiteraturereviewTheliteratureonEnglishpassivevoiceisextensive,coveringawiderangeoflinguisticdomains.Fromasyntacticpointofview,passiveischaracterizedbyatransitiveverbinwhichthesubjectundergoestheactionratherthanperformsit(Huddleston&Pullum,2002).Fromasemanticperspective,passivevoiceoftenconveystheideaoffocus,contrast,impersonality,oremphasis(Halliday&Matthiessen,2014).Fromapragmaticangle,passivevoicemaybeusedforpoliteness,tact,avoidanceofblame,orscientificobjectivity(Leech,1983).Finally,fromadiscourseanalysisviewpoint,passivevoicemaysignalthematicstructure,topiccontinuity,orinformationflow(Danes,1974).However,fewstudieshaveapproachedtheissueofprototypecategoryinEnglishpassiveconstructions.Prototypetheory,developedbyEleanorRoschinthe1970sand1980s,proposesthatthestructureofcategoriesisbasedongradedlevelsofprototypicality,ratherthanonarbitraryrulesordefinitions(Rosch,1975).AccordingtoRosch,prototypesarecentral,typical,orrepresentativeinstancesofacategory,whichpossessthemostattributesorfeaturesofthecategoryandarecognitivelysalienttotheparticipantsofthecategory.Examplesofprototypecategoriesincludebirds,fruits,furniture,vehicles,andsoon.ResearchquestionsTheresearchquestionsofthisstudyarethefollowing:1.WhataretheprototypicalfeaturesofEnglishpassiveconstructions?2.Howdotheprototypicalfeaturesofpassiveconstructionsvaryacrossdifferentregistersandgenres?3.Towhatextentdotheprototypicalfeaturesofpassiveconstructionsinfluencetheirfrequencyanddistributioninlanguageuse?4.Howcanaprototypeapproachinformourunderstandingofthefunctionsandmeaningsofpassiveconstructionsindiscourse?ResearchdesignTheresearchdesignofthisprojectisamixed-methodsapproach,whichcombinesqualitativeandquantitativemethodsfordatacollectionandanalysis.Thecorpus-basedmethodologyisadoptedfortheanalysisofpassiveconstructionsindifferentregistersandgenresofEnglishdiscourse.Thecorpususedinthisstudyisacollectionofwrittenandspokentexts,whichincludesfiction,journalism,academic,scientific,andconversationalgenres.Thetextsareannotatedforpart-of-speech,syntacticstructure,discoursefunction,andmetadatainformation,usingsoftwaretoolssuchasTreeTagger,FrameNet,andPythonscripts.TheprototypicalfeaturesofEnglishpassiveconstructionsareidentifiedthroughacombinationofqualitativecontentanalysisandquantitativestatistics.Thecontentanalysisinvolvestheidentificationofsemantic,syntactic,andpragmaticpatternsinthedata,whichareclassifiedintocategoriesofprototypicality.Thestatisticalanalysisinvolvesthecalculationoffrequency,dispersion,andcorrelationmeasuresforthepatterns,whichprovideinsightsintotheirusageanddistributionindifferentcontexts.Theresultsoftheanalysisarepresentedingraphicalandtabularformats,aswellasindescriptiveandinferentialstatistics.ConclusionThismid-termreporthaspresentedanoverviewoftheresearchprogressontheprototypecategoryofEnglishpassiveconstructions.Theliteraturereviewhasdemonstratedtheimportanceofthecategoryofpassivevoiceindifferentdomainsoflinguistics,butalsotheneedforaprototypeapproachtoitsanalysis.TheresearchquestionshavebeenformulatedtoguidetheinvestigationoftheprototypicalfeaturesofpassiveconstructionsindifferentgenresandregistersofEnglishdiscourse.Theresearchdesignhasbeenintroduced,whichinvolvesamixed-methodsapproach,includingcorpus-basedanalysisandcontentanalysis.Thenextstepsinthisprojectaretocontinuethedatacollectio