“As...as”Construction:APerspectiveofPhilosophyofMind, by LI Shujing, p.9

“As...as” construction is commonly used for comparisons of equivalence.However, it is also used for heterogeneous comparison.Focusing on this kind of comparison, this paper proposes a unitary analysis from the perspective of physical properties and mental properties of the objects involved in “as...as” construction.This paper claims that “as...as” construction is an integration of event description and attitude demonstration, reflecting especially the language user’s feelings aroused by the characteristics of the subjects involved in the comparison.

AffordanceandIntentionAscription, by WU Bingzhang, p.17

To speak is to ascribe a certain intention to an utterance on the basis of affordance.Affordance is the possibilities that enable a human being to take a certain intentional action in context.Affordance is the perceived properties of an entity.It is neither the objective properties a thing possesses, nor is it the subjective qualities an agent has in his mind.It is something that bridges the objective facts and subjective mental experiences.The affordance in context makes it possible to ascribe an intention to an utterance.Like quale, affordance supervenes physical properties on the one hand, and it is independent of them on the other.

ACorpus-basedStudyoftheAcquisitionofModalVerbs’SemanticMeaningsbyChineseEnglish-majorLearners, by TANG Liling, p.32

This study adopts a corpus-based approach to analyze the characteristics of modal verbs’ semantic meanings expressed by Chinese English-major learners.It turns out that (1) both overuse and underuse of modal verbs are co-existing among Chinese English-major learners.They overuse those modal verbs that appear earlier in textbooks and underuse those ones that can express such interpersonal meanings as politeness and mildness; (2) Learners tend to use more demonic modal sequences than epistemic ones.And, moreover, modal verbs in learners’ language tend to be preceded by personal pronouns and followed by main verbs; (3) With the improvement of learners’ language ability, the frequency of using epistemic modal sequences can not be improved greatly.

ThePost-HolocaustConsciousnessandtheJewishnessinE·L·Doctorow’sNovels, by LI Shunchun, p.56

E·L·Doctorow’s novels are integrated implicitly or explicitly into the post-Holocaust consciousness, whose purpose is to highlight its unique Jewishness.His developing the literary motif of sufferings and redemption endows the discourse of victimization and redemption of the Holocaust with unique Jewishness; and his writing about the motif of diasporas and identity motif illustrates that the Holocaust establishes distinct Jewish national identity, and the Jewish languages are also the important symbol of identity of the Jews; and his elucidation of the motif of memory and transcendence shows that the Holocaust memory is of the Jews, and of the world.Doctorow’s novels reflect both the Jewish and the cosmopolitan qualities.

DestructionandRe-constructionof“ADillPickle”:ACA/DAPerspective, by YAO Xiaodong, p.60

In light of conversation analysis, the essay reframes the silence and inner world monologue as functionally invisible turns in conversation, carefully examining the conversation structure, the arrangement and distribution of conversation turns and shifts of topics so as to indicate the dynamics of conversation and the indexicality of power and solidarity between the protagonists in the short story “A Dill Pickle”.In so doing, there is revealed, by unobtrusively deconstructing the stereotypes of characters, a deep-hidden meaning or the underlying purpose of the story: power and identity can be negotiated and constructed through discourse.From this angle, “A Dill Pickle” is seen not as a mere criticism of male-domination, but a strong appeal for negotiation of power and voice by way of communication.