Chapter One Introduction 1
1.1 Research Purpose 2
1.2 Rationale 5
1.2.1 Spatiotemporal Location 5
1.2.2 Philosophical Interpretation 7
1.2.3 Linguistic Construal 12
1.3 Assumptions 14
1.3.1 Semantic Function 15
1.3.1.1 Locative Circumstance 20
1.3.1.2 Circumstantial Element 24
1.3.2 Lexicogrammatical Structure 28
1.3.2.1 Preposition and Prepositional Phrase 29
1.3.2.2 Locative Prepositional Phrase 37
1.4 Methodology 40
1.4.1 Methods 40
1.4.2 Data 41
1.5 Terminology 44
Chapter Two Previous Study 46
2.1 Overview 46
2.2 The Traditional Approach 48
2.3 The Generative Approach 55
2.4 The Cognitive Approach 61
2.5 The Systemic Functional Approach 70
2.6 Summary 79
Chapter Three Generic Realization 83
3.1 Overview 84
3.2 Text Analysis 88
3.2.1 Textual Meaning 90
3.2.2 Textual Variation 96
3.3 Generic Generation 101
3.3.1 Semantic Processing 103
3.3.2 Lexicogrammatical Processing 109
3.4 Generic Recognition 115
3.4.1 Topical Development 118
3.4.2 Structural Development 126
3.5 Generic Realization 132
3.5.1 Spatial Progression 136
3.5.2 Temporal Progression 140
3.6 Summary 146
Chapter Four Spatiotemporal Meaning 148
4.1 Overview 148
4.2 Transdomain 151
4.2.1 Concrete Meaning 155
4.2.2 Abstract Meaning 161
4.3 Measurement 169
4.3.1 Measurable Meaning 173
4.3.2 Measureless Meaning 176
4.4 Dimension 179
4.4.1 Simple Dimension 186
4.4.2 Compound Dimension 190
4.5 Temporality 195
4.5.1 Space—like Time 198
4.5.2 Spatiotemporal Parallelism 203
4.6 Summary 207
Chapter Five LexiCogrammatiCal Realization 208
5.1 Overview 208
5.2 Phrase Analysis 212
5.2.1 Syntactic Component 215
5.2.2 Syntactic Relation 223
5.3 Clause Analysis 229
5.3.1 Foregrounding 232
5.3.2 Backgrounding 237
5.4 Clause Complex Analysis 241
5.4.1 Expanding 243
5.4.2 Rankshifting 247
5.5 Summary 252
Chapter Six Conclusion 253
6.1 General Summary 253
6.2 Limitation 262
6.3 Further Investigation 265
Bibliography 268