Cognitive Grammar Interpretation of the "X+Be+Being+Adj." Construction

From the perspective of Cognitive Grammar and following the constructional approach, this paper analyzes the formal and semantic features of the "X+Be+Being+Adj." construction with the assistance of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). It also explores the formation mechanism of the construction's meaning by integrating Langacker's profile-base prominence model. The findings show that "X+Be+Being+Adj." is a typical construction, and semantic coercion is the core factor for realizing its constructional meaning. Semantic coercion follows the prominence principle and is implemented through the perceptual organization pattern of figure-ground.