学士学位论文语一词多义现象的认知研究.docx

1、学士学位论文语一词多义现象的认知研究AcknowledgementsMany people have made invaluable contributions, both directly and indirectly, to my research. I feel deep gratitude to all those who have offered me support, help and encouragement during my study in Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. First of all, I am o

2、bliged to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Zhao Xia who has given me a lot of guidance in my study of cognitive linguistics, and made painstaking efforts to instruct me in the thesis-writing. Her kindness and efficiency will definitely exert profound influence on my future lif

3、e and work. My deep thanks must go to Professor Cheng Shanzhen, Professor Zhou Shujun, Professor Ge Jihong, Professor Dai Yuqun, Professor Zhang Hongyan, Professor Xia Ganlin and Professor Jiang Wei, for their instructive lectures that I have attended. I should also express my genuine gratitude to m

4、y wife, my classmates and roommates who have helped me during these years.Last but not least, the thesis owes its existence, to a large extent, to a large body of related materials. My bibliography, in this respect can be regarded as the most genuine act of thanks to the authors of those materials.A

5、bstractLexical polysemy is the most pervasive and the most important semantic phenomenon in English. Therefore, it has been the focus of linguists researches. The traditional studies are confined to the external reasons that cause the changes of meanings of polysemous words without taking account of

6、 their underlying cognitive mechanisms. They fail to reveal the essential nature of polysemous words. The polysemous phenomenon has attracted much concern of cognitive linguists too. Some of the cognitive researchers focused their minds too much on the classification of the semantic system of polyse

7、mous words (王德春,2002). Others lay their emphasis on the analysis of polysemous perception words or bodily-part words such as hand or heart. However, the research which systematically studies internal semantic relations of polysemous words and explains the nature of the development of the meanings of

8、 polysemous words is still rare in terms of cognitive linguistics.This thesis conducts a study of polysemous words from a cognitive perspective within the relevant theoretical framework of categorization and prototype, metaphor, metonymy and image schema, the goal of which is to find the formation p

9、rocess as well as semantic extension mechanisms of polysemy. Moreover, we intend to make a systematic explanation of the motivation behind the formation of polysemy and demonstrate connections of the related senses of a polysemous word.The thesis is organized as follows: chapter one is the introduct

10、ion, the purpose and significance of this study is firstly given. Then the previous studies are briefly reviewed. Chapter two is about the theoretical foundation, namely the theory of categorization and prototype. The internal structure of polysemy is linked by prototype and family resemblance. In t

11、his chapter, a case study of polysemous interest is also attached. Chapter three is concerning the motivation mechanisms of meaning extension. The theory of conceptual metaphor, metonymy and image schema is introduced. Another case study of polysemous window is conducted to illustrate the explanator

12、y power of the three meaning extension devices. Chapter four is mainly about a case study of preposition beyond. Chapter five is the conclusion of this thesis. The meanings of a polysemous word are tightly connected with human experience and the way in which human beings categorize and conceptualize

13、 the world. In this chapter, the answer to the questions of how polysemous words come into being and how meanings are extended is roughly given.Key Words: polysemy; cognitive mechanism; prototype; category摘要词汇多义现象在英语中是最常见也是最重要的语义现象，因此一词多义现象历来就是语言学家的研究焦点。传统语言学局限于多义产生的外部原因而没有重点考虑多义产生的认知机制，因而不能揭示多义现象形成

14、的本质问题。多义现象同样也吸引了认知语言学家的关注。一些学者对词汇多义性有过论述，如有的研究过于关注多义词词义体系的划分。另一些则过多的研究了某些特定词（如感官词和身体部位词）的多义现象。然而，从认知语言学角度，系统地研究多义词内部的语义关系，从而阐释多义形成的本质的研究还不多见。 本文拟从认知语言学的角度出发，借助原型范畴理论、隐喻理论、转喻理论及意象图式理论等相关理论，对英语多义现象形成过程及其语义延伸机制进行剖析。旨在系统地探讨分析多义形成的认知机制及多义词相关义项之间的关联性。全文共分为五个章节，第一章为概述，首先介绍了研究目的和意义。然后简要回顾了前人对多义现象的研究。第二章介绍了研

15、究多义现象的理论基础即原型范畴理论。多义范畴的内部结构是以原型和家族相似性为纽带的。在此章最后附带了对多义词interest的研究。第三章主要介绍了语义延伸的认知机制。多义现象的形成过程是由隐喻、转喻及意象图式促动的。Window的多义研究充分说明了语义延伸是三种认知机制促动的结果。第四章为介词beyond的实证性研究。第五章为结语。我们认为多义词义项是与人类经验及其对外部世界的范畴化、概念化方式密切相关的。最后简要回答了多义如何形成及义项如何延伸的问题。 关键词：多义；认知机制；原型；范畴ContentsAcknowledgements IAbstract (English) IIAbstr

16、act (Chinese) IVChapter One Introduction 11.1 Purpose and Significance of the Present Study 11.2 A Brief Survey of Polysemy 21.2.1 The Definition of Polysemy 21.2.2 Polysemy and Homonymy 21.3 Literature Review 41.3.1 The Traditional Approaches to Polysemy 41.3.2 Cognitive Linguistic Researches on Po

17、lysemy 81.4 Summary 9Chapter Two Theoretical Foundation to the Studies of Polysemy 102.1 General Ideas about Cognitive Linguistics 102.1.1 Philosophical Foundation 112.1.2 Three Approaches in Cognitive Linguistics 112.2 The Theory of Categorization and Prototypes 132.2.1 Cognitive Categories 132.2.2

18、 Cognitive Prototypes 162.3 Core Senses and Meaning Extensions 182.4 Polysemy as a Prototype Category 192.4.1 Types of Polysemous Categorization 192.5 Summary 24Chapter Three Mechanisms for Sense Extension in Polysemy 253.1 The Theory of Conceptual Metaphor 253.1.1 The Ubiquity of Metaphor 253.1.2 T

19、he Internal Structure of Metaphor: Mapping across Domains 263.1.3 The Experiential Bases of Metaphor 273.1.4 The Classification of Metaphor 293.2 The Theory of Metonymy 323.2.1 The Internal Structure of Metonymy: Mapping within One Domain 323.2.2 Classification of Metonymy 343.2.3 Metaphor versus Me

20、tonymy 363.3 Metaphorical and Metonymic Sense Extension 373.3.1 A Case Study：Window 383.4 Image Schema 423.4.1 Internal Structure of Image Schema 423.4.2 Types of Image Schema 443.4.3 Central Image Schema and its Elaborations 443.4.4 Metaphorical Extension of Image Schema 493.5 Summary 51Chapter Fou

21、r Case Studies 544.1 Spatial Concept and Prepositions 544.2 A Case Study of Beyond 554.2.1 The Central Image Schema of Beyond 554.2.2 Metaphorical Extension of the Central Image Schema -beyond- 574.2.3 Summary 59Chapter Five Conclusion 61Bibliography 63Published Papers 66Chapter One Introduction1.1

22、Purpose and Significance of the Present StudyWords that have a number of related senses or interpretations are polysemous. For example, paper refers to both a substance and publication printed on that substance. A large number of polysemous words exist in all natural languages, so lexical polysemy i

23、s ubiquitous and the most important semantic phenomenon across languages. Lyons hypothesizes that, “it is almost surely the case that there are no natural languages, and never have been, in which every word has one and only one meaning” (Lyons, 1995:72). Furthermore, it is reported by Britton that m

24、ore than forty-four percent of English words selected at random possess more than one meaning (Britton, 1978:7). So polysemy is a fundamental feature of human speech which can arise in a multiplicity of ways. Polysemizing words is a simpler and more convenient economic way for people to express new

25、ideas with known words than coining new words or borrowing words from foreign languages. Without lexical polysemy, we would have to introduce new semantic entries in the dictionaries. Then we would burden the language learners with the lexicon excessively. Therefore, it has been the focus of linguis

26、ts researches.However, due to the different research methodologies and focuses of many linguists, polysemy has not been explained fully and systematically within the several familiar theoretical frameworks of semantics. The traditional linguists (mainly structuralists) were more interested in the di

27、stinction among different meanings of a polyseme, which was confined to the external structure of language, and thus could not reveal the essential nature of polysemy. Since cognitive linguistics was formally established at the end of 1980s，the study of lexical polysemy has become one of its focuses

28、.In general, cognitive linguistics interprets language by reference to human cognition. Ungerer and Schmid (2001:36) argued that “cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it”. Cognitive linguists pay atten

29、tion to the relation between language and psychology. They provide us with a framework to explain the linguistic phenomenon of polysemy through human subjective interaction with the object worldThey propose that lexical items should be conceptual categories and have to be studied and investigated as

30、 reflecting general cognitive principles rather than purely formal linguistic principle.This thesis conducts a study of polysemous words from a cognitive perspective within the relevant theoretical framework of categorization and prototype, metaphor, metonymy and image schema, the goal of which is t

31、o find the formation process as well as semantic extension mechanisms of polysemy. How polysemy comes into being and how meanings are extended are two problems to be investigated in this thesis. We hope that the present study will shed some light on the researches of polysemous words. 1.2 A Brief Su

32、rvey of PolysemyWhen it comes to polysemy, we shall have to mention a French linguist, Michel Breal, who coined not only the term “semantics” but also the term “polysemy” (Saeed, 2000). When “polysemy” was coined, it was a diachronic concept, and originally used to the study of changes of meaning as well as the relationship between multiple senses of a polysemous word. Later Saussure applied it in the study of word meaning within the structuralistic framework. Nowadays, it has become a hot topic in cognitive semantics. 1.2.1 The Def