Semantic Generation,Extension And Conversion Of Chinese Basic Location Words:From The Perspective Of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics

The previous research for Chinese basic location words “North”,“South”,“East”and “West” mainly focused on the exploration of etymology,the analysis of cultural representation and the description of cultural connotation.The study of location words in cognitive linguistics mainly focuses on the cognitive semantics of vertical spatial location words shared by English and Chinese and the exploration of spatiotemporal metaphors.The cognitive processing of metonymy and metaphor in the semantic extension of Chinese basic location words is rarely involved in academic circles,let alone the analysis of the experience basis behind these cognitive processing.“Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics”(ECL)is a linguistic theory developed by Chinese scholars on the basis of years of research on Cognitive linguistics,incorporating philosophical perspective of materialism and humanism,and provides localized explanatory for Chinese.Following the core principle of ECL: “Reality — Cognition — Language”,this study takes a bottom-up approach.Through comprehensively combing the diachronic language materials,it tries to find out the “cognitive processing” mechanism and the“interactive experience” in reality behind the semantic generation,extension and conversion of Chinese basic orientation words.This study analyzes the topic from four aspects: the original meaning,metonymic expression,metaphorical expression and Chinese-English translation of basic location words.This study mainly adopts the research methods of the combination of description and interpretation,the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis,and comparative analysis to conduct a discussion on the above issues.The main research conclusions are as follows:Firstly,from the analysis of the morphology of Chinese characters,the phonological motivation and the word-building,the research results show that,in the process of continuous interaction with the material world,the ancestors consciously observed the objective environment around them,selected the most representative cognitive reference and constructed the original meaning of the Chinese basic orientation words in the cognitive processing of “image taking” with the joint experience of multiple images and joint participation of multiple senses.Secondly,the location words “East” and “West” achieve semantic extension through four categories,totaling 34 conceptual metonymies.Based on the experiential basis of the cultural world(the linguistic typological characteristics of Chinese),there are metonymies of Action ICM and Sign-and-Reference ICM.Based on the joint action of experiential basis of the physical world(the relative spatial orientation to the “central reference”)and the cultural world experience,there are metonymies of Thing-and-Part ICM(including regional experience within China and regional experience in the world)and Category-and-Property ICM.The metonymies based on the typological characteristics of Chinese language are limited to ancient Chinese or specific historical periods.The metonymies based on the relative spatial orientation are influenced by social activities,and the cognition of “central reference” is constantly changing in different historical periods.Thirdly,the location words “East” and “West” have achieved semantic extension through the cross-domain mapping of 15 conceptual categories in five cognitive domains:the natural domain,the time domain,the human domain,the social domain and the psychological domain,with a total of 38 conceptual metaphors.The experiential basis of this cognitive processing in the physical world are closely related to the sun(including motion trajectory and physical characteristics)and the water-flowing direction in Chinese terrain conditions.The experiential basis of this cognitive processing in the cultural world are closely related to social life(including historical events and ancient records);the linguistic typological characteristics of “homophone borrowing” and the cultural psychology of the Chinese nation(including the concept of space-time isomorphism,the orderly etiquette culture of respect and inferiority,and the traditional Chinese philosophy).The diachronic change of conceptual metaphor is mainly affected by the interaction of multiple conceptual categories at different levels in the conceptual metaphor network,the change of social production relations and the multicultural integration.There are four kinds of interactions between conceptual metonymies and conceptual metaphors.Fourthly,for Chinese-English translation,there are two main types of semantic conversion at the language level:(1)Choose the corresponding expression for the original meaning of location words.(2)Make literal translation of cognitive semantics with completely different connotations but understood and accepted by both cultures.There are three main types of conversion at the cognitive level:(1)Seek meaning equivalence at the cognitive level.(2)Adopt shared metonymic or metaphorical expression.(3)Borrow metaphorical expressions from the target language,or borrow the metaphorical images from the target language to modify the translation.(4)Combine the cognitive level conversion with linguistic or realistic level conversion.The semantic conversion at the reality level must be based on the understanding of the cognitive meaning,yet sometimes,in translation practice,it’s necessary to choose the appropriate expressions according to the differences in sentence structure,specific reference or pragmatic function in the realistic context,so as to make the cognitive semantics more specific and intuitive,and more in line with the emotional expression.The innovation and significance of this study are as follows: First,this study introduces the relevant theories of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics into the semantic investigation of Chinese basic location words,which obviously broadens the academic vision of this field.Secondly,from the perspective of embodied cognition,this study combs and discusses the conceptual metonymy/metaphor in the semantic change of the Chinese basic location words from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives,revealing the metaphorical patterns of Chinese language;and the interaction between the human spatial conceptual system and human spiritual culture reflected therein.Finally,the results of this study may be applied to the language teaching and the translation practices related to basic location words,making a modest contribution to the better dissemination of Chinese culture.