Diachronic Investigation And Cognitive Explanation Of The Locality-Marks "Li" "Nei" "Zhong"

This article conducted a diachronic investigation on Chinese locality-marks "li" "nei" "zhong" from pre-Qin days to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it combed the use of locality-marks "li" "nei" "zhong" as well as their characteristics on functional usage in every period of Chinese. We think that the diachronic development and evolution are the main reasons which leads to the interwinement of modern Chinese locality structures "× 里""×内""×中".The usage function of locality-marks "li" "nei" "zhong" enriches and develops gradually. The type of writing and style result in the phenomenon of interwinement among locality structures "×里" "×内" "×是", but they are just the external reasons. Its intrinsic reason is the influence of cognitive psychology that closely relates to the human language expression. Because of the cognitive customs, such as the image scheme overlapping, the time metaphor and generalized metaphor, locality structures "×里" "× 内" "×中"which have the same forms and similar meanings substitute mutually in the aspects of expressing locality, time and scope. But they still have their respective focus in the semantics and function.