| The study of meaning communicated through language is the focus of semantics. Polysemy has been one of the objects linguists study. Being carried out under the framework of cognitive linguistics, this dissertation is a study of the spatial word in based on the corpus. By studying the meanings especially the non-spatial meanings of in, this research tries to verify that different meanings of polysemy are related by way of image schema transformation and metaphorical mapping.In cognitive semantics, it is believed that human thoughts originate from biological nature, body experiences and the natural condition of living environment, on the basis of which, basic human image schemata are formed. Physical spatial concepts can be projected onto the other abstract concepts by metaphorical model or metonymy model. Thus, the non-spatial concepts are endowed with a spatial structure. In this way, the different meanings of a word are related through image schema transformation and metaphorical mapping. This is the principle which can be used to explain polysemy in cognitive semantics. Among all the image schemas described by Lakoff (1989), the CONTAINER schema or IN-OUT schema is the most typical image schema, which plays a key role in the explanation of the polysemy of in. The CONTAINER schema can be projected onto the abstract domains.Traditionally, metaphor is regarded as only an ornamental means, which is an embellishment of language in form. The study of the contemporary psychology and cognitive linguistics shows that metaphor is not just a matter of language but a figure of thought in nature. Metaphor is a means by which abstract concepts are expressed. The most influential study of metaphor from a cognitive perspective is the theory of conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). According to them, conceptual metaphor is mainly classified into orientational metaphors, structural... |
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