A Cognitive Analysis Of The Polysemy Of English Perception Verb SEE

Polysemy refers to the phenomenon that a word has several related senses. As one of the most pervasive and important semantic phenomenon in English, it has attracted much concern of linguists from past until now. Traditionally, polysemes are analyzed in terms of semantic features and semantic field and the focus is on the distinction between different senses. Because studies in tradition are confined to the internal structure of language and seldom take account of the cognitive mechanisms, they fail to reveal the essential nature of polysemous words.Cognitive linguistics is an approach to language based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it. According to the cognitive linguistics, human thoughts originate from biological nature, body experiences and the natural condition of living environment, on the basis of which basic human image schemas are formed. Image schemas are abstract and pre-conceptual gestalt structures. Image schemas, which work as structures that organize our mental representation of the physical world, are direct reflections of our experiences. Thus, they play a central role in motivating polysemy. In the cognitive view, metaphor is not the matter of language, but a powerful cognitive instrument for our conceptualization of abstract categories. Metaphor is a means whereby ever more abstract and intangible areas of experience can be conceptualized in terms of the familiar and concrete. A basic type of this metaphorical projection is to metaphorically elaborate and extend a basic schema from the physical domain to the nonphysical ones. Within the cognitive framework, polysemy is understood through image schema for physical relationship, which can be further elaborated and extended to indicate abstract non-physical relationships through metaphorical mappings. In this way, the different meanings of a word are related through metaphorical mapping, a radical category of the word meanings can be formed. Therefore, it offers a new perspective to work out some unsolvable problems.Based on examples collected from various sources, this thesis conducts a study of polysemous word SEE, which is also a perception verb, from a cognitive perspective within the relevant theoretical framework of metaphor and image schema. The goal of this study is to find the answers for the following questions:(1) In what way do the perceptual meanings of SEE extend?(2) What reasons can account for the polysemy of SEE?In the present study, four steps have been designed:Firstly, to decide an original meaning based on human bodily experience and make a distinction between original meaning and extended meanings; Secondly, to find good examples of SEE use and classify the extended meanings; Thirdly, to analyze the relations between original meaning and extended meanings; Fourthly, to find out the reasons why the links exist between the extended meanings and original meaning.Through the analysis, we can reach such conclusions:There are at least two prerequisites for SEE to have the original sense:1) The subject must have the ability to see. i.e. the subject refers to an animated being, such as human beings and other animals, which have eyes, and are not blind;2)The direct object must have a concrete form, such as shape and color. If one of the two prerequisites fails, the meaning of SEE is no longer in the domain of perception and it is mapped onto other domains. The meaning of SEE is extended.The extended meanings of SEE can be generalized into4groups. The first group of extended meanings is that which relates physical vision with the mental activity. The second group is related to social relationships. A third group is to reliability, and assurance. The last group is with hearing. The polysemization of SEE is the result of metaphorical mapping. There is metaphorical mapping between the domain of common perception verbs and the domains of social interaction and material world as well as the domain of cognition.The implications of the research include:(1) This thesis studies the polysemy of perception verb SEE comprehensively, which sets an example for researches on other polysemes.(2) The research will contribute to vocabulary teaching. The findings in this thesis will not only help students identify individual senses of a polyseme, but also help them make clear sense relations and sense extensions of a polyseme.