On Cognitive Study Of Polysemy From The Perspectives Of Conceptual Metaphor And Metonymy

The study of polysemy has attracted much attention of linguists and has had along history. Traditional studies tend to focus on internal structures of language andignore its relationship with the factors like human social experience, cognitive waysand cultural influences, so they are incapable of revealing the nature of polysemy.Cognitive linguistics, which emerged in the1970s, provides a more scientific andsystematic explanation to polysemy from the cognitive perspective. Based onprevious research on polysemy, this thesis conducts a cognitive study on thepolysemous word, Heart, and analyses the internal structural, extension mechanism,etc. of polysemous category, aiming to unveil the cognitive features and innate reasonof meaning extension.On the theoretical basis of Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor andconceptual metonymy theory ((Lakoff&Johnson,1980), this thesis probes intopolysemy from multiple perspectives, that is, internal structure, extension mechanism,nature and process of polysemy, and cultural factors. First this thesis introduces thephenomenon of polysemy and gives a brief review of the deficiency of traditionalstudies; then it analyzes polysemy from the cognitive perspective. What follows is theelaboration on two important extension mechanisms: conceptual metaphor andconceptual metonymy and how they function in meaning extensions. Both metaphorand metonymy have cognitive functions. They are both conceptual in nature and theirworking mechanism is a mapping process. From the analysis it can be found thatmetaphor and metonymy are important means for meaning extension. Finally, a contrast study between heart and xin is made in which its meaning extension structureand its metaphorical and metonymic conceptualization are expounded. Theirsimilarities and differences are explained from the cognitive and cultural perspectivesrespectively.Two characteristics about meaning construction of polysemous words can befound through cognitive analysis of polysemy. On one hand, conceptualization ofpolysemy is dependent on metaphor and metonymy in whatever languages; namely,all languages share the same meaning extension mechanism. Therefore, people findthat the same word can have similar meanings in different languages. On the otherhand, diversified cultures lead to the distinction in ways of thinking, so the paths ofmeaning extension are also different. Seen from this aspect, meanings of a polysemevary in culture.