A Contrastive Study Of Meaning Extension Between "IN/OUT" In English And “内/外”in Chinese From The Cognitive Perspective

As a universal phenomenon in all languages, metaphor has been studied since twothousand years ago in the times of Aristotle. However, most of the studies are limited tothe field of rhetoric. Not until1970s do cognitive linguists come to realize that our wholeconceptual system is founded on metaphor and metaphor not only exists in our languages,but also structures our whole conceptual system. Metaphor is seen as the projection fromthe source domain onto the target domain. Here the source domain is a familiar or concreteconcept while the target domain is an abstract concept. In1980the publishing ofMetaphors We Live by by Lakoff and Johnson have laid a solid foundation for the study ofmetaphor in cognitive linguistics. In addition, they divide metaphor into three kinds:structural metaphor, orientational/spatial metaphor and ontological metaphor. Spatialexperience is one of the most basic experience human acquire at their early developmentand many other abstract concepts are set up upon spatial metaphor. When spatial relationsare mapped onto non-spatial relations, spatial metaphors are generated. Because spatialmetaphor is a sort of image-schematic metaphor, we can explain the basic meanings ofspatial words by analyzing the three parameters of image schema: the trajector, thelandmark and path. When spatial relations are mapped onto non-spatial domains, theinherent structures of image schemas are preserved, so non-spatial concepts can beunderstood from the internal structure of image schemas.IN/OUT and内/外are namely the most representative spatial words in English andChinese. In this thesis their prototypical and metaphorical usages on various targetdomains are analyzed based on image schema to make clear the similarities and differencesof their usages and the cultural reasons. Qualitative and quantitative research methodswhich are combined in this thesis have fulfilled the following tasks:1.Discussing spatialmeanings and metaphorical extensions of the two pairs of spatial words so as to find outthe similarities and differences in their usages and the inner cultural reasons;2. Makinglearners have a clear knowledge of the usage of spatial words and arise their thinking ofpolysemy caused by prototype theory for the sake of offering a new horizon on languageteaching through analyzing the image schema and the process of metaphorical mapping ofthe two pairs of spatial words;3. Making learners have a deeper understanding ofpolysemy guided by prototype theory through the analysis of image schematic structure of spatial and metaphorical use of spatial words in order to provide guidance to vocabularyteaching and second language learning;4. Providing enlightenment for the practical usesuch as compiling dictionaries through showing the change of the meanings of words;5.Providing evidences for the universal conceptual metaphor system raised by Lakoff andJohnson.