A Study On The Construction Of Semantic Schema Representation Continuum For English Container Prepositions

Human beings exist concurrently in physical,psychological and social space in which entities always take length,width,and height as parameters to present a particular geometry and occupy a certain space.The anchoring of the spatial position of the entity is the realization of prepositions in the language system.Meanwhile,prepositions are also needed to determine the position of verbs that represent the event relation on the time axis.Therefore,the preposition is one of the most effective means of the location of events and actions in time and space.Without prepositions,the accurate expression of the meanings of nouns and verbs in language is quite difficult.Based on the previous traditional studies of prepositions,this paper considers the prototype category and image schema theories of cognitive linguistics as the framework,regards the embodiment,metaphor and polysemy as the guiding ideology,and attempts to focus on the construction of the semantic schema representation continuum of English container prepositions for the sake of the tangibility of the intangible positional relation,so that language learners can deepen insight into the correspondence between the semantics represented by prepositions and the event-behavior in the physical,psychological,and social world thereby achieving the flexible study and application of prepositions.In the theoretical part of this paper,the prototype category theory is selected to design the framework of the core chapter reasonably.Initially,each section studies the prototypical sense of individual container prepositions.In accordance with salience and similarity,metonymy and metaphor theories are applied to map prototypical sense to spatial and non-spatial domains respectively for the obtainment of relevant extended senses thus forming a semantic network centered on the prototypical sense.After building single semantic networks of INTO,IN,OUT OF,and THROUGH successively,the semantic schema representation continuum of English container prepositions is established in line with their correlations,during which image schema partakes in the analysis and interpretation.Furthermore,the final continuum schema is also intuitive,clear,and convenient for learners to understand and master the senses of container prepositions,as well as to differentiate similar semantic container prepositions.Given the rigor of academic research and increasing the credibility of researchresults,all container prepositions in this study are derived from the supreme authority of English vocabulary,the seventh edition of Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary.In addition,all the meanings in this dictionary are arranged in the order of historical appearance,which is conducive to comprehending the course of human understanding the world,and coincides with the connotation of continuity.The main findings of this study are as follows:1.This paper constructs the perceptual image schema of prepositions in human mind and sets up the semantic decoding scaffold of prepositions for linguists with the transformation of image schema.The utilization of the prototype category theory in the analysis of issues is logical and easy to understand.The theories of metaphor and metonymy possess a wide range of applications with strong explanatory power.2.Semantic networks of each container preposition are built.The prototypical and non-prototypical senses of each preposition are preliminarily clarified.The network assists language learners in mastering the corresponding relationship between the human embodied spatial relation and preposition representation.The choice of the representation of English prepositions depends on the positional correlations of existing events among the physical,psychological and social world,and the variety of the viewpoints of human salience and attention.3.The option of prepositions lies in the dynamic transfiguration of trajectors and landmarks.Their variations of three-dimensional parameters in the physical,psychological and social world directly affect the selection of prepositions.The prepositional polysemy network is just the inevitable result of such dynamic changes.4.A continuum of semantic schema representation of English container prepositions is constructed.Through the systematic analysis of features of container prepositional senses,diverse container prepositions are connected to form a more macro perspective for further research of other container prepositions,which offers a valuable path for exploring the whole semantic representation system of English prepositions.5.The research results provide a new viewpoint for English preposition teaching.Teachers can apply container preposition continuum schema to vividly interpret each sense of single container prepositions and distinguish different container prepositions.