A Study On The Construction Of Schematic Representation Of Semantic Network For English Three-dimensional Prepositions

Language represents conceptual content through lexical and grammatical systems.As a closed grammar,its grammatical forms represent specific categories,such as space(position and motion),time,causality,etc.These grammatical forms constitute the structure of the conceptual register.Thus,the closed-class form of language represents the overview of the micro-conceptual world as a whole,and it is like a framework on which other conceptual components are formed and continued.In the conceptual framework system of English,preposition is one of the most important and indispensable elements.In the English language system,English prepositions were originally used to represent spatial relationships in the physical world.At the same time,the determination of the position of the subject on the time axis also needs to be characterized by prepositions.The spatial relationship,semantic diversity and metaphorical expansion of prepositions have provided cognitive linguists with many topics worth studying deeply.Scholars from different schools at home and abroad have all carried out studies on this important part of speech and come to objective conclusions.However,few systematic studies can construct the semantic network of schematic representation of different categories of prepositions as a whole.This paper takes English three-dimensional prepositions as the research object to study the process of semantic network construction of English three-dimensional prepositions schematic representation as a whole.This helps learners to know the process of semantic derivation of prepositions and distinguish the semantic differences of different prepositions.On the basis of previous research,guided by the holistic view,this paper will take English three-dimensional prepositions as the research object,and use prototype theory,conceptual metaphor and metonymiy theory and image schema theory to study the construction process of schematic representation of semantic network of English three-dimensional prepositions.Location preposition(in,within,inside,between and among),source prepositions(out of,outside of),path preposition(THROUGH,THROUGHOUT),and further explore the three-dimensional prepositions from the schematic representation of semantic network construction of the single preposition to the entire three-dimensional preposition,and use the construal mechanism to explain the semantic network.First of all,using the prototype category theory analyze the three-dimensional location prepositions’(in,within,inside,between and among)prototypical and non-prototypical senses,and image schema is to show semantic difference.According to the theory of conceptual metaphor and metonymy and the principle of family similarity,by studying the semantic properties of prototypical sense,the non-prototypical senses of space domain,time domain and abstract domains are extended.In consideration of the reliability of the research results,all the three-dimensional prepositions’ senses and examples in this study are derived from the seventh edition of the Oxford Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary,which is the highest authority on English vocabulary.The metaphor and metonymy mechanisms explain the semantic changes of the spatial prototypical senses of three-dimensional prepositions in the spatial and non-spatial domains,and how the semantics extend from the spatial domain to the non-spatial domain.Finally,we construct the schematic representation of semantic network of single preposition and construal it.Then from the study of example representation to the study of class representation,the schematic representation of semantic network of English three-dimensional location prepositions is constructed and construal it.This is also the case study process for the other three kinds of three-dimensional prepositions.By constructing the schematic representation of semantic network of three-dimensional location prepositions,source prepositions,goal preposition and path prepositions,the schematic representation of semantic network continuum of English three-dimensional prepositions is constructed.By connecting all the three dimensional prepositions,the continuum schema can intuitively show the relationship between different prepositions,which is easier for students to understand.In this study,the theoretical framework is used to solve the following problems;1.What are the prepositions that represent the three-dimensional spatial relationships in English and what unique functions do they play in the continuum semantic representation? 2.How to determine the prototypical and non-prototypical senses of each three-dimensional preposition by obtaining the corpus of related prepositions.3.How to build the semantic network of each preposition and clarify the semantic derivation path of each preposition based on the prototypical and non-prototypical senses? 4.What are the significant implications of the construction of three-dimensional prepositional semantic network for the semantic anchoring of English prepositions?Based on the research results of previous research literature,combined with the micro-corpus and introspection method,and the use-based concept of cognitive linguistics,the main findings of this study are as follows:1.Image schema is the fundamental path to deconstruct the semantic network of English three-dimensional prepositions.Image schema is the active organization and repeated reaction of human to past experience.It is the mental representation of a particular perceptual experience.Image schema has generality and abstractness.Thus,schematic representations of prepositions make abstract semantics intuitive,2.The semantic network of English three-dimensional prepositions is constructed,so as to formalize and visualize the invisible and disordered semantic network.Continuum schema can intuitively express the relationship between objects and objects of different prepositions by connecting all three-dimensional prepositions.3.With the semantic network as a reference point,this study can help language learners to determine the basic thinking path of the semantic extension of English prepositions,so as to capture the topological properties of English three-dimensional prepositions.The prototypical sense of preposition is the earliest and the most frequently used.Part of its conceptual structure is profiled through conceptual metonymy,and other spatial meanings are obtained.Spatial senses are mainly mapped to other abstract domains through conceptual metaphors to obtain non-spatial senses.4.This paper explores the use of figure and background,trajector and landmark,profiling and other cognitive methods to interpret the speaker’s viewpoint-through the construction of three-dimensional spatial semantic representation,in order to achieve the construction of situational information,the listener accurately interprets the speaker’s mental space,and finally achieve the understanding goal of mutual mapping and consistency of the two mental representations.