The Metonymical Motivation Of N-V Conversion And The Learning Of The Converted Verbs

This dissertation sets out to investigate, within the framework of cognitive linguistics, the problems of the metonymical motivation of n-v conversion and those of the strategies and methods in the learning of those verbs coming from this conversion. We claim that metonymy is the most fundament motivation of the word-formation of n-v conversion, and it is based on this claim that the problems of the learning of those verbs have been studied. Accordingly, our research aims at two goals, namely, the first, the working mechanism of the metonymical motivation of n-v conversion; and second, the problems of the n-v converted verbs learning concerning its strategies and methods.Our study on n-v conversion is based on the proposition that "grammar is conceptualization", one of the major hypotheses of cognitive linguistics (Croft & Cruse, 2004), together with another two relevant claims, namely, "meaning construction is conceptualization" (Evans, 2006) and "language is symbolic unit" (Langacker, 1987). Since "grammar is conceptualization", the knowledge of word-formation of n-v conversion as one part of grammar knowledge should also be certainly viewed as conceptualization. To illustrate the process of conceptualization, XU Shenghuan's "extension-intension inheritance" theory has been used as our explanatory theory for the purpose of expounding the process during which the concept of event embedded in the noun should be turned into the concept of action embedded in the converted verb.In the long history of the study of metonymy, a considerable amount of researches have been carried from rhetorical, semantic, and cognitive points of view. Even in the category of cognitive point of view, researchers have proposed different approaches, such as mapping theory, blending theory, and logical explanatory theory. Metonymical research from the logical point of view claims that the conceptual inheritance of the extension and/or the intension between the target concept and the source concept is the basic motivation for the realization of the metonymy. In the essence, the n-v conversion is "n-v metonymy", that is, the extension and/or the intension of the nominal concept will be "passed" to the verbal concept, and the latter will "accept" those concept contents according to the special sentence structure and special contextual environment.Accordingly, we set up a "n-v conversion metonymical motivation" explanation framework to serve as the working frame which consists of two parts: one is an interpretation for symbolic unit of n-v conversion and the second is an descriptive conceptualization process for n-v word formation. Generally speaking, our research framework intends to probe the central problem of n-v word formation from two different aspects: conceptualization and grammaticalization with the former essentially dealing with the n-v conceptual conversion while the latter the formation of the symbolic units converted from the noun to the verb. The research framework is used to analyze and explain the metonymical motivation of n-v conversion, and further, the grammaticalization process relevant to n-v conversion raised by the inheritance of the extension-intension. The research results on the grammaticalization process directly set up the theoretical guidelines for the learning strategies of the denominal verb. To put it in a simple way, our study on the learning strategies in this respect is based on the recognition of "grammar is conceptualization" and "meaning structure is also conceptualization". This can in turn be realized that meaning representation is encyclopaedic. This also means that good grasp of extensive cross-cultural knowledge will be helpful for the learning. In other words, the "n-v conversion metonymical motivation" framework can also be applied here.In the study we intend to analyze n-v conversion on the level of conceptual structure, treating it not only from the semantic angle, but from the angles of concept and thinking. We regard as the part-whole relation between the event concept and the action concept, because the action concept embedded in a verb expresses some kind of "relation", and a "relation" should actually be realized by at least two different event concepts. In other words, since it is a "relation concept", it should embody more than two concepts. In this sense, therefore, we can treat it as part-whole relation between the event concept of noun and the relation concept of the verb. Obviously, this part-whole relation also shows proximity, which is in turn the fundamental feature of metonymy. In this sense, regardless of how many cognitive factors are involved in the n-v conversion, the most important final factor making true the conversion is metonymy. More detailed, EVENT FOR ACTION metonymical model is working.It is in this sense that the reason why a noun can be turned into a verb is that the contents of the extension and/or the intension of the event concept "pass" itself into the action concept under the control of a certain context. The "new" action concept shares some common conceptual features of the event concept, as the result of which noun can stand for the meaning as the verb does. For a reasonable explanation, we intend to interpret it from the following three stages: metonymical thinking, manner of manifestation, and external representation, that is, how metonymical thinking is first turned into the manner of the manifestation of language, then into the external representation. A preliminary observation shows that metonymical thinking, the manner of manifestation, and external representation corresponds to deep level of language, the shallow level of language, and surface level of language respectively. As regard to the metonymical process embodied in the n-v conversion, the three different structures of language are realized as follows:In the deep level, people could sense the hidden meaning of the action concept implied by means of the contents of the extension and/or the intension through their inheritance; this is a kind of metonymical thinking. In the shallow level, when people metonymically change the identification of reference into that of relation, or noun used to represent action, two phases appear, the main event and the co-event, which make clear the action hidden behind the event. Finally, in surface level, a "new" verb emerges by means of directly taking the parent noun as a verb, and the "new" verb gives a symbolic expression of the whole event in which the above the main event and the co-event are implied.The above analysis of metonymical mechanism of n-v conversion provides inspiration for the study on the learning strategies and methods of the verbs coming from this kind of word-formation. Since metonymy is the most fundamental motivation for this kind of word-formation, the well training for metonymical thinking and good master of encyclopaedic knowledge should make great contributions to the learning of this kind of verbs. Based on such consideration, we have further move to the study of the learning strategies and methods of denominal verb The study is carried out in two ways.First, a theoretical analysis is given as to the relation between the conceptualization process and the process of learning of denominal verb, by pointing out that n-v conversion is essentially a conceptual converting process from event concept to action concept, and that the way of learning the "new" verb by means of the related knowledge of n-v conversion. This can not only learn how to understand and infer the meaning of the "new" verb, but also create a "new" verb according to the requirement of expression. At the same time, we also analyze the advantages and disadvantages in the learning, and special attention is given to three factors, that is, contextual factor, cross-cultural factor, and learner's own ability to integrate concepts.Second, we have carried out an experiment of "think-aloud" for the study the learning strategies of n-v conversion in which six English-major subjects are chosen from the School of Foreign Languages of Hubei University for Nationalities, we have come to the following conclusions:1. On the basis of the classification of Lawson and Hogben(1996), we try to summarize four strategies: repeating, feature analysis, simple elaboration, and complex inference, and 11 corresponding learning methods.2. The research finds three varying influences on the correct acquisition of n-v conversion, they are cross-cultural knowledge, contextual factors and learner's own ability to integrate concept.3. Metonymical motivation has been found to have great promotion to the acquisition of n-v converted verbs in the strategies such as connotation feature analysis, simple use of context and complex use of metonymical inference making use of the n-v extension/intension inheritance to help learner's vocabulary learning. To sum up, our study on the metonymical motivation and the learning strategies of n-v conversion shows that metonymy is the most fundamental motivation of n-v conversion, and that the grasp of metonymical knowledge will contribute to learner's acquisition of denominal verb. Meanwhile, we also find, according to the research results, that the re-organization of conceptual structure is an important way to the learning of denominal verbs. It is in the spirit of these findings that some pieces of advices are suggested for both teachers and learners. For teachers, it is very important to introduce more encyclopaedic and cultural knowledge about the countries and societies in which English is spoken as a native language, and pay more attention to the contextual analysis and connotation feature analysis of the concepts, while for students, they should consciously and actively absorb the above-mentioned encyclopaedic and cultural knowledge, and try to infer the meaning of the new denominal verb by means of the contextual factors.