| Embodied cognition is one of the five theoretical assumptions of cognitive linguistics.It addresses the nature of the relationship between language,embodied experience and cognition.The fact is that our experience and cognition is embodied by the nature of the bodies we have.From this perspective,our embodiment is directly responsible for structuring concepts.Of the five sense organs,visual perceptual organ(i.e.eyes)is the most important.We see the world the moment we wake up in the morning.In this way,vision is the most important way to obtain information.Vision is closely related to cognition,at all times and in all ccultures.Past studies of vision metaphor proposed that the semantic change from vision to cognition is universal in the languages of the world and the emphasis is put on the universality.In fact,there do exist differences.For example,the conceptual metaphor UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING is found in many languages and cultures.In English-I see" metaphorically means-I understand",but in Chinese this is not the case.Instead,we often use 4bright white(???)" to mean-I understand" in Chinese.Within the framework of the cognitive metaphor theory and the theory of cognitive construal in the conceptualization process,this dissertation makes a comparative study of the semantic change from vision to cognition of the visual perception vocabulary in Chinese and English.The comparison is made from the following perspectives:cognitive categories which include the original visual perception words;semantic extension patterns;metaphorical and metonymical mechanisms of semantic change.The purpose is to explore the constraints underlying the differences in semantic change.Based on previous studies,this dissertation proposes a new approach to the study of semantic change.First,visual perception event cognitive domain is established.Elements in the domain are clarified.Semantic changes in the visual event domain could be explained within the event cognitive domain.Second,a tentative cross-domain projection framework is proposed based on Sjostrom(1999)and Lakoff&Johnson(1999:238).The vocabularies are mainly from the Roget's International Thesaurus and A Thesaurus of Modern Chinese.The metaphorical identification procedure is based on the study of Metaphor Map(2015).A systematic search of vision vocabulary under relevant cognitive semantic categories is conducted.The maior findings of this investi-ation are as follows.1.The semantic change from vision to cognition is systematic in both Chinese and English.The study on the Chinese part adds further evidence to the typological study,in addition to Sweetser's(1990)study on English and Indo-European sense-perception verbs.2.Chinese vision vocabulary which has undergone diachronic semantic change is mainly from characters composed of radicals-?",-?" and-?".The diachronic study on the Chinese part fills the gap.In comparison,English vision vocabulary through diachronic semantic change is more varied.3.The study confirms Sjostrom's supposition(1999),i.e.,-light" is more basic than-sight" or-seeing".4.The cognitive mechanism for semantic change from vision to cognition is metaphor and metonymy.Metaphorical mechanism is the most important.Metonymical mechanism sometimes co-works with the metaphorical mechanism.In comparison,the metonymical change patterns in the visual perception domain are more varied in Chinese.5.The differences of the semantic change from vision to cognition in Chinese and English first lie in the semantic extension patterns of the visual perception vocabulary of manner and direction.Second,the differences lie in the semantic extension patterns concerning UNDERSTANDING.According to Langacker's(1987)profile/base organization,the relevant English expressions profile the result of the visual perception event,while the relevant Chinese expressions profile the manner of the visual perception event as well as the element of light.The difference in profiling is due to cognitive preferences of people in different cultures. |
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