| Categorization,the most basic cognitive method for human recognition of the world,has always been an important issue to philosophers,linguists,sociologists and scientists.Aristotle,based on binary logic,established the“Classic Category View”which has been the foundation of metaphysics dominating the academic field for more than 2,000 years.In 1950s,Wittgenstein profoundly reconsidered his view and raised the“Family Resemblance",which was laterly revised to the“Prototype Category View”by the American psychologist E.Rosch in the 1970s in order to remedy the shortcomings of the ancient view.Then the cognitive linguists,Langacker,Taylor,and Wang Yin,proposed the“Schema Category View”to make up for the prototype theory.We believe that all the three views have certain problems:the '"Classic Category View" cannot explain many social phenomena,and most categories of social sciences cannot be divided into two.Although the“Prototype Category View"can compensate for the shortcomings of the classic,it cannot explain the dynamic shift between prototypical members and non-prototypical ones.The“Schema Category View”endeavors to explain the extension of category members on the basis of abstract schema,but it ignores the dynamic changes between and beyond categories.So the cognitive linguists at home and abroad such as Taylor,Croft,Cruse,Liu Zhengguang etc.,have discussed“de-categorization”while Li Xiaofei(2006,2010)and Fan Zhenqiang(2015)have also mentioned the dynamic view.But there are still three main shortcomings in their studies:(1)There exist other kinds of dynamic changes besides de-categorization;(2)The discussion about the mechanism of dynamic categorization is not comprehensive;(3)The collection and analysis of Chinese corpora is imperfect,or absent.In view of this,this thesis,based on the theoretical background of Cognitive Linguistics(including Construction Grammar),tries to establish the theoretical framework of“Dynamic Categorization Theory(DCT in short)",with which we will analyze modern Chinese hai-Constructions(including "A hai suan B.",“S bi A1 hai A2.,","A hai bu suan B.","A hai suan B?","A,hai B ne."etc.).The author has explored the theoretical foundations and metacognitive mechanisms of dynamic categorization mainly from philosophical,linguistic and sociological aspects,and described its five stages systematically based on the Continuum of Quantitative Scale of the Chinese word "hai".And the dynamic changes in the five constructions are also analyzed with the aid of qualitative and quantitative studies from the corpora of 11,323 items of five kinds of hai-Constructions.The significant findings are as follows:First of all,this thesis,based on the criticism of three theories mentioned above,has for the first time established DCT as a systemical theoretical framework by applying ideas from philosophy,linguistics and sociology.From the view of postmodernist philosophy,dynamic categorization reflects the ideas of anti-foundationalism,irrationalism,multiplism and process philosophy.From the view of Cognitive Linguistics,DCT can be illuminated by such metacognitive mechanisms as“coercion,metaphor and metonymy.”From the view of Sociology and Cognitive Sociology,its sociality was discussed,which can effectively explain how language can adapt to the trend of the times,society and culture.It is believed in Materialistic Dialectics that there exist dynamic relationships of dialectical unity among all objects in the world.Though dynamic categorization has been raised by other scholars,they have discussed de-categorization only to show the process of prototypical members turned to peripheral ones due to losing one or more attributes,but the opposite change has been neglected totally.Hereby,this paper has raised con-categorization to show the process of change,that is to say,the peripheral can turn into the central,or the central into the kernel.Thus the process of dynamic changes in category can be further divided into five,as shown in the following diagram:(1)Initial categorization.Things are classified initially through people's interactive embodiment and cognitive processing to form a new category,which is called“initial category”.(2)Con-categorization.This process means the category member moves from periphery to center,or from center to kernel within the category.This term,just opposite to the next type,is created by the author just to remedy the deficiency of de-categorization by the former scholars.(3)De-categorization.By losing some original attributes or adding some different attributes,the prototypical member is turning jfrom center to non-central member,which can also be called“marginalization”.(4)Trans-categorization.As the de-categorization continues,it causes more attributes to be lost,or to be added to,a special category member emerges in the intersection between two categories.(5)Re-categorization.Through further changes,the members in one category may move on to a different category,which can be called re-categorization.Trying to remedy the shortcomings of the idea that dynamic categorization is only regarded as de-categorization by the former scholars,this thesis has proposed DCT,which tries to classify it into above mentioned five stages.The modern Chinese Constructions of“S bi N1 hai N2.","A,hai B ne." etc.have been studied by scholars both in the Chinese and the English circles with different ideas and methods,but there is a lack of a unified approach.This thesis tries to give a unified explanation by DCT,which corresponds with the strategies by Cognitive Linguists.The research,as a supplement to the former studies,has transplanted this foreign idea into our native study by analyzing the modern Chinese constructions.Secondly,this paper has made a graphic analysis to the quantificational scale of hai by means of dynamic categorization,which can make clear the polysemic of hai,including Reaching-Quantity(RQ),Maintaining-Quantity(MQ),Increasing-Quantity(IQ)/Duplicating-Quantity(DQ),and Exceeding-Quantity(EQ),all of them forming a continuum of scale shown below:the changing features are presented according to the different scales from?to ?,with RQ,MQ,IQ/DQ showing con-categorization,EQ showing de-categorization,trans-categorization and re-categorization.“A hai suan B.”Construction and "S bi A1 hai A2.”Construction have the features of "con-categorization";"A hai bu suan B" Construction and "A hai suan B?" Construction have the features of“de-categorization”;"A,hai B ne.”Construction carries the features of“trans-categorization”.This research has made the study of dynamic view more comprehensive with a new perspective.Thirdly,quantitative studies of dynamic categorization based on a closed corpus have been scarcely applied before.By thoroughly investigating the corpora,we have compiled the following data of the five "hai-Constructions.”And five closed corpora have been built with qualitative and quantitative studies taking their place.(1)In the study of "A hai suan B." Construction,the word class of B is mostly adjective,for instance,"Ci ren hai san hao.”There are 6,737 examples of this kind amounting to 69.78%.We have also found that B always uses commendatory or neutral words,which can be explained by the "Pollyanna Principle”raised by Leech(1983),that is to say,people often take a positive and optimistic attitude in this construction.(2)In the study of "S bi A1 hai A2·,Construction,the word class of A is mostly noun.There are 427 examples with the percentage of 88.69%,which can be classified into human(proper nouns and class nouns),animal,plant,location(including countries)and abstract concepts.The symbolic meanings of these four types are discussed in detail with con-categorization listed in 6.3.2.2.2.(3)In the study of c"A hai bu suan B.' Construction,the word class of B is mostly noun.There are 30 examples of this kind amounting to 65.22%,while adjectives and verbs take little proportion,which shows that people mainly pay close attention to the dynamic changes of things instead of their attributes or actions when they are thinking in the way of de-categorization by this construction.(4)In the study of"A hai suan B?" Construction,the word class of B is noun mostly.There are 781 examples with 79.86%,while adjectives,verb phrases and subject-predicate phrases are fewer,which means that it is often used to describe things instead of their attributes or actions.Typically,320 examples,amounting to 40.97%among 781 items,are related to people's identity,such as male,female,Chinese,soldier and celebrity etc.,which shows that people often use this construction to challenge their identity.(5)In the study of "A,hai B ne.,Construction,examples for both A and B with disyllable,amount to 65%which corresponds with the Chinese basic feature.We have found that the metacognitive mechanism of trans-categorization between A and B can be explained by phonetic metaphor.There are 63 exa:mples,with 38%among 165 items,which are constructed on the basis of phonetic metaphor.In the aspect of semantics,the sense relations between A and B are mainly falling into four types:synonym,proximity,antonymy and discrete relations,which can be explained by the rule of trans-categorization(8.2.3).In the aspect of pragmatics,this construction mainly expresses the implicatures of“banter,humor,irony,despite,sneer”etc..Fourthly,this study tries to conclude the rules of dynamic categorization from the perspective of philosophy of language,with“S bi Nlhai N2" Construction as an example.The six issues are as follows:a.from reference to non-reference;b.from objective description to subjective evaluation;c.from definiteness to fuzziness;d.from prototypical standard to degree increase;e.from dictionary meaning to encyclopedic meaning;f.from quantitative change to qualitative change.We have learned from Ryle(1949)how to focus on solving philosophical problems through language analysis.In his famous book The Concept of Mind,he analyzed the word "mind" in order to criticize Descartes' dualism and proposed some relevant philosophical theories.Chapter 5,by means of Ryle's approach,tries to interpret the philosophical ideas behind the word of Chinese "hai",which might be regarded as an attempt to advance our language studies. |
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