Cognitive Research On Subjective Quantitative Semantics Of Number Idioms And Number Idioms

Idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers are important parts in Chinese language.Previous studies were about the language research system of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers,and the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers rarely became independent subjects of special studies.Most of the previous studies focused on the structural features,cultural significance,rhetorical features,etc.,but there is a lack of deep and detailed research on the formation and understanding of the semantics of them.Most of them describe the image,state,character and other aspects of people or things,and express the subjective quantitative semantics of subjective evaluation.Do the numbers express specific numerical meanings?What influence does the structure of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers have on their semantic meaning?What is the cognitive way of subjective quantity semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers?What causes the subjective quantity semantics?These are questions that need to be answered,and the answers will be found in deep research.This paper investigated and analyzed 933 idioms with numbers in The Dictionary of Chinese Idioms and 1197 idiomatic expressions with numbers in The Dictionary of Chinese Idiomatic Expressions,with cognitive linguistics theory of metaphor and metonymy theory,image schema theory as the instruction.The paper has a lot of new research conclusions on the subjective quantity semantic expression of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers.First,metaphor,metonymy and image schema are important cognitive mechanisms for understanding the subjective quantity semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers.Number is a very special linguistic symbol,which not only reflects the thinking mode and characteristics of different nationalities,but also internalizes many metaphorical thinking with cultures.After a long time of using and evolution,many numbers in the idioms and idiomatic expressions do not represent accurate and objective number semantics.They express people's views and evaluations on things through the concept of "number",and express a subjective quantitative semantics.Idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers are the products of people's conceptual thinking,and their subjective quantitative semantics are derived from people's cognitive structure.Metaphor,metonymy and schemata mechanism play an important role in the process of understanding the subjective quantity semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers.Secondly,the structure of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers plays an important role in the expression of their subjective quantitative semantics.Cognitive linguistics hold that there is a close relationship between the meaning of a word and its constituent elements of language,rather than an arbitrary combination.Different structures strengthen the subjective quantitative semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers from different aspects and they are extremely important in the production of their subjective quantitative semantics.Thirdly,there are three kinds of cognitive ways of subjective quantity semantics in the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers.(1)Metaphorical thinking is based on quantitative similarity.There are thousands of things in the world.In the interactive experience with the world,people can gradually grasp the attributes of different things and gradually perceive the same or similar attributes between different things.Metaphorical thinking is the way to realize the projection from the source domain to the target domain according to the same or similar attributes between things.The source domain of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers contains numbers.Quantity is the most basic semantic category of numbers,and the physical experience of people and numbers is inevitably related to quantity.Therefore,the metaphorical thinking of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers is based on the similarity of quantities.(2)Metaphorical thinking is based on the correlation of empirical quantities.In the activities of understanding the world and themselves,the experience related to quantity appears repeatedly,which provides the cognitive basis for metaphorical thinking.There exists a quantitative experience between the literal meaning and the whole meaning of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers.The metaphorical basis between them is the relevance of empirical quantities.(3)Metonymic thinking is based on contiguity of quantity.Because of the quantitative proximity between the magnitude category expressed by numbers and the objects or concepts in the target domain,the metonymy mechanism can be carried on smoothly by the projection from the source domain to the target domain.Fourth,the reasons for the production of subjective quantity semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers are mainly manifested in five aspects.First,the numbers become a way to express subjective quantity semantics.Secondly,the structure of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers plays an important role in the generation of their subjective quantity semantics.The third is the literal meaning,which participates in the construction of the whole semantic meaning of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers,and it is the basis of the production of subjective quantity semantic meaning.The fourth is the normal quantity of the existence of the things.The subjective evaluation of people or things is based on the normal quantity of the objective existence.When the evaluation is inconsistent with the normal quantity,larger or smaller subjective quantity will be generated.The fifth is the physical experience when people interact with external things.The physical experience of numbers in people's daily lives will guide and help the people to express and understand things or concepts through metaphorical thinking.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,this paper analyzed the subjective quantitative semantics of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers,but there are still some related problems which need to be researched,such as semantic bleaching path of numbers,the semantic functions of the national culture psychology,the subjective quantity of semantic research of the idioms and idiomatic expressions with numbers in the same semantic field,etc..These are the disadvantages of this paper,but they also point out the research directions in the future.