Figure-Ground Theory And Focus Of Attention Of Artistic Conception In Classical Chinese Poetry

Figure-Ground Theory is an important component of Cognitive Linguistics. Each perception domain is composed of figure and ground. The part which we perceive is usually conceptualized as the "figure", meanwhile the ignored part is usually regarded as the "ground", Figure is the prominent part in cognition and it becomes the focus of attention while ground is less prominent than figure and can be regarded as the cognitive reference. People can't perceive both figure and ground at the same time. This is the so called figure-ground segregation. It is a basic cognitive principle according to which space is organized, and it also becomes a basic cognitive principle by which language organizes its concepts. In recent years, because of the combination of cognitive linguistics and literature studies, a useful interpretation tool for literature works. i.e. cognitive poetics is arising. Some foreign scholars like Stockwell, Tsur have made a lot of contribution to this field. They use figure-ground principle to analyze literature works. They pay great attention to the readers'cognitive system that functions in the process of understanding literature works and think that figure-ground segregation can become the basic feature of literary stylistic analysis.This paper first briefly introduces the development of cognitive linguistics, especially gives detailed introduction to figure-ground theory and some important conceptions like images and artistic conception that are related to Classical Chinese Poetry. It also reviews the relevant research about the application of figure-ground in Chinese and English corpora. But it is rare that the analysis of Classical Chinese Poetry from cognitive perspective. As Figure/Ground is a basic perception phenomenon, the relationship between figure and ground in a great measure can be regarded as a kind of spatial and prominent relation. So the study on relationship between Figure-Ground Theory and focus of attention of artistic conception of CCP can begin from these two aspects. The paper employs some of the Classical Chinese Poetry as research text and analyzes the function and the influence of FGT's spatial and prominent relation in the formation of artistic conception of CCP. The paper also probes into the function of adjectives in CCP in the formation of artistic conception of CCP. This paper provides a new perspective to the research and understanding of Classical Chinese Poems.