| Nominalization is a common phenomenon in any language including English. Through nominalization, one word can have different grammatical categories and express different meanings. But in most cases, the using of nominalization will not bring difficulties of understanding, especially for the native speakers. Why can people understand the meaning of the word after nominalization with little effort? Is the appearance of nominalization arbitrary or rational? Many scholars have studied nominalization from different perspectives and obtained different conclusions. This paper will analyze nominalization from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and point out that the phenomenon of nominalization reflects the basic cognitive laws in humans'cognitive process, that is, the process of categorization, decategorization and recategorization based on prototype effect. We attempt to find out the semantic rationality and construct a reasoning mechanism of verbal nouns through analyzing the nominalization of English verbs to provide the English learners with certain help. This paper tries to explore the meaning construction mechanism of nominalization by using decategorization and the means realizing decategorization. As an indispensable part of categorization, decategorization is one basic cognitive process of humans. Metaphor and metonymy, the means to realize decategorization, reflect humans'basic cognitive laws, and have an important role in linguistic concept.This thesis is divided into five parts:Introducation mainly introduces the purpose, rationality, theory basis of the present study. At the same time, this part also presents the methodology of the study and the outlines of this thesis. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to nominalization and then reviews the study of nominalization of the main linguistic schools abroad, mainly involving Jerpersen's study, Structural Linguistics, Transformational- Generative Linguistics, Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Cognitive Linguistics. After analyzing and comparing their studies, the author points out their limitation and promotes the perspective of the present study.Chapter Two is the theoretical framework of the present study. This section introduces the Decategorization Theory in detail. It points out that decategorization is based on prototype. That is the unequaled statues make decategorization plausible. This chapter also makes a further introduction to the motivation and realizing means of decategorization. The intension between finite linguistic forms and infinite new concepts, economic principle and creativity of human beings promotes the decategorization of language. The means for realizing decategorization– metaphor and metonymy is one basic cognitive mode for humans perceiving and constructing the world. Using one concrete concept to perceive and understand one abstract concept and profiling different facets of the same event frame is the cognitive and expressive needs of humans. Through the analysis, we know that the appearance of verbal nominalization is not random or arbitrary, but rational. That is based on humans'cognitive laws and experiences.Chapter Three is the most important part of this thesis. It's the application of decategorization to nominalization. In this part, We first classify the verbal nominalization according to three different dimensions: different profiled facets of the relational predication, semantic function and the internal organization of the relational predication and different morphological properties. As the limitation of time and the thesis, we only make a detailed analysis of the several types of verbal nominalization in the first kind of classification. The analysis shows that English verbal nominalization is a process of decategorization. It is rational and is the result of humans'basic cognitive mode. Humans construct and understand the structure of nominalization through their physical experiences and preexisting cognitive frame.Finally, we come to the conclusion: the practical meaning of this study for English learning, the limitation of the thesis and suggestion for the further study. In a word, the process of verbal nominalization is rational. It reflects the basic laws and modes for humans acknowledging the world. Decategorization is the important part of categorization and the major theoretical basis for verbal nominalization. Using Decategorization Theory to interpret the process of the phenomenon of verbal nominalization and using the means– metaphor and metonymy for realizing decategorization to interpret the realizing process of nominalization can make us understand the phenomenon of nominalization not only fron the language itself, but consider fully the significance of humans'experiential basis and cognitive mode in the process of nominalization. And then we can master better the rationality of the niminalization and the mechanism of its meaning construction and understanding. Having more scientific and comprehensive acknowledgement of nominalizatin can help us understand the meaning change in the process of verbal nominalization more correctly, which can make the students bulid on the idea of others and get twice the result with half the effort during the process of learning verbal nominalization. It can not be denied that this study is still preliminary and not comprehensive. The findings of the study remain to be judged, evaluated and tested by scholars.
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