Analysis On Affixationization Of Modern English

The evolution of English affixes has been discussed from perspectives of grammar, word-formation and morphology in many scholars'works. Many aspects of the subject, however, are still left to be surveyed due to its complexity and particularity. Moreover, scant study exists on the evolution of affixes and on the mechanism of affixationizational process from cognitive angle. Therefore, it is necessary to look into the semantic fusion and details of affixationization from the cognitive perspective.The Conceptual Integration Theory, proposed by G. Fauconnier & M. Turner (1994), as a cognitive operation serves a variety of cognitive purposes, accounts for human's cognitive characteristics and is applicable to the reconstruction of meanings in language. Superficially, seen from cognitive perspective, not only the affixationization of modern English involves the reconstruction of meanings, but also the reconstruction of concepts plays an important part in it. This thesis, thus, based on 12 carefully collected morphemes, adopts a cognitive approach to the comprehension of modern English affixationization within the framework of the Conceptual Integration Theory. Specifically speaking, the thesis mainly deals with four issues: (1) the affixationization of modern English and semantic changes before and after affixationization; (2) the cognitive types of their semantic changes within the Conceptual Integration Theory; (3) the relationship between types of semantic changes and cognitive types of conceptual integration, (4) the implications of the integrated analysis on affixationization for the construct of English lexical competence in applying quasi-affixes.Based on the above discussion and analysis, the thesis comes to the following conclusions: firstly, due to human's integrated thoughts and the long-term use of the language, some of modern English free morphemes have experienced affixationization and acquired the statuses as quasi-affixes which hold the characteristics of dependence and word-formation power. Secondly, compared with the meanings of the relevant free morphemes, the meanings of these affixationized morphemes have changed, categorized into null semantic shift, partial semantic shift and whole semantic shift. Thirdly, analyzed affixationization of modern English within the Conceptual Integrated Theory, it is found that the types of the integrated processes in blend space of these quasi-affixes are composition, composition to completion, and composition to completion and to elaboration. Moreover, it is also found that if the meaning of a morpheme is without semantic change after affixationization, the integrated process of a corresponding quasi-affix in blend space is comparatively simple, such as composition. Whereas, if the meaning of a morpheme has changed partially or totally, the integrated process of a corresponding quasi-affix in blend space is complex, such as composition to completion and composition to completion and to elaboration. Finally, the affixationizational process of modern English and its characteristics within the Conceptual Integration Theory imply that human's integrated thoughts play a significant role not only in the evolution of English vocabulary but also in its learning. Thereby, the implications of the investigation for middle-and-advanced-level Chinese students'construct of English lexical competence in applying quasi-affixes are obvious. And the thesis reckons that raising learners'awareness of quasi-affixes, cultivating learners'cultural awareness of the words from cognitive perspective, fostering learners'integrated form of thinking, and encouraging learners to use words in all contexts appropriately are four teaching strategies for words involved in integration.