Structure·Semantics·Cognition

There exist a large number of compounds in English vocabulary. Compounding /composition is a word-building process in which words are built by joining two or more free morphemes together according to some word orders. Compounding is very prosperous and productive. In English, almost all parts of speech can act as components of compounds. And the compounding is beyond the limitation of English syntax in word order. English compounds can be divided by their functions in sentences into compound nouns, compound verbs, compound adjectives and some other secondary compounds. An English compound noun plays a crucial role in language and cognition, in which it reflects changes in language reality, shows the compositionality of language in the raw, increases language productivity, serves to expand language. English compound nouns also reflect laconicity in form and expression on one hand, and the complex process of meaning construction on the other. Morphologically, the modifiers may be nouns, verbs, adjectives (including participles) and adverbs. The main relations between the components are modifier and modified, verb and object, subject and verb, coordinate, complementary, etc. Semantically, there exist some theoretical evidence in the compounding of English compound nouns, mainly named metaphor, metonymy and analogy, and there are some cognitive rules in people's cognition to the external structures and the internal semantic meanings. So there is much value in theory in the study of English compound nouns.From the viewpoint of practical applicability, based on the theories of lexical morphology and cognitive semantics, this thesis tries to use the methods of induction and analytics to study English compound nouns, to explore the basic regular cognitive patterns of their morphological structures and cognitive semantics: motivations for compounding,semantic compatibility and the correspondence of cognitive concepts. In addition, there are some practical values in the study of English compound nouns. Based on the characteristics of English word-acquisition of Chinese students, the thesis tries to explore some inspirations to the teaching of English compound nouns.By the study of English compound nouns, we find that morphemes originated from the same etymology are easier to combine, the semantic meanings of the compounding components are sure to be compatible and not rejected, and there are some cognitive regular patterns in the collocation of semantic meanings of each components: reasonable compounding, correspondence of semantic meaning and form, semantic compatibility, etc.. The thesis also argues that the teaching of vocabulary plays an important part in the whole process of English teaching. But the acquisition of vocabulary depends largely on the learners themselves. So the training of learners' ability of self-teaching and thinking metaphorically in English is also very important. Being an English teacher, what we should do is to teach the learners all kinds of approaches, skills and strategies of thinking metaphorically. Through these ways learners can learn and understand new compound nouns more quickly and more effectively.