The Systematic Approach To The Semantic Change And Evolution Of Polysemy In Chinese And English

As the most pervasive but thorny phenomenon in semantic field, polysemy is the issue, which countless linguists have always focused on. With regard to the study of the meaning of polysemy, no matter whether from the diachronic aspect or the synchronical aspect, it doesn't seem convinced enough to give comprehensive account of the evolution and development of lexical meaning of polysemy. Even though many researches elucidate the features of polysemy or describe and summarize causes, results and manners of its evolution specifically and periodically, there is still long distance to go further study about the aspect of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparison.In view of the above-mentioned, this thesis proposes the assumption that there exists a microsystem of lexical meaning of polysemy in lexical system under the method of hypothesis-deductive. In the thesis, it is proved that this microsystem has the general features of system and also peculiar and general features in Chinese and English. In the process of evolution and development, it presents some universal characteristics. This thesis is an attempt to probe into this phenomenon of microsystem from the combination of diachronic and synchronic aspect, based on the theory of General System, cognitive semantics and Linguistic universals, etc. In view of system theory to the process of evolution and development in Chinese and English, it is the research about the microsystem from multi-dimensions, such as the part and the...