Cognitive Analyses Of Spatial Metaphors In ECLDs

Since space experience enjoys a privileged position in human life, chances are that people understand a non-spatial concept through a spatial orientation, such as MORE IS UP. Such metaphorical mapping, from spatial orientation to non-spatial domain, is one of the focuses of the present study. Spatial metaphors are image-schematic and they can be reasoned and analyzed with such parameters as trajector, landmark and path.In this thesis, we will try to show a cognitively-based account of metaphorical meanings of the preposition on. The expressions trajector and landmark are glossed in accordance with their uses in Cognitive Linguistics—e.g. a cup^trajector on the table^Iandmark. With respect to 'contact' on, key functional roles of trajectors and landmarks in metaphorical expressions are characterized in terms of Cognitive metaphor theory. Meanwhile, the metaphorical mappings of the preposition on demonstrate that there is a systematic correspondence between the image-schematic concepts and the metaphorical meanings of on. Image schema can help us understand how the spatial metaphors of the preposition on are used in human conceptualization of the abstract domains.Based on Lakoff's assumption that it is easier to learn, remember and use a lexical item on a cognitively-based account of the preposition on, a number of ways might be explored in which dictionaries can enhance the explanation of the semantics of on. We will then analyze the lexicographical portrayal of on in the bilingualized Big Five, note the problems and try to make some improvements which stem from the cognitively grounded semantic analysis. In the core of the thesis, we will investigate how these observations and suggestions can be intended as relevant for the lexicographic representations of prepositions in general and how they can be organized in a motivated way in an English-Chinese learner's dictionary. This thesis may put forward some suggestions helpful on dictionary compilation.