A Prototype Study Of The Concept Of Caused-motion

The.basic function of language is to transmit meaning, which plays acentral role in the cognitive treatment of language structure. Meaningequates to conceptualization. The overall work of linguistic researchescan be ascribed to the study of meaning, with its central concern placedupon the understanding of concept. Caused-motion, as a subcategory ofcausation, is an important cognitive semantic category. It is a humanbasic concept and pervasive in human languages. In this thesis, we havemade a prototype study of the caused-motion concept from theperspective Of prototype theory and cognitive linguistics approach.The concept of caused-motion is based on the directly experience ofthe caused-motion events in the physical world. It is the outcome of theconceptualizer's categorization and conceptualization of thecaused-motion event and includes five internal conceptual elements: Causer, Theme, Driving force, Motion and Path, all of which cometogether to form a gestalt of the conceptual structure of caused-motionand represent such a schematic meaning: "S_causer causes O_theme to moveC_path, i.e., the Causer causes the Theme to move along a Path. The basicsense of caused-motion specifies both causation and movement, and itssemantic core is force transmission from the Causer to the Theme.According to our research, each internal conceptual elements ofthe caused-motion concept is also a semantic category respectively, andshows prototype effects: the Causer may be human being, animal, naturalentity, object, or event, and its prototype is realized by a human being; theTheme may be inanimate physical object, animate being or abstract entity, and its prototype is realized by inanimate physical object; the Drivingforce of caused-motion may be physical force, verbal force, mental force or general force, and its prototype is physical force; the Path ofcaused-motion may be physical, mental, subjective, or imaginary, and itsprototype is physical path ; the Motion may take place in physical spaceor abstract, mental space, and its prototype is physical space. In differentcognitive domains, the concept of Caused-motion represents differentsenses according to different degrees of the properties of its each internalconceptual element, which come together to form a semantic category, inwhich members have an unequal status with one being morerepresentative of the caused-motion concept. It becomes a prototypicalsense as a core in the semantic category. All of the members areconnected by the shared similar schematic meaning.The prototype of caused-motion represents the notion that a humanCauser carries out a physical and perceptible change of location in aninanimate physical object Theme by means of direct manipulation. That is, there is an actual transfer of physical energy from the Causer to theTheme, and the Theme undergoes an actual change of location in physicalworld. All the internal elements of the prototypical caused-motionconcepts exhibit their prototypical features respectively. Whereas thenonprototypical concept of caused-motion also represents the sharedsimilar schematic meaning, but there is no actual transfer of physicalenergy from the Causer to the Theme, and the Theme's change of locationtakes place in nonphysical world. All or some of the internal elements ofthe nonprototypical caused-motion concepts exhibit their nonprototypicalfeatures, i.e., all or some of the internal elements are abstract, mental orimaginary.The concept: category of caused-motion is extended from theprototype to the nonprototype through family resemblance. The extensionof the concept is the requirement and reflection of cognitive economy andsubjectification in the conceptulizer's construal of the world. And theconceptualizer mainly employs metaphor to subjectivize and extend the caused-motion concept in the construal of various caused-motion events.The prototypical core is elaborated by some conceptual metaphors: Causes Is Force, Caused-change of State Is Caused-change of Location, Caused-change of Possession is Caused-change of Location, and yield abroad concept of caused-motion, which has many special cases.The concepts of caused-motion are represented by caused-motionsentences. The prototypical concepts of caused-motion yieldprototypical caused-motion sentences while the nonprototypical conceptsof caused-motion produce nonprototypical caused-motion sentences. Theprototypical concept of caused-motion on the syntactic level displaysmore cognitive operation, generality and conciseness than thenonprototypical type. Some nonprototypical expressions of thecaused-motion concept exhibit syntactic and semantic constraints.To sum up, this thesis provides a comprehensive cognitive view ofthe caused-motion concept and help us grasp the caused-motion conceptand its representations in language.