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Vital Relations And Chinese Metonymic Neologisms

Posted on:2008-10-06Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H Z ZhuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360215491163Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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This dissertation presents a new explanation on metonymy in the process of revealing the creative meaning construction of Chinese metonymic neologism. Conceptual Blending Theory, proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, is a general cognitive operation and serves a variety of cognitive purposes. This dissertation demonstrates the meaning construction of Chinese metonymic neologisms can be explained through the Conceptual Blending Theory with a set of Vital Relations and their compression, and offers an alternative perspective on the interpretation of metonymy.This dissertation at first put forward the historic review on neologisms and metonymy. From a dictionary named Xinhua Neologisms Dictionary (2003), we find that the most of Chinese neologisms are coined in a metonymic way. The traditional view of metonymy usually explains these new words without considering the background knowledge, and some cognitive views of metonymy are also not dynamic cognitive processes. Then this dissertation reviews one theory of cognitive approach---Fauconnier & Turner's Conceptual Blending Theory, the Conceptual Integration Networks and its Vital Relations. With elaborate example of Chinese metonymic neologisms according to each type of vital relation, the application of blending theory is to be fulfilled in seven aspects: Input Spaces, the Generic Spaces, the Blend, Cross-space Mapping, Selective Projection, Emergent Structure and the Compression of Vital Relations. We find that Vital Relations play a very important role in the meaning construction of Chinese metonymic neologisms. There exists a competitive relation between various vital relations beneath the Chinese metonymic neologism. The understanding of one kind of Vital Relation is the key step of understanding the meaning of the whole Chinese metonymic neologism. Moreover, the hidden cognitive process of meaning construction of Chinese metonymic neologism, which is entrenched in our language, can be revealed by the compression of various Vital Relations.
Keywords/Search Tags:Conceptual Blending Theory, Metonymy, Mental Space, Conceptual Integration Networks, Mapping, Compression of Vital Relations
PDF Full Text Request
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