Cognitive Analysis Of Language Variation And Change Phenomena

This paper discusses the cognitive motivation of language variation and change phenomena on the basis of latest cognitive theories. Since the research on language variation and change pioneered by Labov, linguists have made many achievements on this research. But so far all the studies have been limited to the description of variation phenomena and the investigation of some superficial causes. As to the inner motivations of these variations and change phenomena, few studies have been made. The inner mechanism of language variation and change still need to be studied. This paper analyzes the cognitive motivation of language variation and change phenomena by using the cognitive theories such as: conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, prominent view, attentional view etc. Introspective method and combined qualitative and quantitative method are adopted in this research in order to increase the validity and reliability of this research.Three hypotheses are proposed at the beginning of this study: 1. Phonological variation phenomena are motivated by the principle of least effort; and the principle of least effort is closely related with human being's cognitive ability and habit. 2. Lexical semantic variation is motivated by human being's metaphoric thought. 3. Syntactic variation can be explained by cognitive prominent view and attentional view. Theoretically, this study provides a new cognitive paradigm for the study of language variation and change; pragmatically, it is meaningful for the better acquisition of English.The limitation of this research is discussed in the conclusion. Besides, further study of language variation and change from the cognitive memetics angle is suggested.