A Cognitive Study On The Construction Of English Neologisms

Language is the most important means of communication.Its production and use are decided by such factors as biological,cognitive,psychological and environmental ones. Compared with the pronunciation and grammar,lexicon is the most active part of language. They are the barometers of social developments.Once there emerged a new object or phenomenon,correspondingly new words will emerge to express them.English neologisms, which emerged in a quite large quantity,have gained more and more attention.Many scholars have given great importance to this linguistic phenomenon,and have carried out researches from different perspectives.Most of their researches focus on the level of word' forms and those exterior causes of their production,such as:history,culture and social developments,etc., seldom are they on the cognitive nature of this phenomenon.The term English neologisms,in this dissertation,refers to those words with new meanings by meaning extension of existing words and the newly constructed words formed by using existing morphemes or words.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,with recourse to the research achievements,such as:categorization,prototype,metaphor,metonymy and conceptual integration,etc.,this research has explored the cognitive production processes of English neologisms,and it is carried out based on the examination of new words.The research shows that the emergence of English neologisms is an inevitable result of our categorization of new objects and new phenomena.So basically,the emergence of English neologisms is determined by the objective world.This process either directly makes existing concepts acquire new meanings,or integrate different concepts to form a brand new one,thus newly constructed words will emerge.By the analysis of production of the new meanings,this research finds that prototype category and the mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy are significant to this process.As far as prototype category is concerned,on the one hand,it will experience a process of "shift" and "split" with the development of the society and things,which will prompt prototype categories to change accordingly.It is the dynamic feature of prototype categories that makes new words and new meaning possible.This natural cognitive process is one of the sources of new meanings;on the other hand,the change of prototype category is smooth,which is important for the language users on the aspect of the understanding of the changing words.At the same time,metaphor and metonymy,the two basic thought modes,are often used in the process of recognizing new things and new phenomena to enhance our understanding of them,which makes the existing words obtain new meanings.This customary cognitive style is another reason for the new meanings. By the cognitive analysis of the newly constructed words,represented by compounds,this research finds that their construction is different from that of new meanings in such a way as: people recognize new things and new phenomena by the triggering mechanisms:the principles of prominence and attention,and construct brand new concepts by means of cognitive mechanisms such as metaphor,metonymy,analogy and conceptual integration.During this constructing process,we will make sure the newly-formed is informative and avoid ambiguousness.The commonness reflected from the above two processes is as the follows:(1) the production of English neologisms is a process of forming new concepts cognitively during categorization which is based on embodied experiences.It is a process of experiencing our world.What's more,the meaning of neologisms is an integration of the objective world and the subjective experience.In the end of this dissertation,we have summarized such a model as how English neologisms are cognitively produced;(2) At the same time,we got an idea that it is the people who have enriched and developed the lexicon through their cognitive experience and cognitive mechanisms.Human beings are active constructors rather than passive recipients in new words production.The sources of English neologisms in this research are as follows:www.wordspy.com, twentieth Century Words,Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary-search online, Merriam-Webster Online,etc.And the meaning explanation consults the following dictionaries or website:Collins CoBUILD Learner's Dictionary,Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary-search online,Merriam-Webster Online,Online Etymology Dictionary,etc.This research can also be useful for dictionary compiling,and help English learners in their comprehension and master of English neologisms.