A Contrastive Study On Image Schemas Of English And Chinese Modal Auxiliaries

The study of modal auxiliaries both in English and Chinese has long been a hot topic for many scholars,and it remains one of the most pervasive areas of inquiry for philosophers,logicians and linguistics.In the field of linguistics,previous studies like traditional grammar,semantics and pragmatics have shed light on different facets of modal auxiliaries.However,they cannot satisfactorily account for the relationship among meanings of each modal auxiliary and that between modal acquisition and human cognition.Therefore,a continuing work on modal auxiliary exploration is needed.Modal auxiliaries are also investigated in the area of cognitive linguistics,in which modals are interpreted with both linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge.To analyze modal auxiliaries in the perspective of cognitive linguistics,theories such as prototype category,domains,image schemas,fuzzy set model and dynamic evolutionary model emerge and scholars such as Talmy,Taylor,Sweetser,Johnson and Langacker have done great work.Talmy(1988) firstly enumerates modality from the cognitive perspective.He suggests that the meaning of root modality is best understood in terms of force dynamics. Sweetser(1990) discusses modality within polysemy,and she claims that polysemy is often motivated by a metaphorical mapping from the concrete,external world of socio-physical experience to the abstract,internal world of reasoning and of mental process in general.By using Talmy's(1988) "force dynamics" as a basis for the meanings of modal verbs,Sweetser analyzes root modals as being taken to encode force-dynamic notions in the external world;and that notions are extended metaphorically into the internal,mental domain and give rise to epistemic meanings.Taking previous research into consideration,it becomes necessary and beneficial to make a contrastive study of English and Chinese modal auxiliaries in way of force schemas.The thesis aims to use force schemas to illustrate meanings ofmodals in English and Chinese based on their root and epistemic divisions and the metaphorical process in which the meaning change takes place;and to do a contrastive work among modals within English and Chinese themselves and between modals in English and those in Chinese. Due to large coverage and complexity of modals both in English and Chinese,modals which stand in the core position and without controversy are picked out as representative examples to illustrate,and they are CAN,MAY,MUST in English and NENG(能), KEYI(可以),YINGGAI(应该) in Chinese.Hence meanings of modals are illustrated by means of force schemas and the relationship between modal meanings and human cognition is explored.