A Conceptual Metaphor Account Of Word Composition

Metaphors are not only ornamental devices of expressing ideas by means of language,but a language phenomenon,a basic instrument of thinking,cognition and conceptualization. Linguistic metaphor is a representation of conceptual metaphor,and the sense transference in the process of metaphorization offers a grounding for word sense extension.In short,metaphor is the main motivation for the emergence of new meanings.Based on this view,the present study probed into the compositional potentiality of "LIGHT" in English and Chinese.The present study focuses on analyzing the cognitive motivation of "light" compounds,aiming at disclosing their experiential grounding and realizations.It is demonstrated that metaphorization is also a generative mechanism for composition.Through qualitative and quantitative analysis,the study has made the following major findings:1) The metaphorization of entity light reflects a basic way for mankind to recognize and perceive the outside world.People take the attributes of entity "light" as cognitive categories, which have influence on the formation of metaphorical meanings of the concept "LIGHT".2) The metaphorical scope of "light" consists of two major parts,namely mappings entity light onto another concrete domains(include animate domain and inanimate domain respectively) and mappings entity light onto abstract domains(state,emotion,social relationship,time and mental).3) It is cross-linguistically true that meaning is equal to conceptualization.4) Metaphorical mapping,in fact,does not always proceed from the concrete domain to the abstract domain;rather,it can sometimes be transferred between two concrete domains.5) Metaphorical mappings are also culture specific.The composition conveys some metaphorical meaning in one language is absent in another language(e.g."å…‰" in Chinese can compose with the verb).In short,though English and Chinese are usually believed to differ tremendously from each other,the two languages are found to have many concordances in the compositional potentiality of "LIGHT".Cognitively,the cognitive principles are universal,therefore,both English and Chinese do not differ by nature in the basic way by which they form words;however, different people have different concepts,it is because different people live in different geographical and cultural environments,which leads to the discrepancy of the detailed form of composition in different languages.Therefore,the investigation into the formation process of compositions with LIGHT from the perspective of cognition helps to shed insightful light on the nature and discrepancy of human language.