| Xiehouyu is a special form of the Chinese language created by ordinary Chinese people during their daily life and work. It is the product of the Chinese people's wisdom which reflects the life experience and emotion of the Chinese people and their ponderation on life and world. Most of Xiehouyu, humorous and vivid, are popular among and familiar to the ordinary people, and can be regarded as the representative of the Chinese language. As a material for people to communicate with, Xiehouyu, the same as Idiom, Proverb and Locution etc., is a living fossil of the Chinese language.A review of the previous studies of Xiehouyu indicates that scholars in China and abroad lay their emphasis generally on the following fifteen topics: the denomination, the nature, the constitution, the origin, the rhetorical features, the functions, the relationship of the first part and the second part, the constitution of the second part, the omission of the second part, the origin of Allegorical Statement—Explanation Xiehouyu, the classification, the structure, and the application of Xiehouyu in context, the translation and compilation, and the standardization. It is generally believed that the previous studies of Xiehouyu are mainly from the rhetoric perspective. However, these studies ignore the meaning study of Xiehouyu, which should be the core of any linguistic studies. With the appearance of cognitive linguistics in 1980s and its introduction into China, some scholars attempt to apply cognitive linguistic theories to the study of the meaning construction of Xiehouyu. CNKI have seven postgraduate theses studying the meaning construction of Xiehouyu from the cognitive linguistic perspective. These theses mainly employ Conceptual Blending Theory, Conceptual Blending Network and Cognitive Grammar etc. to explain the meaning construction of Xiehouyu. Generally speaking, these studies have two features: they tend to employ one or two cognitive theories to explain the meaning construction of all Xiehouyu, and they just select some typical examples to verify their proposal and have to rely on certain context to explain the meaning construction of Xiehouyu. Yet, these cognitive linguistic theories can only explain the meaning construction of Xiehouyu partly. Up to now, no scholar has attempted to make systematic studies of the meaning construction of Xiehouyu, and there have been no studies of the grounding of Xiehouyu and of the meaning construction of Xiehouyu as single items.In consideration of the deficiencies of the previous studies, this thesis attempts to make a systematic study of Xiehouyu from the cognitive linguistic perspective, and find out the grounding of Xiehouyu. Here are the questions this thesis addresses: (1) What is the grounding of Xiehouyu? (2) What motivates the meaning construction of Xiehouyu? How many cognitive mechanisms are needed in order to have a systematic explanation of the meaning construction of Xiehouyu? What is the relationship of these cognitive mechanisms? (3) What is the role of Xiehouyu in certain context? Is there any cognitive mechanism behind it? (4) In Xiehouyu, there is a special type, the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu. What motivates the meaning construction of the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu? How many cognitive mechanisms are involved in the meaning construction of the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu? (5) When the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu are applied in certain context, what are their respective roles? Is there any cognitive mechanism behind it? (6) Even though it is believed that Xiehouyu is of metaphority, no scholars have ever tried to explain how Xiehouyu has the sense of metaphority. Then what makes Xiehouyu have the sense of metaphority, and how does it work?From the largest documentary A Complete Collection of Chinese Xiehouyu, 6905 items of Xihouyu are selected following the method of systematic sampling, which are made into a closed corpus. Based on the classification and analysis of these Xiehouyu, conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) Xiehouyu are grounded in human bodily, physical and cultural experiences. Based on their bodily, physical and cultural experiences, Chinese people create this special form to convey their meaning, which enables them understand each other better. Meanwhile, bodily experience is more basic than physical experience, and physical experience more basic than cultural experience, and there appears a hierarchy of natural experiences human beings utilize to construct more abstract concepts/domains. These findings are in accordance with the principle of the embodied philosophy: the mind is inherently embodied. (2) Different Xiehouyu have different motivations, and no one cognitive mechanism can explain the meaning construction of them. Some Xiehouyu are motivated by metonymy, some by metaphor, some by conceptual blending, still some need both metonymy and metaphor as their basis. Metonymy, metaphor and conceptual blending are complementary to each other in the meaning construction of Xiehouyu. Human beings live not only by metaphor, but by metonymy and conceptual blending as well. (3) In human cognitive process, metonymy is more basic than metaphor, and metaphor is more basic than conceptual blending. From metonymy to metaphor to conceptual blending, human cognitive process becomes more and more complex. These findings testify another principle of the embodied philosophy: thought is largely unconscious. (4) Xiehouyu as single items are of little metaphority, because most of them are based on metonymy, some on conceptual blending, and a few on metaphor. Only when Xiehouyu are applied into context, will they have the metaphority that the traditional viewpoint upholds. When Xiehouyu are put into context, all of them are used as the source domains to understand the target domains contained in the context. (5) The natural meaning of the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu can be constructed with the help of metonymy, metaphor, and conceptual blending respectively, sometimes metonymy and metaphor together construct the natural meaning of the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu. Obeying two governing principls, the intended meaning of the pronunciation-based Xiehouyu is constructed based on A PART FOR ANOTHER PART IN THE SAME ICM. (6) When the same first part of two pieces of pronunciation-based Xiehouyu is utilized to construct different intended meaning, the specific context determines its choice of the piece of pronunciation-based Xiehouyu to construct the intended meaning. (7) The study of Xiehouyu confirms first two principles proposed by the embodied philosophy: thought is mostly unconscious, and the mind is inherently embodied. Meanwhile, the findings of the study of the thesis suggest that the third principle of the embodied philosophy,"abstract concepts are largely metaphorical", is not accurate enough, which should be that abstract concepts are not only metaphorical, but metonymic and of conceptual blending as well.All in all, the above findings make us know better about the grounding of Xiehoyu, the nature of their meaning construction, and the reason why Xiehouyu are regarded as be of metaphority, which have not attracted much attention from scholars. These findings also intensify our knowledge of Xiehouyu. Meanwhile, the study of Xiehouyu from the cognitive linguistic perspective deepens our understanding of these different cognitive mechanisms and the relationship among them, which contributes to the development of cognitive linguistic theories.Of course, due to the limitations of the author's knowledge and space constraint of the thesis, the study still has much room for improvement. However, it is a significant attempt to make a systematic study of Xiehouyu from the cognitive linguistic perspective. Taking this study as a turning point, we have found that many new issues are worth exploring in this field. The second part of some Xiehouyu can be omitted, what motivates it? How does it work? These questions need to be answered in the future studies.
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