A Cognitive Semantic Study On The English Preposition To

This thesis is intended to study the varying senses of prepositions in English from the angle of cognitive semantics. In line with the generally accepted assumption that prepositions are polysemous, this study is based on the notion of conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson. The preposition to is chosen as the subject of this study. A more comprehensive model of explaining word meaning, principled polysemy, is adopted for this study. Some of the different senses which the preposition, to, presents have been explained.The data of this study are all from the well-known American sitcom'Friends'. Principled polysemy offers a systematic and comprehensive, yet restricted scheme of categorizing the different senses of to which manifest in the data of this study. This study gives a detailed explanation of the proto-scene of to, the central sense as well as other distinct senses of to. Examples are drawn to illustrate the different senses of to respectively.This study is also concerned with how people understand and interpret the different senses of to. The elements associated with the preposition to in a sentential context, especially noun phrase and verb or verb phrase, are found to play a crucial role in the interpretation of the various senses of to. In addition, people's life experiences as well as the way they perceive the world, that is, their encyclopedic, experiential and inferential knowledge, all contribute to the interpretation of meaning.