A Cognitive Approach To Prepositions Under

Prepositions in English as an old word-class have been explored in linguistics for a long time. Some traditional researches in this field have been carried out by many linguists. It has been shown that the traditional approaches do not reveal the true nature of the semantic structure of prepositions.With the emergency of cognitive linguistics in the 1980s, the polysemy of words has attracted close attention, especially the polysemy of prepositions. Some scholars have made great achievements in the study of prepositional semantics.From a cognitive perspective, categorization plays a fundamental role in cognitive activities. In the process, people conceptualize the world built on prototypes, which describe a basic category in terms of family resemblance rather than by means of a series of attributes. The prototype theory is the core theory in this thesis.This thesis deals with the semantics of English prepositions within the framework of cognitive linguistics and takes the preposition under as an example. This thesis argues that the fertile senses associated with under are related to one another in a systematic and motivated way. The author summarizes three kinds of relations: the UP-DOWN relation, the COVERING or IN-OUT relation and the PATH relation, and illustrates the fourteen distinct senses of under in details. A number of metaphorical senses of under are the result of the extension of these three basic spatial relations.Based on the assumption that the meanings of language are rooted in the human ability of conceptualization, this thesis argues that the preposition under extends its meaning under the guidance of three cognitive principles: image schema modifications, metaphorical and metonymical extension. Image schemas are an important form of conceptual structure in the cognitive semantics literature. Spatial meanings are produced from the basic image schema, and the different spatial trajector-landmark relationship. Moreover, this thesis has proved that image schemas are the source of the sense extension, and provide the root for the metaphorical and metonymic extension. Metaphors are an integral part of human categorization: a basic way of organizing our thoughts about the world. This thesis argues that metaphor is an important cognitive mechanism in the semantic extension. Therefore, non-spatial or metaphorical meanings are developed through the metaphorical mapping from spatial domains to abstract domains. Besides, this thesis also holds that the phenomenon of metonymy can not be neglected in the semantic extension. The research into under in this thesis discloses the regularity of the extended meaning from the spatial to the non-spatial.Then the thesis moves to the semantic network of the preposition under. The author sets up the polysemy model of under to discuss the nature and features of prepositional polysemy and to explore the possibility of the construction of the prepositional polysemy network. These meanings form an interrelated complex structure by radiation, transfer and mapping. The prototypical sense is in the central position around which are other extended meanings. The construction of the semantic network shows that the meaning extension comes into being based on metaphor and image schema modifications. Moreover, the semantic network shows that metonymy is another important means by which the meanings extend.This thesis points out that the insights into the semantics of prepositions shed light on the teaching of English prepositions. The semantic study of prepositions is useful for language teachers or learners to reinterpret the prepositional meanings in a more comprehensive way.Generally speaking, this study shows that the prototype theory, compared with other theories, is a more scientific, effective approach to the illustration of semantics of prepositions.