A Comparative Study Of ICMs Applied In Instrumental Denominal Verbs In English And Chinese

Based on the theory of ICM put forward by Lakoff, this thesis explores the meaningconstruction of Instrumental Denominal Verb (IDV) both in English and Chinese. It aims tofind out the similarities and differentiations in ICMs applied by IDV in the two languagesthrough three sub-types of ICM (Image-schematic model, Metaphoric model, and Metonymicmodel).A hypothesis that IDV in English and Chinese both employ the sub-models presented byLakoff, and what’s more, a new model, namely metonymy-metaphor continuum model is alsoconcerned in the two languages is proposed. This study is a qualitative one of IDV based on aself-built corpus. The majority of data in the corpus are collected from Longman Dictionary ofContemporary English, Modern Chinese Dictionary, some novels, Baidu and Google Search.The research is committed to find answers to the following questions:1) What are themain ICMs of IDV?2) How does the meaning of IDV construct based on ICMs?3) What arethe preferred ICMs respectively in English and Chinese?4) What are the similarities anddifferentiations in ICMs of IDV in English and Chinese? Why?The major findings of the study include the following points:1) The meaning construction of IDVs in English and Chinese both involve theimage-schema model, metonymic model, metaphoric model and the continuum of metonymyand metaphor.2) For IDVs, the metonymic model is more basic compared with the metaphoric one. The former provides mental and logic foundations for the latter and then the two models producethe continuum of metonymic and metaphoric meanings.3) IDVs in English are inclined to apply the metonymic and continuum models toconstruct its meaning, while IDVs in Chinese have a tendency to adopt the metaphoric modeland metaphoric extension in meaning.4) English IDVs mainly employ the metonymic models of FUNCTION FOR ACTIONand PART FOR WHOLE+FUNCTION FOR ACTION. The metaphoric models used inEnglish IDVs are based on the similarities in shape, as well as those in the result and statecaused by the instrument. Besides, the continuums of English IDVs range from simple ones tosophisticated ones. While IDVs in Chinese apply the metonymic model of FUNCTION FORACTION and the metaphoric models in which the similarities grounded on the similarities inshape, result, state, and process. Moreover, the continuums in Chinese are relatively simplerand less than those in English. All these findings may due to the same laws governinghumans’ cognition and the different cultural and linguistic conventions between English andChinese.Findings of the present study have both theoretical and practical implications.Theoretically, the research strengthens the explanatory power of ICM. It also sheds light onthe relative study of conversion of instrumental nouns into other word classes. Practically, itmay promote the development of language teaching and acquisition, and machine translationas well.