A Study On Internal Semantics Of English Metaphtonymic N+N Compounds

Compounding as a basic and productive way of word formation was attachedgreat importance in the research of linguistics, especially with regard to its form andstructure. However, researchers nowadays focus more on the research of the internalsemantic meanings of N+N compounds for their high frequency of occurrence inword formation and great complexity in semantic meanings. In this paper, thesemantic meanings of compounds are explored from the perspective of cognitivelinguistics, with particular reference to conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymyand conceptual blending theory. Considering the reliability of the source data in theresearch, all compounds are carefully collected from the7thedition of OxfordAdvanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary and are classified into three majorgroups, which are metaphor-based N+N compounds, metonymy-based N+Ncompounds and metaphor-and metonymy-based N+N compounds, based on thedifferent ways conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy acting on the N+Ncompounds. The study of the metaphor-based N+N compounds and themetonymy-based N+N compounds shows that the semantic relationship of acompound is complicated and difficult to determine. Metaphor or metonymyinfluences its semantic pattern in a variety of ways according to the part of thecompounds activated by conceptual metaphor or metonymy, such as the profiledeterminant, the modifier, the modifier and the profile determinant, the wholecompound and the relationship between the two components. While the study of themetaphor-and metonymy-based N+N shows that the sequence of both cognitiveprocesses has the effects on the comprehension of N+N compounds. The sequenceof the metaphor and metonymy acting on the compound is of great relevance to itsmeaning. The research about the complexity of compounding not only helps masterthe real meaning of compounds but will shed light on the learning of other types ofcompounds or even the teaching of vocabulary.