A Cognitive Approach To Polysemy Network Of Preposition AT

Polysemy has remained the hot topic in linguistics. Traditional linguists regard mental lexicon as an arbitrary list of lexemes and context dependent; they insist that the analysis of polysemy should be carried out at the sentence level, mainly exploring the inter-relationships between spatial prepositions and other lexical items within a certain sentence only to ignore the internal relationship between the senses of the preposition itself.In contrast, cognitive linguists put forth new perspectives on the phenomenon of polysemy. Lakoff proposes full-specification approach and applies radial category to study prepositional polysemy. Cognitive linguists mainly concerns about the complex meanings of a single preposition, and they argue that every preposition has its own image schema that shapes core meaning. Under derivational mechanisms, such as metaphor, metonymy, etc., core meanings expand distinct but related meanings which surround the core meaning to form a polysemy network. Many cognitive linguists contribute their models of polysemy, among which Tyler and Evans (2001,2003) put forth principled polysemy network based on the previous researches. They coin a number of new terms, such as protoscene, primary sense, distinct senses, sense cluster, etc. In the model, primary meaning is defined as protoscene, and criteria for primary meaning and distinct senses are provided. The conceptual integration of linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge denotes the meaning construction process, in which such cognitive principles as reconceptualization, inferencing strategies, and pragmatic strengthening play important roles.In light of Tyler and Evans’ principled polysemy network, this thesis seeks to analyze the experiential basis and cognitive evidence of the formation and extension concerning the spatial preposition AT. Finally, the polysemy network is outlined:(1) the protoscene (primary sense) denotes that TR touches LM to a particular spot;(2) there exist15distinct senses identified, among which10are grouped into the location cluster, and5into the direction cluster;(3) the location cluster and direction cluster form the polysemy network around the protoscene.The thesis tests the interpretative power of principled polysemy network to preposition AT. Many researchers have carried out semantic analysis on AT, yet few researchers have done that applying Tyler and Evans’ model. The research provides further evidence for the feasibility and validity of principled polysemy model on prepositional polysemy network research. Furthermore, based on this research, the author puts forth the core-diameter teaching method with the hope to be of help to teachers and learners in preposition teaching and learning.