A Cognitive Study Of Lexical Semantic Change

According to the definition of The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993), lexical semantic change refers to the variation of lexical status or characteristics reflected from words meaning level. Lexical semantic change is a common and significant language phenomenon which has long been concerned by linguists of different schools. In the past, lexical semantic change was studied from traditional linguistic angle with more concentration on internal factors while neglecting the external factors of language, such as cognitive devices, life experiences and cultural elements etc. Therefore, the essence of lexical semantic change phenomenon was not grasped.The development of cognitive science offers powerful and systemic tools for lexical semantic change research. This thesis, with John Locke’s epistemology as philosophical foundation, cognitive psychology and Gestalt psychology as psychological foundation investigates lexical semantic change phenomenon. It is the view of cognitive linguistics that metaphor and metonymy are essential methods of lexical semantic change. People always use a known cognitive domain to cognize and understand an unknown one in order to express new concept, which is the formation of metaphor. In addition, people make use of conceptual mapping within a domain to understand an unknown concept with the help of a known one, which is the formation of metonymy.The purpose, significance and organization are illustrated firstly in this thesis as well as the philosophical and psychological foundation. After that, corpus analysis and comparative study are used to discuss the implementation methods and process of lexical semantic change from metaphorical and metonymical views. The result shows that metaphor and metonymy play a crucial role in lexical semantic change and they are the critical ways of language change, especially lexical semantic change. It also shows that lexical semantic change with metaphor and metonymy as devices is not random but bears certain relevance. The innovation points of this thesis are shown in two ways. Firstly, lexical semantic change is analyzed dynamically and contextually from the cognitive angle. Secondly, human thought is combined to explore lexical semantics metaphorically and metonymically. Finally, application of this study to English lexical teaching is studied and relevant suggestions are given with the purpose of improving college lexical teaching level and cultivating students’cognitive ability. Therefore, the research contents have both theoretical and applied value on foreign lexical study.