A Study On The Cognitive Mechanism Of Australian Special Words Forming Processes Under The Conceptual Blending Theory

Australian English, as one of the most important English varieties, carries uniquefeatures in its lexicon meanings which are different from the features in standard English.Those changes are formed due to its unique environment, geographical location as well as thehistorical events. To be specific, the main characters of Australian English can be generalizedinto three aspects:1. Borrowings from the Aboriginal languages.2. Meaning changes due toits unique environment and certain historical backgrounds.3. Words reflecting Australianstereotyping, such as sense of humor, casual attitude and vulgarism.Carpentaria by Alexis Wright, an indigenous Australian writer, tells about the storieshappening on the Gulf of Carpentaria in northwest Queensland, and vividly depicts theconflict among Aborigines, white government and the mining company. It made a greatcontribution to the readers to understand the Aboriginal culture. In addition, the novel isabundant in the use of Australian words which offers a rich resource for the research of thisthesis.This thesis analyzes Australian special words forming processes from the perspective ofcognitive domain. All the chosen words from Carpentaria are divided into three groupsaccording to the main characters of Australian words. Additionally, based on the fourprototypes of the Conceptual Integration Networks, each group of Australian words arefurther classified into four divisions. Further analyzing processes are proceeded throughwords explanation and figures presentation. As last, words are illustrated from the real contextof Carpentaria, which do good to the understanding of Australian words and in returnadmiring Australian literature.The findings are that the cognitive mechanism of Australian special words formingprocesses can be explained from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory. And the fourprototypes of Conceptual Integration Networks are explanatory to the meaning constructionof the Aboriginal borrowings, words reflecting Australian unique environment and certainhistory as well as words reflecting Australian stereotyping.