A Study Of Chinese Cyber Neologisms—From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

With the continuous deep influence of Internet towards the development of our society and people’s life, Chinese cyber neologisms are the description and conclusion of new events, new ideas, new issues and new experience formulated in people’s life. The vivid and impressive Chinese cyber neologisms are in the spotlight. While the previous studies of Chinese cyber neologisms are carried out mostly from the perspectives of word formation, semantic, etc., seldom from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. So this thesis attempts to explain the cognitive process of Chinese cyber neologisms from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.Conceptual Integration Theory proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, etc. in1990s, is a cognitive linguistic theory based on human beings’way of thinking and their cognitive model. The production, reconstruction, development of Chinese cyber neologisms are involved in human beings’cognitive activities towards the various matters. In term of this cognitive phenomenon, taking Chinese cyber neologisms as corpus, this thesis will interpret the cognitive process of the production, reconstruction, development of Chinese cyber neologisms with conceptual integration theory.In accordance with the previous studies, the author classifies Chinese cyber neologisms into two types:compositional type and non-compositional type, and further classifies the two types into several models respectively:quasi-affixes model, compounded model and abbreviated model are compositional type; single-word meaning-shift model and non-single-word meaning-shift model are non-compositional type. According to the above classification of Chinese cyber neologisms, this thesis analyzes the cognitive process of Chinese cyber neologisms using conceptual integration networks. According to the analysis, the author concludes that single-scope network and double-scope network of conceptual integration networks have the explanatory power for Chinese cyber neologisms.The application of conceptual integration theory in the field of Chinese cyber neologisms helps not only enrich Chinese vocabulary by offering a new perspective for the study of Chinese cyber neologisms, but facilitate the further study of conceptual integration theory.