A Study Of English Neologisms Under Conceptual Integration Theory

Language is the product of the times and social development, evolving continually with theever-changing times. In the present information age, many aspects in social life such as politics,economics, technology and cultures influence the changes and development of language directlyor indirectly. More and more neologisms thus come into being, indicating the social changes aswell as people’s desires for expressions and communication.As for the definition of neologisms, there are many different versions. However, what isgenerally concluded is the two types: words newly created, and old words with new meaning.Study of English neologisms abroad is as early as1930s, and much earlier than that at home. Theinitial study is almost consistent with compilation of English dictionaries. Many of other latterpublications focus more on the usage, origin, content analysis and morphological study includingword-formation, semantics and lexicology. In contrast to this study, the cognitive research ofEnglish neologisms is relatively less. The domestic study on English neologisms generallyconcentrated on the field of lexicology and dictionaries, with many works. For instance,neologism dictionaries compiled by Wang Rongpei, Lu Guoqiang, experts on lexicology are richin the characteristics of the times. Besides, the study on neologisms contains the aspects ofword-formation, pragmatic analysis, origin discussion, translation interpretation and etc. In2003,it was Wang Rongpei who firstly realized that metaphor involved in cognitive linguistics couldgreatly contribute to the further comprehension of semantic meaning. The Doorbells of the Mind:A Cognitive Approach to English Neologisms written by Yang Bin (2007) is important work inrecent years, making a systematical analysis of English neologisms. Its publication furtheradvances the study on English neologisms. To sum up, cognitive study of English neologisms isa new perspective and a new trend no matter abroad or in China. Therefore, this paper attemptsto interpret English neologisms from the perspective of Conceptual Integration Theory, exploringthe meaning construction of English neologisms so as to enrich the linguistic study of Englishneologisms.The thesis is to study English neologisms collected from “language tip” of China Daily(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn) with integrity of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thequantitative analysis is resorted for the statistics and classification of the194English neologismscollected. The qualitative analysis is adopted for the structure and the cognitive mechanisms ofEnglish neologisms. On the theoretical basis of Conceptual Integration Theory, the meaningconstruction of English neologisms is interpreted with case study. Conceptual Integration has a long history of almost twenty years. The theory originated fromConceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by Lakoff&Johnson (1980). Conceptual IntegrationTheory was initiated by a group of American linguists, with Fauconnier (1997) as therepresentative. In this theory “conceptual integration” refers to the blends of mental spaces.Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk, for purposes oflocal understanding and action (Fauconnier&Turner,1996:113). Conceptual Integration Theoryis a theoretical frame to study the meaning construction and information integration, and intendsto present the hidden cognitive iceberg of on-line meaning construction of languages.The conceptual integration network is the centre of Conceptual Integration Theory, and it isdynamic projection model among multi spaces. According to four-space theory proposed byFauconnier and Turner, a complete conceptual integration network includes four mental spaces:two input spaces,(input space1and input space2), a generic space, and a blended space. Thegeneric space includes shared, common and abstract organizations and structures, deriving fromthe two input spaces. Generic space maps onto the two input spaces and decides the centralcross-space mapping. Conceptual integration projects selectively the information from differentinput spaces onto the blended space. Through composition, completion and elaboration, itgenerates an emergent structure, a new structure not being contained in input spaces. There arefour basic conceptual integration networks: simplex networks, mirror networks, single-scopenetworks and double-scope networks. Conceptual integration exists in all cognitive activities ofhuman beings. And the formation of any concept is inseparable with human beings’ mentalspaces, which will process and integrate the information from input spaces instead of simplyadding semantic meanings. As one of the principal theory in cognitive linguistics, ConceptualIntegration Theory has a strong explanatory power, and it can be applied to interpret variouslanguage phenomena such as figures of speech, grammar, humor, euphemism, discoursecoherence and so on. Neologisms result from people’s cognitive development, and closelyattached to language users’ experience and encyclopedic knowledge. Therefore, Englishneologisms are no exception, the theory can be adopted as well and will be used to analyze andinterpret their meaning construction.From the dimension of morphology and lexicology, English neologisms collected in thispaper are classified into two categories: new words from word formation, and new words withlexical changes. Neologisms from word formation account for79.3%of the total number ofwords, with compounding, affixation and analogy involved. In contrast to that, the number ofneologisms with lexical changes is very small, and mainly includes the following processes:blending, acronymy, semantic changes and borrowing. With reference to the above classification,four types of conceptual integration networks are adopted in this paper to illustrate and interpret typical English neologisms so as to present their meaning construction.Bloomfield (2002) first proposed the concepts of “exocentric compounds” and “endocentriccompounds”, which can be subcategorized into subordinate compounds and coordinatecompounds. The meaning construction of English neologisms involves all of the four types ofconceptual integration networks. Mirror networks are adopted to interpret the meaningconstruction of coordinate compounds. This type of neologism has are two heads. They constructtwo input spaces, which share the organizing frames with no clashes for the two heads in thistype owns the same syntactic and semantic function. Meaning construction of subordinatecompounds however involves three types of conceptual integration networks: simplex,single-scope and double-scope networks. Different from English endocentric compounds,English exocentric compounds are headless structures. Input spaces constructed by constitutes incompounds are different, so do the organizing frames involved in input spaces. But one frame isprojected into blended spaces. This type of neologisms mainly involves single-scope network,but the process of meaning construction is fairly complex as a consequence of metaphor andmetonymy contained in neologisms. Metaphor is vital to the construction of frame space whilemetonymy plays its due role in focus space.As for meaning construction of English neologisms formed by affixation, the most typicalconceptual integration network is simplex network. This type of English neologisms usuallyconsists of roots and affixes, in which affixes can be treated as a frame and roots are values to fillin the affixes. There are no clashes between the two spaces, and in the blended space the frame inaffix space is integrated with the elements in root space through compatibility.As for meaning construction of English neologisms formed by analogy, the most typicalconceptual integration network is single-scope network. Words from analogy draw materialssuch as semantic features or phonetic forms from source words and, via disassembling, replacingand recombining morphemes within words, produce neologisms (Yang Bin,2008,156). In theprocess of meaning construction of English neologisms formed by analogy, the substitute and thesource word construct two input spaces respectively. The substitute is the focus input, beingessential to interpretation of neologisms. Source words however serve as frame inputs, providinginsights for focus input, because both semantic meaning and syntactic structures of the sourcewords are projected into the blend through analogy. In terms of this type of neologism, both ofthe frames in two input spaces are distinct from each other, but only the frame in source wordspace is projected into the blended space, providing it with organizing frame and extendedfurther there. A single-scope network thus can be applied to analyze English neologisms formedby analogy.In addition, Conceptual Integration Theory can equally be applied in the meaning construction of English neologisms formed by lexical changes, those from blending, acronymyand semantic changes. On the basis of Zhou Qiaing’s classification (2007), blending neologismsare categorized into role-value, coordinate, and metamorphic blending neologisms. Single-scopenetworks can construct the meaning of role-value blending neologisms, and mirror networkscoordinate blending neologisms. Meaning construction of metamorphic blending neologismstends to be the result of different conceptual integration networks.Previous research on English neologisms focuses more on their external features such asetymology meaning, usage, classification, while few of study concerns their internal cognitivemechanisms. This paper applies the Conceptual Integration Theory to illustrate Englishneologisms, and reveals vividly their dynamic process, presenting the abstract cognitive processconcrete so as to better comprehend English neologisms. What’s more, the study of Englishneologisms can contribute positive attention to neologism phenomena, being active in languagesystem so as to enrich the research on language to some extent, and promote people’s betterunderstanding of English neologisms so as to effectively carry out communication. In addition,the analysis of different language phenomenon in English neologisms can also provide somereference for language teaching.The thesis, however, is only a tentative study of the meaning construction of Englishneologisms. Accordingly there still remain some limitations, and further study is needed as well.Firstly, though all the English neologisms are selected from reliable and authoritative publication,China Daily. The data are not satisfying to represent all English neologisms all in all. Secondly,the classification in this thesis can, in some degree, reflect the general distribution of differentEnglish neologisms, however, it is only limited in the data colleted in this thesis. Besides, sincequalitative method is employed in the case study of English neologisms, the result of analysis isinevitably subjective. Thirdly, due to the limited time and space, some types of Englishneologisms such as neologisms from semantic changes is only analyzed generally instead of indetails with subdivision, which is still worthwhile further exploration.