A Cogntive Semantic Study Of Phrasal Verbs With On

A phrasal verb is constituted by a verb and a particle, behaving as an integratedverb concept. In recent years, more and more researches are done on phrasal verbs,especially the semantic studies. However, the semantic studies on phrasal verbs with acertain particle based on the corpus analysis are not common. Therefore, this thesisintends to do some cognitive semantic studies on phrasal verbs with on with prototypetheory, image schema and cognitive metaphor theory as tools, and the data of phrasalverbs with on as foundation to reveal the relation between the particle on and theverbs ahead, and also the influence on the phrasal verbs with on given by the particleon.After the general introduction of the cognitive semantics and phrasal verbs,reviewing the whole process of studies on phrasal verbs, the author introduces threecognitive theories which do offer an important foundation for the core analysis. Withthe image schema theory as guide, the primary spatial meaning of on is identified as“contact”. On the basis of this, further specifications of the particle on are offered.The spatial meaning of on can be further divided into three kinds:“adjacent to”,“tobe a member”,“moving towards”. These three spatial meanings of on can bedescribed with three different image schemas: Edge schema (TR is close or adjacentto the edge of LM), Part schema (TR is a part of LM) and Direction schema (TR ismoving towards LM in direction). The spatial concept of on can be extended to sixmetaphorical domains, which are target, state, time, scope, basis and manner.On the basis of cognitive semantic analysis of the particle on, the author analyzes195phrasal verbs with on compiled from three different dictionaries, and finds thatthe meanings of phrasal verbs with on can be grouped into four main clusters, whichare support cluster, contact cluster, conglutination cluster and advance cluster. Finally, the author proposes that meanings of on can bring a variety of effects to the meaningsof phrasal verbs with on. The particle on motivates the new combinatory meanings.By the contrast between a single verb and its corresponding phrasal verbs with on, theauthor finds obvious improvement tendency, continuing tendency and supporttendency given by the particle on to the phrasal verbs.