A Cognitive Study Of Coextension Paths In Fictive Motion Of English And Chinese

Fictive motion allows the conceptualizers to infer information about the static physicallayout of a scene, especially the configuration and position of the Path or Figure through thechanges of their own mental motion. Some researches have indicated that fictive motion is acommon phenomenon existing in many languages with shared similarities and differences.This thesis takes the fictive motion in English and Chinese as target of comparison and makesthe best of large databases, established examples by famous scholars and literature works tofind the features of linguistic representation of Chinese and English fictive motion, thuscontributing to describe and explain the similarities and differences between them from theperspective of Cognitive Linguistics and typology of lexicalization. By drawing on MotionEvent as theoretical framework, the thesis takes Figure, Ground, Path, and Manner ascomparative points or constants and compares the way English and Chinese fictive motionencode these conceptual elements. This thesis first provides an overview of the studies onfictive motion within the field of cognitive linguistics mainly on theoretical discussion,empirical research and cross-linguistic analysis from home and abroad, which sets the stagefor following comparative work, and then reviews the theoretical framework of motion event,in which its definition, conceptual structure and lexicalization patterns are involved, followedby analyzing the data collected and giving an explanation for those differences andsimilarities found in comparison of fictive motions in Chinese and Chinese in terms of Figure,Manner, Path and Ground. The main findings of this thesis are that there exist some obvioussimilarities and differences between English and Chinese fictive motion. The similarities lie inthe choice of Figure, the necessity of Path information and the suppression of Mannerinformation. First, the Figures classified into three types in both English and Chinese fictivemotion indicate the similar distributive patterns. Second, both English and Chinese fictivemotion are subject to Path condition, that is, Path information must be conveyed in fictivemotion; and Manner condition, that is, Manner information cannot be expressed in fictivemotion unless it demonstrates the properties of Path, hence the number of Manner verbs andManner adverbials is greatly limited in both English and Chinese fictive motion. However, thedifferences are demonstrated in the way in which Path and Manner information is conveyed infictive motion. Complex or consecutive Path expressed by a single motion verb with a seriesof particles or prepositions containing Ground information is quite normal in English fictivemotion, so path details and path segments are put more emphasis than those in Chinese fictivemotion. In this sense, Manner information is more salient and Manner verbs appear more frequently in English fictive motion. Finally, this thesis tries to employ the relevant theories ofcognitive linguistic and typology, taking the language level, embodiment level and thoughtlevel into account at the same time to elaborate the motivations behind similarities anddifferences between English and Chinese fictive motion, which promotes a deepunderstanding for Chinese and English fictive motion. A fact cannot be denied that theirdifferences and similarities are not only related to brain conception and perception, but also toeach language’s structures since human’s conception leads to similar conceptualization ofexperience. Therefore, this thesis tries to find the features and rules underlying fictive motionfrom English-Chinese comparative angle, which also sheds light on translation. However,more data is needed to reveal other element in motion event like motion verbs, etc, to give abetter explanation for this linguistic phenomenon.