A Study On Variation Of English Nouns-based On Decategorization Theory

The study on categorization is a very important branch in cognitive linguistics.With categorization, a kind of cognitive means, people can classify various organisms,objects or actions into different categories, for example, the category of color includesred, yellow, green and so on. The outcome of categorization is cognitive categories. Inother words, categorization is helpful for people to establish categories. However,withthe development of human’s cognition, a categorial entity is changing all the time.Before recategorization, some categorial entities might be in an unstable andintermediate state. Such a phenomenon bears a great relationship withdecategorization. Unlike categorization, decategorization draws little attention fromlinguists or related researchers.This thesis points out that prototype effect is a prerequisite to decacategorization.If categories have clear boundaries and members in a category share equal status, theunstable and intermediate state of the members will not appear. Decategorization willbe impossible. Decategorization of English nouns is motivated by contradict betweenever-developing cognitive need and finite means of expression, pursuing the economyin form and the maximizaiton of information; language need new blood. Thedecategorization of English nouns is realized by metaphor, metonomy, reanalysis andanalogy.The decategorization of nouns can be divided into three types: adjectivalization,adverbalization and part of compound prepositions. The description of the maintendencies reveals that decategorization of English nouns is a matter of degree. Somenouns have became part of minor categorization. Some obtain categorial features ofadjective or adverb, the intermediate category. And some are incorporated into themajor category. In addition, even within the same tendency the degree ofdecategorization varies. The degree is related to the the degree is related to theoriginal categorial status before decategorization and the context in which the nounsoccurs during decategorization.This thesis is constituted by six chapters. In chapter one, the objectives of thisstudy and thesis layout are introduced. In chapter two, the researches aboutdecategorization abroad and at home are stated. Chapter three argues the definition of categorization and decategorization. After comparing the two theories, we finddecategorization is equally important as categorization. In the fourth chapter, we willintroduce the whole working process and working mechanisms of decategorization.We believe that the working mechanism of decategorization is based on the prototypetheory. Hence, the prototype theory will be explained elaborately in this chapter. Andwe also propose that decategorization is a dynamic process. Then, in chapter five, weexpound the features of English nouns in decategorization, which has been dividedinto three tendencies, adverbalization, adjectivalization and part of compoundprepositions. In order to figure out the working process of decategorization of Englishnouns, a few of examples have been analyzed in details. The last chapter is aconclusion of the thesis. Limitations of the study are also discussed.