A Study On The Construction And Construal Of Mechanism For English Denominal Verbs From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

In daily communication, people create English denominal verbs in order to express more vividly and concisely. Some scholars have studied English denominal verbs from grammatical, pragmatic and cognitive perspectives both at home and abroad. In the previous grammatical studies explore denominal verbs from both morphology and syntactic; pragmatic protruded the contextual function in denominal verbs; cognitive linguists mostly broaden the arrange reach from semantic category and construction of cognitive mechanism. In this paper, the author mainly applies Conceptual Blending Theory to explain the processes of the conversion for English denominal verbs.Clark & Clark classify English denominal verbs into nine categories. According to the differences between Input Spaces in Conceptual Blending Theory, the author reclassifies English denominal verbs. This paper mainly bases on Conceptual Blending Theory to construct a cognitive model of English denominal verbs from both speaker’s and hearer’s perspectives. In terms of the speaker, Input Space I is the domain of prototype category of nouns; Input Space II is the domain of prototype category of verbs; Generic Space locates the abstract characteristics of parent nouns; the emergent meanings of denominal verbs are produced in Blending Space. While in terms of the hearer, Input Space I is the domain of prototype category of verbs; Input Space II is the domain of prototype category of nouns; Generic Space collects the abstract characteristics of parent nouns; finally decompose the meaning of denominal verbs in Blending Space.This thesis also interprets the cognitive mechanism from three linguistic dimensions of words, sentences and culture. In word dimension, the construal of prominence is applied. According to cognitive grammar, noun usually describes static thing, which is the cognition of things is usually realized by summary scanning. Verb mostly describes dynamic action, which is the cognition of action is usually realized by sequential scanning. In the process of conversion, the attributes of noun bleach and the attributes of verb enhance. When parent nouns are converted into denominal verbs, the attributes of verb are profiled. But denominal verbs still keep some attributes of noun. In sentence dimension, the author uses Action Chain Theory to explain the differences between parent nouns and denominal verbs. Parent nouns usually function as subjects or objects in the sentence, which is the sender or receiver of energy. While denominal verb is used as predicate in the sentence, which plays the role on energy transmission. In cultural dimension, the author summarizes some cultural factors, which influence generation and comprehension of English denominal verbs.Above all, the author finds the meaning of English denominal verbs is mainly converted from the prototypical meaning of parent nouns. Meanwhile, people mainly apply Conceptual Blending Theory, Prominence and Action Chain Theory into explaining the processes of generation and understanding of English denominal verbs. This study fortifies the weak points of previous academic studies and provides a new cognitive perspective for the future study of word class conversion.