Research Into Semantic Network Of English Preposition "to" Based On Principled Polysemy Model

Since Brugman(1988) made an analysis of the semantic network of over, more and more cognitive linguists point out that systematicness exists among various meanings of English prepositions, namely, various meanings of a preposition relate to each other and then form a semantic network in which different meanings have different statuses and form a radial semantic network with the primary sense functioning as the center. With a lot of exploration into the construction of the semantic network of English prepositions, scholars at home and abroad do research into the semantic network of English prepositions from the aspect of conceptual metaphor model, image schema model and the principled polysemy model, however, the principled polysemy model is a relatively perfect model among all the models of semantic network construction. Therefore, under the guidance of principled polysemy model, this research aims to make an analysis of the primary sense and various senses of preposition "to" on the basis of the examples chosen from British National Corpus. Furthermore, the thesis also attempts to offer explanation for the extending process of different meanings of to and get the semantic network of to. Implications will also be concluded for the teaching of preposition usages.According to the criteria for determining the primary sense and distinct senses proposed by Tyler & Evans, this thesis makes a classification and analysis of the 10,000 sentences chosen from British National Corpus, and then the primary sense is determined. Conclusions are made as follows:firstly, the primary sense of to is "in the direction of something or towards something". Secondly, apart from the primary sense, preposition to also has fifteen other various senses, which are (1) until; as far as; reaching (number, time or place); add up to (2) before (of time or distance) (3) towards (a condition, state, quality, etc); to the state of (4) causing sth (5) in accordance with; satisfying sb or sth (6) introduce the indirect object of vi; for the attention or possession of (7) used like by after some passivers (8) against; touching; facing or in front of (9) as far as concerns (10) for; of; belonging to sb or sth (11) in connection with (12) (with words about addition or add) as well as; and (13) (indicating comparison or ratio) compared with (14) (located in a specified direction from sth) in the position of (15) (when comparing two amounts, when quitting a rate for each) per. Thirdly, the reasons why different meanings extend from the primary sense may include the shift of vantage point, experiential correlation and cross-domain metaphorical mapping. Then these meanings become instantiated in semantic memory via pragmatic strengthening. Considering these results, learners who study English prepositions should pay attention to the internal relationship between different senses of English prepositions. To be more specific, teachers should first introduce the primary sense of a preposition to students, then, the sense cluster which is nearest in meaning to the primary sense should be introduced. At the same time, teachers should also enhance students’ ability to understand metaphors of prepositions so that students’ comprehensive abilities such as cloze, reading comprehension and task-based reading can be improved.