A Study Of Cognitive Mechanism Of Metonymy In Chinese Appellation With “X De”

“X de” structure is very common and widely used in modern Chinese. And this kind of research has never stopped in the field of linguistics. And here we focus on the “X de” structure which always refers to person. But most of linguists focus on its grammar structure. For example Zhu Dexi, Yuan Yulin, Lu Jianming and Lv Shuxiang are interested in the ambiguity index of “X de” structure, whether it refers to persons or things, the rules of omitting the language center and so on. This thesis focuses on “X de” appellation from the perspective of metonymy. And we try to find the characteristics of “X de” appellation and describe different types of “X de” appellation, then reveals the internal mechanism of the “X de” appellation and explore the cause of “X de” appellation.The thesis analyzes the “ x de ” appellation from the perspective of cognitive metonymy. And we find that the spatial & substance, action/event/process and assembly & collection reflect the contiguity of “x de” appellation; the reference salience, theme salience and relationship salience reflect the salience of “x de” appellation; the interaction between contiguity and salience.This thesis focuses on analyzing the language phenomena, and with the combination of metonymy theory we find three rules. Firstly, “X de” appellation is(used to) refer to person. Secondly, it also contains two characteristics(contiguity and salience) in a metonymy process. Thirdly, contiguity is more prominent than salience or salience is more prominent than contiguity.