A Comparative Analysis Of Image Schema On The Preposition ON And OVER In News Discourse

Image Schema is a dynamic configuration in vision, and kinesthetic experience and recurring model. It provides continuity and structure to our experience (Johnson,1987). In recent years, as one of the experience pillars of cognitive linguistics, image schema theory has attracted many scholars’ attention. With the remarkable development of the depth and breadth of the image theory in cross-disciplinary research, the image schema provides a theoretical support for understanding the polysemous words and exploring the nuanced distinction among synonyms.In the previous studies of image schema, the basic thinking of those researches focused on prepositional study, mostly basing on the characteristics of the image of a single preposition, giving consideration to synonyms of the preposition in groups, and emphasizing the projection of the prepositional sense and extended meaning, metaphor, comparative study and so on. This thesis combines image schema theory with cognitive prototype theory to further study multi-sense phenomenon and multi-chains of image schema between preposition "on" and "over" in news discourse. Classification and comparison of clauses with prepositions "on" and "over" extracted from the corpus. The author uses these parameters of Trajector, Landmark, and Path to construct the image schema of preposition themselves. The image schema chain in preposition study and explain the polysemous phenomenon and usage frequency of "on" and "over" in news discourse.By means of the quantitative research method,This thesis indicates that prototype schema is the core schema of preposition "on" and "over", which shows a family resemblance with different senses; the abstract mapping of the image schema of the preposition "on" and "over" is different in frequency when they are used in news discourse.According to The Oxford Dictionary Of English and some researchers’ research data, the image schema of preposition "on" is three, and the image schema of preposition"over" is three. In the analysis of news discourse, the basic semantic image schema and metaphorical extension image schema are eight, of which non-metaphorical image schema for overall image schema is in a larger proportion. The image schema chain of preposition "on" is relatively static around a circle, the type of motion chains is relatively dynamic in discrete space. The analysis of the schema structure of "on" and "over" with SPSS indicates that there is a normal distribution in each schema, and P value range is smaller than 0.05 (p<0.05).The present research has both theoretical and practical meanings. In theory, this thesis focuses on image schema chain comparison of "on" and "over" in news discourse. With in-depth analysis of the nature of prepositions, the study broadens the research field of preposition in the theory of image schema, and makes a systematic comparative study of prepositions. At the same time, it helps to find the characteristics of selecting prepositions in news discourse. In practice, through the detailed analysis of the semantic chain in news clauses, the research sums up the cognitive foundation in news discourse. Moreover, together with the experience of image schema theory, the research achievements have practical significance to the principle of news creation.