Cognitive Motivations Of Sense Extension Patterns Of English Polysemy

Polysemy is a common and widespread phenomenon in the dynamic language system. Some related researches have been conducted in the fields of linguistics, psychology, philosophy, etc. Based on the previous achievements of polysemy and senses extension, this thesis attempts to employ cognitive linguistic theories to investigate what the patterns of polysemous senses extension are and how cognitive motivations function in these patterns.There exist some problems in the traditional linguistics: 1) Homophones are classified into polysemies, resulting in a large number of words proliferation. 2) Separating polysemous words from lexicography and etymology and changing the focus of studies on polysemy from diachronic perspective to synchronic perspective. 3) The senses of polysemous words are considered at random. 4) The reasons of polysemous senses extension resort to external factors rather than the internal or the underlying factors. In 1980 s, the rise of cognitive linguistics broke the bonds of traditional linguistic theories on polysemy. Cognitive linguistics, based on embodied philosophy, have made a wide range of researches from the perspective of human experience and the perception of the world. However, most of the current researches focus on prototype theory in virtue of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy to analyze polysemy, revealing a unitary perspective with similar interpretations.Contrary to prototype-based categorization, this thesis is based on the image schemas theory combining conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy to establish different patterns of polysemous senses extension and investigate the cognitive motivations of these patterns with the method of description and analysis, attempting to expand the theoretical perspective. The findings of the research are as the following: 1) Polysemous words extension is not arbitrary but regular. Single sense gradually extends for multiple senses and they associate to form meaning chains, which can be divided into three patterns according to the internal mechanisms, namely concatenate pattern, radial pattern and integrated pattern, of which the last pattern accounts for a large proportion. 2) Image schemas, conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy respectively play different roles in these three patterns. Lakoff(1987) proposes “kinesthetic image schema”, the abbreviation is image schema, which constructs the mental model in the process of experiencing the world, so as to help us understand the abstract thought and the reality. And the basic structure of image schemas is source-path-goal schema. Conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy deviate from the traditional concepts, they structure the way we understand the abstract concepts and motivate the senses extension. 3)According to the order of thinking, image schemas interpret the fundamental models for the senses extension in terms of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. Conceptual metaphor puts emphasis on resemblance and the effect on senses extension is radial, while conceptual metonymy stresses on proximity or contiguity and the effect on senses extension is concatenate. However, on account of previous researches, most of the patterns of polysemous senses extension are integrated patterns, in that image schemas, conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy coordinate to function.Significance of this thesis mainly can be demonstrated as follows: first of all, the extended senses of polysemous words are associated logically. This relevance can be classified into three patterns, namely concatenate pattern, radial pattern and integrated pattern, which facilitate us to understand the structure of senses extension more clearly. Moreover, it is more comprehensive to analyze the patterns of polysemous senses extension from the mechanisms of image schemas, conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. Thus, this thesis promises implications for both theory and practice. Nevertheless it is inevitable that due to the subjectivity of cognitive linguistic theories and limitations of corpus selection as well as the author’s inadequate capacity, this thesis is far from perfection. More insightful achievements are still to be expected.