| As one of the cores of linguistics, semantic study has always been the focus of linguistics and all kinds of interdisciplines. Considering the unit of linguistic expression, semantics could be divided into two main branches, namely, lexical semantics and sentence semantics. As the study of lexical sense relation, lexical semantics focuses on the phenomenon of polysemy. From a diachronic view, there are five major stages, respectively historical-philological semantics, structuralist semantics, generativist semantics, neostructuralist semantics and cognitive semantics. Since cognitive semantics is founded on the basis of human psychology and cognitive science, which matches human cognitive features better, it is thus an approved trend now studying meaning via a cognitive threshold.The Chinese Dao was first seen on the bronzes of the Zhou Dynasty, used in the Book of Changes, and developed in Lao Zi. In the process of semantic development, the senses of Daohave been enriched gradually.Different from the counterparts like path, road or wayin English, Chinese noun Dao do not only has the original sense of ROAD, but also the specific philosophical sense and other cultural connotations in the Chinese context.In the threshold of cognitive linguistics, this thesis takes contemporary Chinese noun Dao as the research object, and tries to answer the following two questions:1) What are the meanings embodied in Chinese Dao in actual language use?2) What are the mechanisms working in the formation of Dao semantic network on the basis of the meanings above?Based on the corpus chosen from Xiandai Hanyu Cidian and Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU(CCL), the E-CM-C-M model consisting of metaphor and metonymy, embodiement thesis and cognitive model, and the methods of introspection and corpus study, this thesis would discuss the meanings and the mechanisms behind the meaning extensions of Dao.The study here shows that there are three meaning categories of Chinese noun Dao, namely, the SCHOOL, the MORALITY, and the ROAD. Among them the ROAD Dao takes the major proportion. For the SCHOOL Dao, there are the Tao school and academic/knowledge systemsub-categories, both of which are related to the religion. For the MORALITY Dao, there are relatively few usages, and all of them contain a commendatory prosody.For the ROAD Dao, we can part it into the path, the line and the waysub-categories. The direction, the access, and the water path are the further extension of the path, while skill, standard and discipline are of the way.Considering the cognitive mechanisms behind the semantic network, the thesis here believes that embodiment abstraction, metaphor and metonymy, and context are the three major factors. Cognitive linguists hold that language is embodied, and there would be no conceptual structure without experience, and thus could not generate semantic structure and then language. Whether it is in Lao Zi period or the day we live now, the meaning of Dao are all based on embodiments. As the important mechanism in forming conceptual structure, metaphor and metonymy play important roles in meaning extensions. Mapping the source domain of Dao to other target domain or to profile one element in the domain is another approach to form meanings. Language could not be used without context. Besides the linguistic context, the particular Chinesecultural context is the important influencing factor in meaning extension and the fixing of Dao. Quite a lot of words(like the xiudao example in the essay) would not be understood correctly withoutthe Chinese culture. Moreover, the use of Dao in translations also shows the influence of Chinese culture. |
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