A Cognitive Study On The Meaning Construction Of Metonymic Chinese Numeral Idioms

Contemporary studies on Chinese idioms focus on the meaning construction in cognitive process from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The present study further explores the meaning construction of Chinese idioms from the angle of cognitive linguistics to probe into the cognitive process of metonymic Chinese numeral idioms, including three research questions as how the conventional metonymic meaning of metonymic Chinese numeral idioms is constructed, how the dynamic meaning construction of the collected data is constructed, and the functions and features of numbers in idiom meaning construction.The present study analyzes the meaning construction of 335 pieces of metonymic Chinese numeral idioms collected from Han Yu Cheng Yu Da Ci Dian by conceptual metonymy theory and conceptual blending theory.First of all, in data analyses, it is found that the cognitive process of conventional meaning construction of the collected data includes cognitive metonymic and metaphoric mechanisms, which are represented as three metonymic models:basic metonymic mechanism model, the model of multiple metonymic mechanisms and the model of metonymic and metaphoric mechanisms. Analyzed by conceptual metonymy theory, it is shown that there are two main metonymic patterns in the collected data, of which 74.9% are in part and whole relation and 25.1% are in part and part relation, which serves as an evidence for the Collectivism motivation on Chinese idiom creations. Metonymic references within the Reduction ICM and the Category-Property ICM take up a large part. Moreover, it is proved that the explanatory limitation of conceptual metonymy theory on metonymic idiom analysis is related to multiple types of mechanisms and the context in an idiom meaning construction, the non-compositionality of idioms, and the fixed numeral constructions.Second, in dynamic meaning construction analyses, it is proved the effectiveness of conceptual blending theory in the exploration of Chinese idiom meaning construction in real context and the its complementation to conceptual metonymy theory. Constructions of the collected data are represented as four basic blending networks:incoordinate metonymic idioms, coordinate metonymic idioms, incoordinate idioms based on metonymy and coordinate idioms based on metonymy. It is shown that by blending and haplology, idioms based on metonymic mechanism vary their network patterns with the context and types of cognitive mechanisms, including simplex network, mirror network, single-scope network, and double-scope network. Relations in compression are in accordance with types of cognitive mechanisms.At last, through the analyses, it is shown that numerals in idioms are in notional and empty reference, partly participate in metonymic operation, including numeral compact expressions in the form of "number followed with characters of the property", numerals as signs, pronominalized numbers and the numbers modifying metonymic units according to the conventional meaning construction. Double-numeral structures in idioms work on the overall idiomatic meaning construction but not on metonymic constituents. Moreover, there are metonymic associations between numerals and Chinese culture, especially the Chinese numeral culture. And the blending networks on the basis of metonymic mechanism should concern about the comprehension process of figurative meaning in idioms.The research is the detailed study on cognitive process of idioms with properties of numbers and metonymy, which provides an new angle on the study of numbers in idiom formation, cultural connotation of numbers in idioms, metonymic thinking in numbers, and numeral constructions as well.