The Categorization Study On Restaurant Names In Nanchang

Nomination is not only a language phenomenon,but also a cultural phenomenon.As a social language,restaurant name plays an important role in promoting economic development and strengthening cultural heritage.The study of the name of the restaurant has a long history and has not been cut off,but its research mostly stays on the observatory and descriptive stage.The surge of cognitive linguistics provides a methodology for exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying relevant linguistic phenomena and promotes this research to an explanatory stage.Restaurant naming is in fact a re-categorization of the dishes in the restaurant.It hammers at building a close connection among the restaurateur,the restaurant and the customers.This thesis is the cognitive study of restaurant names in Nanchang based on categorization theory.Although the restaurant names are colorful and countless,their internal compositions are roughly similar: Proper Name + Trade Name + Generic Name.Each part has a different function.The Generic name and Trade Name are used to show the restaurant's overall style and business attributes,and they are relatively stable.In this part,we apply levels of category and prototype theory to the categorization analysis of Generic Name and Trade Name.Proper Name functions in making restaurant names distinguishable from others,so it possesses the diverse and changeable attributes.Whereby,the categorization research of Proper Name is the most complicated: first of all,we construct a restaurant category on the basis of event category theory.And then through conceptual metonymy and metaphor theory we aim at revealing the cognitive mechanism of the naming of Proper Names.Conceptual metonymy is used to explain the Proper Names within the category domain,whereas conceptual metaphors are used to explain Proper Names outside the category domain.And with the help of structural metaphor and ontological metaphor,we make a study about the boundary and domain of restaurant category.The comprehensive application of these categorization theories draws out a more elaborated,multi-faceted and potent explanation for the categorization analysis of restaurant names in Nanchang.At the end of this paper,the characteristics of the restaurant names in Nanchang are discussed from the social and cultural aspects.