A Comparative Study Of Spatial Semantics From The Perspective Of Reference Objects Categorization

Spatial concepts are among the most fundamental concepts in human cognition in that they form the basis upon which other more abstract,more complicated concepts can be constructed.Given this significance of spatial concepts,linguistic expressions related to them hence have drawn extensive attention from cognitive linguists.Previous studies have shed valuable light on the interactive relation between spatial cognition and spatial semantic construction.However,after a close review of the relevant literature,it has been found that one significant factor,the categorization of reference objects,tends to be overlooked in previous studies despite of its determinant role in building spatial scenes and correspondingly in constructing relevant spatial semantics.Thus,the present study taking the Supporting Surface category as an example,sets out to investigate how supporting surfaces are categorized in English and Chinese,and,how they are related to the semantic systems of on and shang.This study adopts a corpus-based approach for the collection of linguistic data.After data collection,spatial senses of on and shang are firstly analyzed to investigate the physical and functional features of supporting surfaces defined by these two semantic systems.And metaphorical meanings of on and shang derived from spatial senses are also further probed into in hopes of revealing the role of different types of supporting surfaces in constructing the semantic systems of on and shang.Major findings of this study can be summarized as follows:Firstly,the Supporting Surface category in English includes four subcategories,varying in their dimensionality,boundedness,verticality as well as functions,whereas five subcategories are found relevant to the semantic system of Chinese shang.After comparison,it has been found that English and Chinese are very similar in their ways of conceptualizing the Supporting Surface category.Secondly,it has also been found that spatial senses constructed by different types of supporting surfaces are accountable for most,if not all,the meanings of on and shang,which may therefore verify the importance of reference objects in spatial semantics.Thirdly,similarities between on and shang in designating spatial relations contribute to the large overlap in their meanings,including both spatial ones and non-spatial ones.Broadly speaking,spatial senses of both on and shang are metaphorically projected onto non-spatial,dynamic and abstract domains.On the other hand,divergences in spatial relation construction also lead to differences between these two semantic systems.Since shang is richer in types of supporting surfaces,it is hence also more diverse in its meanings.