A Cognitive Study Of The English Progressive Aspect From The Perspective Of The Prototype Theory

The English progressive aspect is a hot issue for linguists to study,and a number of scholars have adopted different theories to make researches on the English progressive aspect from different perspectives,which include the interpretation of the semantic meanings,the pragmatic uses,and the cognitive exploration of the progressive aspect.But these researches are confined to descriptive study and lack of detailed interpretation of the inner relationship and the cognitive mechanism of all the uses of the progressive aspect.Therefore this thesis is devoted to studying the relationship of all the uses of the English progressive aspect and explaining the underlying cognitive mechanism.Based on the prototype theory,this study firstly uses the qualitative research method to classify all the uses of the English progressive aspect,and draws the hierarchical diagram,and then it explains the cognitive mechanism by adopting metaphor and metonymy.This study tries to explore the following two questions: 1)How does the English progressive aspect form a continuum from the prototypical to its non-prototypical uses? 2)What is the cognitive mechanism underlying the extension of the English progressive aspect from its prototypical use to its non-prototypical uses?The research uncovers that(1)The semantic essence of the English progressive is a dynamic process,and all these uses possess a dynamic process.And there are three aspects of the dynamic process: 1)action process,the prototypical use of the English progressive refers to an ongoing action that happens at the specific time point,and with the weakening of the process,the prototypical meaning also weakens,and the hierarchical diagram can be expressed as an ongoing action that happens at a specific time point> an intermittent action that happens during a period of time> a repetitive action that happens during a period of time>the gradual change of an action;2)emotion process,the English progressive aspect can also show people's emotion,and according to the weakening of the emotion process,the hierarchical diagram can be expressed as combining with the adverb of frequency to strengthen the emotion> using the comparative construction or temporal adverbial to expressthe gradual change of emotion> expressing the hope and euphemism/ temporary emotion/informality/ exciting emotion;3)the change of action state,besides expressing an ongoing action,the English progressive aspect can show the past and the future time,and there are three kinds of expressions to show the future of the progressive aspect,and the hierarchical diagram is be going to > be +doing> will/shall be doing.What's more,sometimes the relationship between action process and action state is overlapping and interchanging.(2)Metaphor and metonymy are the underlying cognitive mechanism of the semantic extension of the English progressive aspect,and there are three ways of extending the semantic meaning of the English progressive aspect: 1)from the space domain to the space domain,all the uses of the action process belong to the space domain,and these semantic extensions are achieved through metonymy,and it shows the projection within the space domain;2)from the space domain to the time domain,this semantic extension shows the change of action state,the English progressive can express the past and the future time,and it's achieved by using the metaphor time is the space;3)from the space domain to the psychology domain,and this semantic extension shows the change of the emotion process,and the semantic meaning of the English progressive aspect from an ongoing action to the emotion process is achieved by adopting the metaphor psychology is the space.The projection from the space domain to the time and psychology domain is achieved through metaphor.This study broadens the research of the prototype theory,metaphor and metonymy to some extent,and it analyzes the relationship of all the uses of the English progressive aspect,and explains the cognitive mechanism of the semantic extension of the progressive aspect,so it can provide some help for people to understand the English progressive aspect.