A Study Of English N+N Compounds From Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

English N+N compounds(hereinafter referred to as N+N compounds),as one kind of compound nouns,are so widely used in people's daily communication,thus give rise to many researchers' attention.In previous researches,only a few researchers analyze N+N compounds from Conceptual Integration Theory(hereinafter referred to as CIT).CIT is “a general cognitive operation on a par with analogy,recursion,mental modeling,conceptual categorization,and framing”.Also,due to the fact that the meaning of a compound noun is not just the simple overlay of that of two individual words but complicated and difficult to be understood based on its superficial meaning.English compound noun is a source of frustration or headache for many English learners in China in terms of meaning understanding and vocabulary memorization,while widely used in their daily communication,thus it is of great importance for English learners to fully understand real hidden meanings of N+N compounds.So this thesis aims to(1)analyze and conclude the features of meaning construction of N+N compounds;(2)figure out how CIT explain the meaning of N+N compounds in theoretical context,and prove the feasibility and effectiveness of applying CIT to the meaning construction of N+N compounds in empirical context.The present research adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze N+N compounds.In the qualitative part: based on the analysis of previous researches,the features of meaning construction of N+N compounds can be analyzed and concluded and the detailed meaning of N+N compounds can be constructed from the perspective of CIT;while in the quantitative part: it involves two tests to obtain data so as to fully prove that CIT can be used to construct and analyze the meaning of N+N compounds.Finally the scores from two tests are analyzed through SAS and some conclusions are drawn:(1)There are four features of meaning construction of N+N compounds,namely simple integration,partial semantic deviation by means of metaphor or metonymy,holistic semantic deviation by means of metaphor or metonymy,holistic semantic deviation by means of metaphor and metonymy;(2)the meaning of them can be constructed through four conceptual networks accordingly within theoretical and empirical contexts,and it is feasible and effective to adopt CIT to the meaning construction of N+N compounds.The present research can provide a new perspective on the studies of N+N compounds;the features of meaning construction of N+N compounds can make for the meaning construction of N+N compounds from CIT;provide empirical evidence that CIT has explanatory power on English N+N compounds;can provide a strong evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of using CIT to college vocabulary learning;can help English learners to find a cognitive way to analyze the real meaning of N+N compounds and provide some tentative suggestions for teaching and learning compounds.For instance,for teachers,in reading,they should encourage students to expand their conceptual space and background knowledge,and explain how to adopt CIT to the meaning construction of N+N compounds in contextual situation and contextual culture;for students,they need to develop their interest in English and widen their imagination and stimulate their background graphic knowledge to learn and memorize N+N compounds impressively and profoundly.