A Study On The Semantic Structure And Cognitive Mechanism Of The Nicknames In Outlaws Of The Marsh

Nicknames are special names which are given according to the feature of certain person or object in addition to his or its own name.As a cultural phenomenon,nicknames appear not only in life,but also in literary works.In Outlaws of the Marsh,almost every figure owns a nickname,which is of great research value.Previous study of the nickname itself as well as the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh mainly concentrate on the literature appreciation such as the cultural connotation and artistic features of the nickname.However,few researches have been conducted from the perspective of linguistics,which focus mainly on the conceptual metaphor study of the nickname and the rhetorical analysis of the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh.Nicknames belong to thick words in semantic structure,which means that they contain both descriptive meaning and evaluative meaning.Based on this,this study aims to explore the semantic structure and cognitive mechanism of the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh.For their semantic structure,this thesis employs Qualia Structure Theory and Appraisal Theory to discuss respectively the descriptive meaning type and evaluative meaning type of the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh,and then analyzes the presentation mode and rule between them.For their cognitive mechanism,the thesis uses Conceptual Blending Theory to make analysis of the meaning construction of the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh.From the research,several conclusions are reached: first,from the perspective of semantic structure,1)In the qualia relations of the nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh,there is no agentive qualia relation while telic qualia relation accounts for the largest proportion.In the evaluative meaning of these nicknames,there is no affect resource while the judgement resource accounts for the most.2)In the combinational patterns of the descriptive meaning and the evaluative meaning,the pattern of [telic+capacity] and[formal+reaction] accounts for the first and second largest proportion.Second,from the perspective of meaning construction,1)The nicknames in Outlaws of the Marsh are constructed almost via single-scope networks,followed successively by simplex networks,mirror networks and double-scope networks.2)The nicknames in the same category have similar semantic structure and also the similar inputs in the process of meaning construction,thus they are constructed via same conceptual blending networks.This research has significance in three aspects.First,this research provides a new thinking for the composition and future research of nicknames.Second,the research proves the explanatory power of Qualia Structure Theory and Appraisal Theory on the semantic structure and also the explanatory power of Conceptual Blending Theory in lexical level.Finally,the research provides a new reference for the linguistic analysis on literary works,that is,the combination of linguistic theory and cultural background brings an unique comprehension to literature.