A Cognitive Study Of The Interpretation Of Antonym In Modern Chinese Dictionary

Same-word-with-opposite-senses refers to the phenomenon that two or more senses of a polysemic word are opposite or contrasting.In ancient China’s Jin Dynasty,a literature called Guo Pu carried on some analysis on this phenomenon in terms of lexicology,considering it as the basis of Fanxun.Same-word-with-opposite-senses,as a special phenomenon,widely exists in various languages of the world.For example,in English,the word “marry” has two contrasting senses: “to become the husband of ”and “to become the wife of”;in French,the word “hote” has the sense “host” and a opposite sense “guest” at the same time.Same-word-with-opposite-senses also abounds in modern Chinese,for instance,“loan” can mean both “borrow” and “lend”.Most former studies were conducted from the following perspectives: the phylosopical viewpoint of the unity of opposites;counter-derivation of etymology;the vagueness of language;context;pragmatic change;contradictory rhetoric.Former researchers thereby approached the same-word-with-opposite-senses phenomenon,but given that the linguistic competence is part of human beings’ general cognitive ability,the generative mechanism of same-word-with-opposite-senses has to be analyzed from the perspective of cognitive thinking’s laws and phycological perception.Based on this,this paper adopts multiple academic methods,such as:“qualitative-quantitative-qualitative” research;create a small corpus and statistical analysis;contrastive analysis;comparative analysis;description and explanation;document consulting.This paper chooses the proper name for this phenomenon,defines its conception,and determines the research scope.It makes an exhaustive search of the Modern Chinese Dictionary(7th Edition)for its same-word-with-opposite-senses phenomenon to get the total quantity of research,creates a small corpus and carries out qualitative research on it,and makes clear its cognitive mechanism with the description and explanation methods.This paper classifies and studies the definitions in Modern Chinese Dictionary(7th Edition),examining their scientificity and practical significance.It also investigates the linguistic evolution and pragmatic influence of same-word-with-opposite-senses,and makes a comparative research on same-word-with-opposite-senses’ s definition in different versions of Modern Chinese Dictionary,in order to find out the the pros and cons of Modern Chinese Dictionary(7th Edition)’s definition.Finally,this paper summarizes the reasonability and scientificity of the definition of same-word-with-opposite-senses in the Modern Chinese Dictionary from the cognitive perspective,provides some suggestions and points out this paper’s drawbacks.This paper is divided into five chapters:The first chapter is the introduction,including 4 parts:The definition of the conception of same-word-with-opposite-senses and the reason for the choosing of language examples;review on research of same-word-with-opposite-senses and dictionary interpretations;the research significance of same-word-with-opposite-senses and the innovation points;the research methods.This chapter mainly determines the proper name for the phenomenon of same-word-with-opposite-senses,and explains the causes of the selection of the subject.We collects correlative papers through such websites as Hownet,Superstar,Duxiu,makes a comparative study of the research status of same-word-with-opposite-senses and dictionary definition both domestic and abroad to have a general picture of the research trends of former scholars,to seek referential academic ideas,and to find the inadequate points of former studies,so as to lay a solid foundation for this study.The second chapter makes statistic analysis and classification of the same-word-with-opposite-senses in Modern Chinese Dictionary(7th edition),dividing them into three categories according to antonymic relation of the senses: hierarchical antonymic relation,complementary antonymic relation and reversal antonymic relation.And divided them into 10 categories and 14 sub-categories: Same word for granting and receiving;same word for accepting and rejecting;same word for borrowing and lending;same word for buying and selling;same word for welcoming and refusing;same word for stability and chaos;same word for toil and comfort;same word for beginning and the end;same word for commendatory and derogatory;same word for more and less;same word for active and passive;same word for facing and turning back to;same word for blocking and smooth;others.Among them,same word for borrowing and lending,and same word for buying and selling belong to the same word for granting and receiving category,same word for accepting and rejecting,same word for stability and chaos,and same word for Toil and Comfort belong to same word for cause and effect category.In addition,in this chapter same-word-with-opposite-senses’ s cognitive causes are explored in emphasis from the view points of prototype theory,event-domain model,theory of prominence,the generative mechanism of metonymy and metaphor.The third chapter explores dictionary interpretation’s semantic description,division of senses,arrangement of senses basing on the cognitive causes of same-word-with-opposite-senses from such perspectives as prototype theory,the modes of metonymy and metaphor,image schema,and so on,in order to illustrate human cognition’s multidimensional definition structure which is reflected in dictionary definition and to illuminate the purposefulness of dictionary definition that it should serve the users,and makes dynamic analysis of quasi-same-word-with-opposite-senses’ s value.The fourth chapter makes an comparative analysis on the evolution of dictionary definitionof same-word-with-opposite-senses in Modern Chinese Dictionary(from 1st edition to 7th edition),explore in detail its diachronic development from the viewpoints of historical-cultural context and cognitive theory,and establishes a small corpus about the evolution of dictionary definition of same-word-with-opposite-senses in Modern Chinese Dictionary.The fifth chapter discusses the necessity that we make dictionary definition with cognitive linguistics’ theory from such perspectives as lexical development,dictionary compilation and dictionary users,puts forward suggestions accordingly,points out the shortcomings of this paper,and makes academic forcast.To summarize,the innovation points of this paper is:makes multi-angle exploration and analysis on the generative mechanism of same-word-with-opposite-senses;extract linguistic examples from Mordern Chinese Dictionary(7th edition)to collect same-word-with-opposite-senses exhaustively,establishs small corpus,analyzes its evolution in dictionary definition in 1st to 7th version dictionary,makes clear the necessity that we make dictionary definition from the cognitive perspective,so as to provide reference for such fields as lexical system research,dictionary compilation and dictionary use by learners,and so on.However,same-word-with-opposite-senses is a peculiar linguistic phenomenon,so there are deficiency in this paper in terms of concept definition,analysis on its cognitive causes and the applied value of cognitive theories applied to dictionary definition and so on.