An Exploration Of Operation Mechanism And Theoretical Foundation Of "Lingual Tropism" Hypothesis

As is highly generalized by the well-known linguist Wilhelm Von Humboldt,the history of human language is the history of human civilization.Without language,human beings can't be engaged in more complex exchanges and cooperation beyond animal instincts for survival,so society cannot be assembled,let alone creating any economic,political and cultural achievements.As is pointed out by the latest research result in cognitive science,language issue is the core to uncover the core issue of human intelligence.Human's language ability is closely related to our spirit,thinking,and creatin.,What is the nature of our language ability?The explorations of the nature of human language ability have never ceased,and from Humboldt's "rational intellectual instinct" and "mental chain",Saussure's "linguistic faculty par excellence",Chomsky's "language acquisition device"(LAD),to the latest inquiries on this issue by today's domestic and foreign scholars,which explain the language ability in a more mature and clear way.Among them,�Lingual Tropism� hypothesis has aroused my research interest.It points out that lingual tropism is an innate initial language-oriental force peculiar to human beings,which might be carried by a quite subtle node intensively set in the language zone of our brain.It regards all the existence in the world as a sign,playing a basic role in human creating,using and understanding linguistic signs.The actual operation of lingual tropism depends on the hierarchical creation mechanism of its instrument---metaphor.Lingual tropism is more specific than "mental chain",and explains the mysterious linking arrow between the �Signifier and the Signified�,moreover,laying a deeper theoretical basis for �LAD�.However,on the previous few studies on lingual tropism,the proof of the objective existence of lingual tropism simply stays on an accumulation of superficial language phenomena,and the explanation of the hierarchical creation mechanism of metaphor----instrument of lingual tropism,is merely confined to few case demonstrations.Based on an analysis of the previous hypotheses on language ability,firstly,this study introduces the core meaning of lingual tropism in a further way,and analyzes its existing stamp from the four design features of language and from the communication process;secondly,by comparing the traditional view on metaphor and the cognitive metaphor,thestudy emphasizes the conceptual projection property of metaphor,in order to point out that the actual operation of lingual tropism depends on the hierarchical creation mechanism of metaphor to create and use signs,and attempts to abstract a basic formula of the operation mechanism of metaphor;lastly,based on the view that everything connects with another in the world,and a multi-disciplinary view,this study provides with a comprehensive and tracing basis for the rationality of lingual tropism emphatically from the fields of philosophy,cognitive science,and biology,i.e.,there are three original forces in nature,namely the force of growth,the force of movement,and the force of thought.As a representative of the thought force,human beings inherit the tropism in the force of growth and movement;during the evolution from neural cognition to psychological cognition,linguistic cognition,thinking cognition to cultural cognition,linguistic cognition develops the intentionality of psychological cognition and makes it prominent;this tropism is very likely to be manifested in human language,and lingual tropism might be one of the possible answers to explain it up to now.