A Conceptual Metaphor-based Study On The Metaphorical Meanings Of Preposition OVER

Metaphor is pervasive in life,and the application and understanding of metaphorical meanings play an important role in daily communication.There are plenty of prepositions in each language.Due to their abundant meanings and frequent usage,prepositions are always the study subject of linguists.Among those prepositions,over is the prominent one.Linguists in different schools have their approaches to study metaphorical meanings,such as rhetoric,semantics,pragmatics and cognitive linguistics.Cognitive linguistics holds that one lexicon has a central meaning and other meanings are the extension results of the central meaning.Meaning extension can be realized through two ways,one of which is metaphorical mapping.This thesis adopts Conceptual Metaphor Theory as its theoretical framework to study the metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC.Three research questions are put forward:1.What are the metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC?2.What are the dimensions of the metaphorical meaning extension of preposition over from BNC?3.What are the cognitive characteristics of metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC?After analysis,three findings are drawn:1.There are fourteen metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC.Metaphorical meanings of over include the meaning of down from a brink,more than or beyond,transmitted by,for the duration of,concerning,having recovered from,ended,in charge of,again or repeatedly,with motion above something;so as to pass across,so as to deal with completely,with transference or change from one hand or part to another,so as to reverse a position and in comparison with.2.There are two dimensions of the metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC.Image schema is invariable and domains always change from one to another.The reason for the change of domain is that conceptual metaphors map the structure of image schema to the target domain.3.The cognitive characteristics of the metaphorical meanings of preposition over from BNC are dynamism,economy,complexity and systematicness.This thesis will be useful in improving the accuracy of polysemous prepositions in daily use.It is hoped that this study can provide reference for the further studies on polysemy from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.