A Study Of The Generative Mechanism Of English Denominal Verbs From A Cognitive Perspective

Denominal verbs,as the name suggests,refer to the verbs derived from nouns without any change of form.English denominal verbs have been used for a long time.They can be traced back to Shakespeare's time and up to now there are still many newly-created denominal verbs.With the development of linguistics,the perspective of the study of English denominal verbs has been changed from semantics,rhetoric,pragmatics to cognitive linguistics –– a shift from the study of object language to the study of cognitive subjects.Cognitive linguistics holds that language capacity is part of human cognition,that language is the product of human cognition,and that language structure can reflect human beings' cognitive processes.Therefore,English denominal verbs,as a kind of language structure,do not appear with no foundation but have their own cognitive motivations.What are the cognitive motivations for converting nouns into verbs? What are the cognitive processes of denominalization in the generation of English denominal verbs? What are the cognitive constraints on the generation of English denominal verbs? Based on previous researches,in this study,we have widely collected 550 English denominal verbs and the corresponding example sentences,and then centering on these three questions conduct an analysis of the generative mechanism of English denominal verbs by adopting cognitive theories.The cognitive motivation for converting nouns into verbs in English is that language users can express their special cognitive perspectives by means of denominal verbs –– the most economic and effort-saving language form.Denominal verbs integrate information codes and thus reduce the cognitive load.Moreover,denominal verbs can express language users' special cognitive perspectives which include highlighting the action that some noun involves or describing an abstract action.The cognitive processes of denominalization in the generation of English denominal verbs are subject to metonymy and metaphor.Metonymy achieves the shift of word class,and metaphor involves the reification and the expansion of word meaning.Metonymy plays a vital role in the shift from nouns into verbs.According to Langacker(2008),metonymy can be described as the shift in profile.Nouns profile thingness,while verbs profile process.Within the same cognitive domain,based on contiguity,a noun provides mental access to the action it involves,the profile shifts from thingness to process,and the way of mental scanning shifts from summary scanning to sequential scanning.In this way,nouns are converted to verbs.The essence of metaphor is to create similarity between the source domain and the target domain and maps the characteristics of the source domain to the target domain.Metaphorical thinking makes a noun lose its referential meaning and acquire a descriptive meaning and moreover makes the action that the denominal verb describes vivid and concrete.In addition,metaphorical thinking also helps expand the meaning of English denominal verbs,making the metaphorical meaning the most frequently-used meaning for some denominal verbs.Due to the frequent interaction between metonymy and metaphor,the most common interacting patterns of metonymy and metaphor in the generation of English denominal verbs are metaphor from metonymy and metaphor within metonymy.The generation of English denominal verbs is subject to certain cognitive constraints.Not all nouns can gain salience and be further converted into verbs within the same cognitive domain.The knowledge system of a cognitive domain constrains the generation of English denominal verbs.The relationship among entities is part of our knowledge system,which can decide the profile content within the same cognitive domain.Besides,the closeness between nouns and the action they involve within the same cognitive domain also constrains the generation of English denominal verbs.In different event schema,nouns with different role have different possibility of being denominalized.Within the same cognitive domain,nouns which can not represent the feature of certain action are almost impossible to be converted.While for nouns that bear clear and obvious semantic components implying an action,there is a high possibility for them to be converted into verbs.This thesis makes a thorough and detailed analysis of the generative mechanism of English denominal verbs from three aspects ? motivations,processes and constraints.The study makes the generative mechanism of English denominal verbs clearer and better understood and thus makes up the insufficiency of previous studies.We hope this study can shed some light on the learning and the teaching of English denominal verbs such as the correct inference and comprehension of the meaning of English denominal verbs.