A Cognitive Study Of Word-class Conversion In Shakespeare’s Plays

Word-Class conversion is not only a language phenomenon that we encounter in daily life,but also a cognitive activity which merits further research.But it was not paid enough attention by previous scholars,especially conversion in Shakespeare’s plays.This thesis firstly classifies the word-class conversion in Shakespeare’s four great comedies and four great tragedies and intends to sum up its main types and traits.Then the internal psychological motivation mechanism of word-class conversion in these plays and influence exerted by additional factors on the conversion are also noted by virtue of mental scanning theory and conceptual metonymy theory in cognitive linguistics.Only through the combined effect of these factors can the conversion be fully completed in an objective manner.Based on previous sections,the thesis finally illustrated the significance of cognitive study on word-class conversion in Shakespeare’s plays and its inspiration for further linguistics research.It is found that the word-class conversion in Shakespeare’s plays can be divided into four types,namely verbalization,nominalization,adjectivization and adverbialization.Different from previous researches,verbalization in Shakespeare’s plays is more significant than the other three.In the analysis of the internal cognitive mechanism,mental scanning theory provides the psychological motivation,while conceptual metonymy theory provides a method to realize the meaning construction of conversed words.The influence of additional factors,such as grammatical structure,logical reasoning thinking and genre,which have been neglected in the past,is also illustrated in this thesis.Word-class conversion not only promises the variety of the characters’ lines,but also poses irreplaceable impact on characters,plots and themes of the plays.