A Study On The Semantic Extension Of English Preposition On From The Perspective Of Cognitive Semantics

The meaning of the English preposition on has other meanings extension besides the meaning of spatial orientation.Based on the image schema and conceptual metaphor theory,this research explores the internal relevance regularity of the meaning extension of the spatial preposition on.The research will analyzes and classifies the meaning of the English preposition on,and further explores the reasons for the extension and the structure of meaning extension.The study finds that the meaning extension of the preposition on is generated based on the contact between the trajector and the landmark,and is distributed in a radiating structure around the spatial characteristics.This research first determines the basic meaning of the English preposition on from the perspective of the prototype space category as the contact between the trajector and the landmark.Then,it studies the process of analyzing the prototype meaning and meaning extension of the preposition on by using image schema and conceptual metaphor as theories.The research corpus comes from the Oxford English Dictionary and the COCA corpus.The research results show that the meaning extension of the preposition on is mainly related to five image schemas,namely container schema,contact schema,support schema,pressure schema and restriction schema.Under the five schemas,the meaning extension of the preposition on is summarized.The meaning extension under the container schema include: in a vehicle;as a member of(committees,juries or other institutions),reflecting the spatial container relationship between the trajector and the landmark.The meaning extension under the contact schema includes: about;used in conjunction with time;in a certain state,reflecting the contact between the trajector and the landmark.The meaning extension under the support schema include: reason or basis;taking;landmark(recommendation,recommendation,hypothesis,reasoning,condition,etc.)acting as a basic role in an event or activity;providing basis for action for the trajector;dependence;with the support of signals such as radio waves,sound waves,cables,telephones,and networks;someone paid for it;compared with...,it all reflecting the support of the landmarks for the trajector.In the location schema,the meaning extension means that the landmark serves as a reference to provide a location reference for the trajector.The meaning extension under the pressure schema includes:(ideological,psychological)burden,mental pressure,burden or moral responsibility,etc.,which all reflect the pressure of the trajector on the landmark.The meaning extension under the restriction scheme includes: landmarks have the characteristics of restriction,which have a restrictive effect on the trajector(once the restriction is broken,it will have a specific impact).Under the effect of conceptual metaphor,the preposition on can through spatial features: up,down,front,back,left,right;length,width and height;one of the ways of existence of matter;static space and dynamic space;the meaning extension of the mapping from the source domain to the target domain is embodied in the “support domain”,“location domain”,“time domain”,“state domain”,and “scope domain”.