A Study On The Construction Mechanism Of The Oppositional Meaning In The Analects Of Confucius From The Perspective Of Ecolinguistics

Oppositional meaning construction is a very significant and important linguistic feature of expression in ancient philosophical texts.In specific contexts,the oppositional meanings constructed in The Analects of Confucius highlight their corresponding ecological meanings mainly manifested in natural ecology,social ecology,political ecology and cultural ecology,as well as playing a positive role in guiding one’s ecological behaviors.Taking ecolinguistics as its new perspective and the ecosophy of diversity and harmony,interaction and co-existence(He & Wei,2018)as its core concept,this study has counted,interpreted and analyzed the oppositional meaning construction in The Analects of Confucius by Yang Bojun.It is found that The Analects of Confucius,one of the classical representative works of ancient philosophical texts,relies on different types of oppositional meaning triggers,contains a large number of expression forms of oppositional meaning,and reveals the characteristics of Chinese ancient philosophical discourse.This study has added five subcategories of lexical triggers(opposites,degree words,words for frequency,words for order and opposing subjects)and two new trigger types(attitudinal triggers and interrogative triggers),improved the existing structural-lexical trigger framework of oppositional meaning,and enriched the connotation and extension of the ecosophy.The construction mechanism of oppositional meaning applicable to The Analects of Confucius sheds light on the analysis of oppositional meaning construction in other ancient philosophical works,on the in-depth exploration of the prominent linguistic phenomena in different types of texts,and on the further application of ecolinguistics.