A Cognitive Study on Polysemy with Metaphor and Metonymy Based
on the Word “Heart”
Abstract
Traditionally, polysemy refers to the phenomenon in which a word that has two or more different but related meanings; In modern cognitive linguistics, polysemy is the result of human cognitive categorization and conceptualization which regarded as a category in which distinct meanings distribute around a central or prototypical meaning. Traditionally, metonymy and metaphor are two figures of speech; In modern cognitive linguistics, they are two cognitive mechanism, which motivates semantic change and is the channel for meaning construction. This thesis is about the research on polysemy based on cognitive metonymy and metaphor by analysis of “Heart” both in English and in Chinese. There are four findings: 1) Metaphor plays a more important role than metonymy in the extension of word meaning; 2) There are two important ways of thinking in the extension of word meaning: metonymical thinking based on contiguity and metaphorical thinking based on similarity. Metonymy extends in chains, yet metaphor in radial. These two ways of thinking are like points on a continuum; 3) When the the word meaning in extension is further from the original meaning, it is more figurative; 4) Parts of cognition are the same for Chinese and English. The goal of which is to find the internal structure, semantic extension mechanism as well as the characteristics of polysemy through a case study of “heart” and help language learners get a better understanding of polysemy.
Key Words: polysemy; cognitive metonymy; cognitive metaphor；heart
摘 要
傳統意義上，多義詞是指1個單詞具有兩個或者兩個以上相關意義的1種現象；在語言學中，多義詞是人類認知的結果，其各義項意義分佈在中心意義或者原型意義周圍。同樣地，在傳統概念中，轉喻和隱喻是兩種修辭格；在現代語言學當中，他們被認為是兩種認知機制，是詞義延伸的主要原因。並且是詞義延伸的`兩種主要方式。本文以英漢heart(心) 為語料, 從認知轉喻和隱喻的思維角度分析1詞多義現象。研究發現: (1) 隱喻在詞義延伸中發揮的作用大於轉喻; (2) 在詞義延伸中有兩種思維結構: 1是以鄰近性關係為基礎的“部分代整體”的轉喻思維結構; 另1個是以事物相似性為基礎的隱喻性聯想思維結構。轉喻呈連鎖狀延伸, 隱喻呈輻射狀延伸。兩種思維結構相互交叉, 出現連續統的現象; (3) 當詞義從本義向轉喻、隱喻方向延伸的時候,離本義越遠, 修辭性就越強; (4) 英語和漢語在詞義延伸過程中, 認知思維部分相同。這篇論文的目的在於通過HEART 1詞的個案研究探討多義詞意義範疇的內部結構、拓展機制和意義構建的特點,從本質上解釋多義現象的認知特徵並且幫助語言學習者更好理解多義詞。
關鍵詞: 多義詞、認知轉喻、 認知隱喻、心
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