从认知语义学角度看英语方位副词和介词的词义扩展

The Analysis of Semantic Expansion of Spatial Adverbs and Prepositions on Perspective of Cognitive Semantics

认知语义学认为意义来自于人的经验和对经验的理解,这种观点以及建立在此基础上的概念隐喻理论和意象图式理论成为分析多义词词义关联的有力工具。英语方位副词和介词通常用来表示人类最基本的经验,如时空概念,词义扩展的隐喻性在这两类词汇中有很好的体现。通过对方位副词up和down,介词in和at的词义分析,展示了词义从"物理"空间到"概念"或"心理"空间的隐喻性映现。学习者一旦了解词义关联的隐喻性,词汇多个义项的记忆将不再是孤立的,割裂的,从而大大减轻其记忆负担,促进词汇习得,并在此基础上对英语的隐喻系统有更好的了解。

Cognitive semantics provides us a new perspective to explore semantic expansion by arguing that meaning comes from human＇s bodily experience and his understanding of the experience. On this basis Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Image Schema Theory are provided, which are helpful in analyzing the correlation of word meanings. Spatial adverbs and prepositions are usually used to indicate human＇s fundamental concepts of space and time; therefore they serve as good examples of the realization of words＇ metaphorical semantic expansion. Through the analysis of the meanings of two spatial adverbs ＇up＇ and ＇down＇ and two prepositions ＇in＇ and ＇at＇, the paper gives a clear reveal of the metaphorical mapping between ＇physical＇ space and ＇concepts＇ or ＇mental＇ space. It is of great value for English learners to acquire the metaphorical awareness and competence in polysemy learning for it can help lighten learners＇ burden of memory, raise their interest and facilitate their vocabulary acquisition.