英语习语隐喻意义构建的概念整合机制

The Conceptual Integration Mechanism in the Construction of the Metaphorical Meanings of English Idioms

传统的词汇学研究强调英语习语结构的固定性和语义的统一性。习语语义的统一性意指习语的语义无法从其字面意义获得,该观点割裂了习语义与其字面义之间的联系,忽视了习语语义的认知理据。随着认知语言学兴起,人们倾向于认为习语是创造性的语言使用,习语义与其字面义之间存在认知理据性。概念整合理论能够很好地解释隐喻意义的生成,在英语习语隐喻意义的整合过程中体现出特征的选择性、传承性及意义的推理性和层创性。

The traditional study of lexicology holds that English idioms have structural invariability and semantic unity. The feature of semantic unity stresses the unpredictability of the meaning of the idioms from the meanings of the component parts, which ignores the semantic connections and the cognitive motivations be- tween the idiomatic meaning and the literal meaning of an English idiom. With the rise of cognitive linguistics, idioms have come to be seen as creative uses of language and there is cognitive motivation between the meaning of the idiom and the literal meaning of the component parts. This study proves that mental spaces theory and Conceptual Blending Theory can explain the construction of the metaphorical meaning of English idioms, in which the features are selectively inherited from the input spaces and the generic space. The emergent meaning evolves out of inferential processes.