复杂适应系统视域下汉英味觉词“酸/Sour”多义性对比研究

A Contrastive Study on the Polysemy from the Perspective of Language as a Complex Adaptive System:A Case study of"Suan/Sour"in Mandarin and English

在复杂适应系统视域下,本文以双层词类范畴化理论为框架,基于语料库和语文词典数据,对比分析了汉、英基本味觉词“酸/Sour”多义网络中语言单位的类型、数量、词类和义项,并从微观和宏观视角探讨了多义性的衍生路径和引申机制。结果显示:(1)语言单位类型丰富,汉语更具优势;(2)均为形名动兼类词,形容词编码特征突显,跨范畴义项在语文词典中的分布与语料库使用模式不一致;(3)汉英味觉词义项数量差异小,但语义重合度较低;(4)词条多义衍生路径雷同,从味觉域内部向触觉、嗅觉、听觉或视觉域的通感路径延伸,沿情感域和认知域的抽象化、主观化方向继续发展;味觉词的多义性是概念隐喻、概念转喻与文化图式互动的结果,也受语言系统发展趋势的制约。

From the perspective of language as a complex adaptive system,this paper adopts the theory of double-level word class categorization to compare and analyze the types,quantities,word classes and meanings of linguistic units within the polysemous network of basic gustatory words"Suan/Sour"in Mandarin and English.It further explores the derivation paths and extension mechanisms from micro and macro dimensions.Based on data of corpora and language dictionaries,it is found that:(1)the types of linguistic units are rich,especially with Mandarin"Suan";(2)they are heterosemous words,with adjective coding abilities prominent.Inconsistencies exist between dictionaries and corpora in terms of cross-category meaning distribution;(3)there is little difference in the number of senses between"Suan"and"Sour",but the degree of semantic equivalence is relatively low;(4)the derivation paths of polysemous"Suan/Sour"are similar:they follow synesthetic extensions from taste to touch,smell,hearing or vision and further extend into emotion and cognition,with tendencies of the increasing abstraction and subjectivity.In short,the polysemy of"Suan/Sour"results from the interactions between conceptual metaphor,conceptual metonymy and cultural schema,and is also constrained by the trends of language systems.