熟语:常规化的映现模式和心理表征——熟语的认知研究之一

Idioms: Conventionalized Mapping Patterns and Mental Representations

熟语作为一种映现模式,其中的隐喻和转喻映现受熟语常规化过程的影响。隐喻和转喻映现常常超越了隐喻和转喻原有的使用语境,可在更一般和广泛的相关语境下使用,使熟语获得了普遍的概括意义。这种常规化熟语中的隐喻和转喻称为超隐喻和超转喻。超隐喻和超转喻使熟语中的隐喻和转喻映现隐含了,而这种隐含的隐喻和转喻在熟语语义扩展和理解中发挥着重要的作用。熟语中的常规的隐喻映现表现为两种类型:一种是以概念相似为基础的映现,另一种是以经验相关为基础的映现。熟语中的常规转喻映现表现在以概念邻近性为基础的整个框架及其部分之间的映现关系之中。在同一熟语中隐喻和转喻映现同时发挥着作用,它们常常紧密地交织在熟语语义扩展和理解之中。通过分析,我们发现,熟语心理表征中的各类信息通过隐含的隐喻和转喻的认知机制相互连接,在长期记忆中形成一个常规化的映现模式。

This paper argues that idioms are conventionalized mapping patterns stored in our long-term memory. Metaphorical and metonymic mappings in idioms are influenced by their conventionalizations. Idioms usually 'overshoot' original metaphoric and metonymic context and are applied in more general and relevant context, making them acquire figuratively stipulated meanings. Metaphor and metonymy are called, respectively, hypermetaphor and hypermetonymy which play an important role in semantic extensions and comprehension of idioms, thus making the metaphoric and metonymic mapping more implicit and unconscious. Conventionalized metaphoric mappings in idioms have two types: one is resemblance-based mapping and the other experiential correlation-based mapping. The former has conceptual resemblance between source domain and target domain while the latter has perceptual co-occurrence as its basis. Conventionalized metonymic mappings in idioms are conceptual contiguity-based, reflecting the relations between the whole frame and its parts. In the same idiom, metaphorical and metonymic mappings are interwoven in its semantic extension and comprehension. It is argued that various kinds of information in mental representation of idioms are interconnected by hypermetaphor and hypermetonymy, yielding conventionalized mapping patterns.