节点文献

英汉人体词一词多义认知对比研究

The Contrast and Comparison Studies on Polysemy between English and Chinese Body Terms from the Perspective of Cognition

【作者】 刘志成

【导师】 束定芳;

【作者基本信息】 上海外国语大学 , 英语语言文学, 2014, 博士

【摘要】 语言的基本单位是词汇,而词汇的核心是词义,一词多义是语言中较为普遍的现象,而人体词是人类认知世界的起点,不管是中国古代哲人通过对人类认知规律的探索而提出的“近取诸身,远取诸物”,还是西方哲人认为“人是万物的尺度”都说明了“自然界”是人化了的自然界,人作为认知主体在人类的认知世界的过程中起着核心作用。因此通过英汉人体词一词多义的对比研究,对于揭示英汉民族的认知规律和思维差异具有重要的作用。词义延伸规律的研究主要包括对英汉人体词认知取象点和词义延伸的转义范畴的研究。对英汉人体词认知取象点的研究指的是对人体词认知特征的提取,人类会根据词的所指对象在基于身体经验的基础上形成一种心理意象,也就是“认知取象”,人体名词的认知取象主要是根据形貌、位置和功能三个维度进行取象的,这种取象特征会成为词义拓展和演变的意义基因。对人体词转义范畴的研究包括人体词的转义义项所涉及的范畴的数量,同时也包括每一个范畴所涉及的义项的数量。范畴化涉及到认知主体对世界的划分标准,因此也体现了认知主体的思维模式。因此考察英汉人体词的认知取象和转义范畴就可以考察英汉民族的思维的差异性和共性。一词多义的拓展机制是隐喻和转喻、原型范畴理论。由于隐喻和转喻是人类重要的思维模式和认知手段,因此通过对英汉人体词的词义延伸规律的比较,可以揭示中西方思维方式的差异和认知规律的异同。正如维科(1989:201)所言:“人类通过隐喻认知方式就把自己变成了整个世界。”一直以来,一词多义往往是认知语言学家内省的结果,缺乏鲜活的语料和实证研究,或者仅仅局限于单语种的研究。本研究利用权威的英汉词典,通过大量的语料和词义拓展图示证明词义的拓展并不是任意的,词义的拓展蕴含了“人是原因”的重要哲学理念,是在隐喻和转喻的基础上呈辐射式和鱼贯式向外拓展的,其中隐喻对词义延伸的影响是辐射式的,而转喻对词义的影响是鱼贯式的或叫连锁式的。人体词是人类认知世界的起点,也是其它一切概念的起点,可称为认知的“元概念”,因此对人体词的系统考察从认知的角度来看具有溯本求源的作用。同时,语言本身是思维的反映,“思维只不过是脱去了外衣的语言”(萨丕尔《语言论》),认知语言学通过把认知主体“人”纳入研究范围,不仅是对传统理论的突破,也具有重要的触及语言本质的认知属性,目前国内外对于英汉人体词一词多义的系统化的实证认知对比研究还处于空白阶段,尤其是从认知取象点和词义拓展的转义范畴的认知对比研究还处于空白阶段,这也是本论文的选题缘由之一。本论文把英汉人体词分成头部人体词、躯干人体词和内脏器官人体词,分别对词义延伸的数量和转义范畴两方面进行定量和定性的系统化研究。同时从头部、躯干、内脏词中分别选出具有代表性的个案进行了定性和定量的英汉对比研究,并对差异性和共性进行了原因方面的探索,这三组人体词分别是头部人体词“鼻/nose”、躯干人体词“手/hand”、内脏人体词“心/heart”,而转义范畴是根据詹卫东(2001)和崔希亮(2002)的实用主义原则和目标驱动的原则下划分为十一个范畴,希望通过个案研究促进系统化的研究。本论文的研究目标主要是揭示英汉人体词词义拓展的基本规律、认知取象的基本规律、词义拓展后的转义范畴的规律,通过英汉对比,揭示英汉民族的思维异同。本文还阐述了英汉民族在建构词义、词义取象、认知突显方面的差异性和共性,为了更好地说明英汉人体词词义建构的过程,引入了“框架语义理论”,并通过选取英汉人体词的个案进行了实证阐释。本文第六章把隐喻、转喻、原型和框架理论进行整合,构建英汉民族对词义认知拓展的一般规律和一词多义的“认知地图”,指出这几者认知属性的一致性。同时对一词多义出现的原因以及隐喻、转喻的工作机制进行了哲学上的反思,这种反思主要是利用中西方哲学中的相似性对一词多义进行了理论提升,指出了隐喻和转喻的哲学身份。本论文的研究方法主要是运用定性和定量研究方法、描写与解释相结合的方法、对比研究法以及个案与系统研究相结合的方法。总之,本研究通过把语言现象纳入认知机制而对其进行了分析和描写,通过语言的认知性质和词义演变过程中呈现出的规律性特征展现英汉民族的认知过程。本研究不仅对于了解英汉民族的认知习惯和思维特点有进一步的认识,而且对于丰富语义学理论、对词汇教学、词典编撰、英汉翻译和跨文化交际方面也具有重要的意义。

【Abstract】 The basic unit of language is vocabulary, and the core of vocabulary is meaning.Polysemy is a very common phenomenon in language, and body terms are thecognitive starting point of human beings for the world. Based on the cognitive law,the ancient Chinese hold that “getting inspirations about what lies near from the bodyand getting inspirations about what lies afar from the universe”, and in the west,Protagoras also holds that “Man is the measure of all things”. Both indicate that thenatural world is humanized. Human beings plays a core cognitive subject role in theprocess of the cognition for the world, so the comparative study between Chinese andEnglish polysemies of body terms to reveal cognitive and thinking characteristics isvery important.The research on semantic extension mainly includes two aspects, the cognitiveimage points and the categories of semantic extension of both English and Chinesebody terms. Based on bodily experience, human beings will make a mental imagewhich is called cognitive image according to the referents. The cognitive image ismainly based on the shape, position and function of three dimensions of the objects,and the image characteristics will become the basis of meaning extension and wordevolution. The research on the categories of semantic extension is about the categoriesthat the polysemy is involved in, including the number of all categories of semanticextension and the number of the semantic items in a category. Because categorizationis the classification of the world by cognitive subjects, it embodies the cognitive andthinking patterns of the cognitive subjects. We can explore the similarities anddifferences of cognitive and thinking patterns of both English and Chinese peoplefrom the perspective of “cognitive image” and “categories of semantic extension” ofpolysemy of both English and Chinese body terms.The difference of cognitive images between English and Chinese people reflectsthe difference of thinking, and the similarities of cognitive image reflect thesimilarities of thinking between English and Chinese cognition.The semantic extension mechanisms of polysemy are the metaphor andmetonymy, prototype category theory. Because metaphor and metonymy are twokinds of human thinking modes and cognitive means, through the comparison andcontrast of semantic extension laws between English and Chinese body terms, thethinking mode differences and cognitive laws similarities between English andChinese people can be revealed. For quite a long time, the research on polysemy isjust the result of linguists’ introspection, lacking fresh linguistic data and empiricalresearch, or confined to monolingual studies. This research uses authoritariandictionaries, based on lots of linguistic data and semantic extension charts anddiagrams, to reveal the laws of cognitive images and categories of semantic extension of body terms, of thinking and cognitive similarities and differences of both Englishand Chinese people, and proves the semantic extension of polysemy is not arbitrary.The semantic extension includes the important philosophical idea of “man is thereason”, based on metaphor and metonymy. The influence of metaphor on semanticextension of polysemy is radiant, and the influence of metonymy on semanticextension is just chain-like.Body terms which are the basis of cognition of human beings are not only thecognitive starting point of human beings for the world, but also the starting point ofall other concepts. From the perspective of cognition, the systematic comparison andcontrast between English and Chinese body terms have the function to trace thesource of their cognitive characteristics. In addition, language is the reflection ofthinking. Cognitive linguistics brings the cognitive subject “human beings” into theresearch scope, and it is not only a breakthrough to traditional theory, but also has animportant function to touch the nature and essence of language cognition. Currently,the systematic empirical contrast and comparison research between English andChinese body terms is still in the blank stage, especially for the cognitive researchfrom the perspectives of cognitive images and categories of semantic extension. Thisis also one of the reasons why this topic is chosen for the dissertation.In this dissertation, the body terms are divided into three parts based on theirlocations: the body terms of the head, the body terms of the trunk, and the body termsof the internal organs to make qualitative and quantitative analyses between Englishand Chinese body terms from the perspectives of cognitive images and categories ofsemantic extension. In addition, representative cases have been chosen from the threeparts of both English and Chinese body terms respectively to make qualitative andquantitative analyses, and the reasons for the differences and similarities betweenEnglish and Chinese body terms have been explored. The three groups of case studiesof body terms are “Bi”(“Nose”),“Shou”(“Hand”),“Xin”(“Heart”) respectively. Thecategory of semantic extension is based on ZhanWeiDong (2001) and Cui Xiliang(2002), according to the principle of pragmatism and goal-driven rule, and thesemantic extension category is divided into11categories, and hopes to promotesystematic research by case studies.This research is mainly aimed at revealing the basic laws of both English andChinese semantic extension of body terms, through systematic comparison andcontrast, to reveal as well the differences and similarities of thinking and cognitivepatterns of English and Chinese people.This research also illustrates the differences and similarities on the semanticconstruction, semantic image, and cognitive salience between English and Chinesepeople. To better illustrate the process of semantic construction of English and Chinese body terms, the “theory of framework” has been introduced, and theempirical interpretation of the case studies has also been analyzed.In the sixth chapter of this dissertation, several theories, such as the metaphortheory, metonymy theory, prototype theory, and the framework theory have beenintegrated from the perspective of cognition. The general laws of semantic extensionand the cognitive map of polysemy of both English and Chinese body terms havebeen depicted. In addition, the cognitive consistency of the several theories has beenpointed out. Besides, the reasons and working mechanisms for metaphor andmetonymy have been reflected in the philosophical sense. The philosophical identityof polysemy based on metaphor and metonymy has been pointed out.The research method of this paper is mainly using qualitative and quantitativeresearch methods, the combination of description and explanation method, thecomparative method, and the combination of case studies and systematic research.In conclusion, this research analyzed and described some language phenomenaby introducing them into the cognitive mechanism, displaying the cognitive processesof both English and Chinese people through the analysis of the cognitive nature oflanguage and the law of semantic extension. This research can not only contribute tobetter understanding of the cognitive patterns and thinking characteristics of bothEnglish and Chinese people, but also to enriching semantic theories, to facilitating thevocabulary teaching, dictionary compilation, English-Chinese translation andcross-cultural communication.

  • 【分类号】H313
  • 【被引频次】3
  • 【下载频次】1673
节点文献中: 

本文链接的文献网络图示:

本文的引文网络