| With the advancement of science and technology, especially the enforcement of their application, the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions has to face with two alternatives:to reflect cause-effect or causation between scientific objects, or to adapt to cognition of target consumers of scientific products? The lack of basic mode of conceptualization might be attributed to three factors:the advancement of science, the change of conceptual interpretation modes as well as the presence of industry convention. The lack of basic mode of conceptualization fails to support the fact that Sci-tech is a category.Previous researches in Sci-tech words and expressions are not systematic. First, the subjectivity, objectivity, domain-generality and domain-specificity of Sci-tech words and expressions in those researches are obtained, however, the coexistence of these phenomena and their interaction are not interpreted. Second, the interrelations between Sci-tech words and expressions and social cultural conventions, embodied experience and ways of cognition are revealed, but the analysis of their coexistence and interaction is not given. Third, although the research on the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions explores the identifying and naming process of property information, as well as the cognitive process of lexical meaning, it isn’t realized that these two processes are the organized part of cognitive continuum of Sci-tech words and expressions. In order to construct a basic mode that is rather interpretative and extensive of the conceptual interpretation of Sci-tech words and expressions, a systematic investigation must be made. A systematic investigation involves a comprehensive study of the features and cognitive foundations of Sci-tech words and expressions as a kind, of the way working factors like social cultural conventions, embodied experience and ways of cognition interact with each other and the law of their interaction, of the deep cognitive mechanism and the surface deductive mode of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions, of the design features and universal cognitive tendencies of conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions.Under the theoretical guidance of Prototype Category, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metonymy, as well as Image Schema within Cognitive Linguistics, this dissertation attempts to investigate the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions with a focus on Mechatronic English words and expressions. Our aims are to discover the features and cognitive mechanism of conceptualization process in Sci-tech words and expressions and to propose the basic mode of conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions.Three research questions are discussed. First, what are the characteristics of Sci-tech words and expressions? And what are the cognitive foundations of Sci-tech words and expressions? Second, what are the features of the cognitive process of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions? And what is the cognitive mechanism of this process? Third, what is the basic mode of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expression?There are three hypotheses in the research. First, the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions is different from that of common words and expressions. Second, cause-effect governs the cognitive processing activities in the cognition in Sci-tech words and expressions. Third, the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions reflects human basic cognition tendency and has certain cognition law.With the relationships between Sci-tech words and expressions, Sci-tech terms, and common words and expressions as the clue, prototype effect and causation as two perspectives, and the cognitive features of Sci-tech words and expressions as the focus, this research starts from two subprocesses of the conceptualization process of Sci-tech words and expressions, that is, the lexicalization of Sci-tech concept and the semantic construction of Sci-tech words and expressions. The research covers four steps. First, we review the pros and cons of previous researches concerning conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions with an aim at the new perspective and cutting point of the current research. Second, it explores the basic features of Sci-tech words and expressions. This part tends to explore three questions. First, what are the correlations between Sci-tech words and expressions, Sci-tech terms, and common words and expressions. Second, what are the cognitive features of Sci-tech words and expressions. Last, what are the cognitive foundations of Sci-tech words and expressions. Then, we explore the conceptualization process and its cognitive mechanism in Sci-tech words and expressions. Three questions are explored in this part, that is, what are the basic features of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions? What are the features of the process of conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions? What is the cognitive mechanism of this process? Finally, the basic mode of conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions is investigated. Three questions are to be answered, namely, the purpose, related factors and basic mode of conceptualization of Sic-tech words and expressions.Literature-based and corpus-based induction and deduction are our major research methods, supplemented by diachronic and synchronic methods. The corpus derives from three sources. The first is An English-Chinese Dictionary of Science and Technology (Wu Guanghua1998). The second is www. wordspy. com(words and expressions collected in May,2008). The last is technical data collected by us from mechatronic enterprises with almost400000words. This research takes English words and expressions in Mechatronics as sample materials for two reasons. On one hand, Mechatronics can be seen as a prototype of scientific category. On the other hand, Mechatronics English words and expressions embody distinct defining features or prototype effect and reflect the interaction between these two factors. Taking Mechatronics English words and expressions as examples, we would find the features of conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions, as well as the impact of interaction between prototype effect and causation in this process.The three research questions mentioned above are answered. First, Sci-tech words and expressions demonstrate the features of both common words and expressions and their own; the cognition of Sci-tech words and expressions are built on usage-based social psychology and embodiment-based philosophy. Second, conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions is a cognitive continuum consisting of two subprocesses:the lexicalization of Sci-tech concepts and the semantic construction of Sci-tech words and expressions; the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions, a process of semantic reconstruction-oriented dynamic construction of lexical concepts and cognitive modes; this process displays a dynamic conceptualization mechanism of Sci-tech words and expressions in the context of science and technology. Third, the mode of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions is a prototype effect mode driven by causation; Three Accesses Model is the basic model of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions; conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions has features of its own as well as universal cognitive tendencies.Three findings of this research are yielded. First, the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions is different from that of common words and expressions. Second, cause-effect governs the cognitive processing activities in the cognition in Sci-tech words and expressions. Third, the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions reflects human basic cognition tendency and certain cognition law.The originality of this research is presented in the following three aspects. First, we have revealed the features of Sci-tech words and expressions as a kind. Second, we have discovered the cognitive mechanism of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions. Third, we have set up the basic mode of the conceptualization in Sci-tech words and expressions, and enriched, to some degree, the implication of cognitive linguistic theories.The significance of this research can be found in four aspects. First, this research supports the explanation commission of conceptualization hypothesis and enriches the subject of conceptualization research. Second, this research highlights the importance of the objective world, especially, of the cause-effect in the conceptualization in Sic-tech words and expressions. Third, this research sets up a basic mode of conceptualization in Sic-tech words and expressions. Last, this research evidences the power of Prototype Category, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metonymy, and Image Schema in the explanation of Sic-tech words and expressions. |
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