A Study Of Meaning Extensions Of Nouns Based On Image Schema Theory

As the link of bodily experience and language cognition, image schema is regarded as a pillar theory of cognitive linguistics. Comprehensive studies and discussions concerning the emergence, profiling, mapping and transformation of image schemas have been made by many scholars. As dynamic patterns of the perceptual interaction between body and the environment, image schemas are able to cognitively represent the spatial movement perception, so image schema theory has been used to analyze the polysemy of prepositions, adverbs and a few verbs.Based on the previous studies of image schemas,the meaning extensions of Chinese character"tou"via image schemas and image schema transformations have been illustrated in this thesis. The original meaning of Chinese character"tou"is extended to represent both spatial, temporal and abstract relationships through the main types of image schemas like CONTAINER, PATH, CENTRE-PERIPHERY, PART-WHOLE and three types of image schema transformations. This study reveals that the analysis of meaning extension of a noun from the perspective of image schemas reveals the nature of the interrelated relationship of meanings, and will promote our ability of language cognition. And a large number of vocabularies can be acquired easily and efficiently through limited image schemas.