A Metaphorical Approach To The Countability Of English Abstract Nouns

As an important and pervasive phenomenon in English, the countability of nouns has attracted much attention of linguists working in various branches of linguistics. There are a lot of methods to judge and define the countability of nouns. However, unfortunately, there are few discussions about the countability of abstract nouns. This thesis holds that the metaphorical approach is a useful and effective method to study the countability of abstract nouns.This thesis starts with a brief literature review on three theories which focus on studying the countability of abstract nouns: Quirk et al.'s theory, Bloomfield's bounding theory and Langacker's bounding theory. Both Quirk et al.'s theory and Bloomfield's bounding theory have isolated language expressions from people's experiences so that these two theories can not give a satisfactory explanation to the countability of abstract nouns. Langacker has developed Bloomfield's bounding theory and pointed out that bounding is the key factor in discussing the countability of abstract nouns. He tries to study the countability of nouns within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics, and has made some progress. However, he does not give a satisfactory explanation to the countability of abstract nouns. He does not illustrate how to judge and explain the bounding of abstract nouns.For these reasons mentioned above, this thesis aims to adopt a metaphorical approach to the interpretation of the countablity of abstract nouns. Different from traditional studies, metaphor, discussed within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics, is regarded as a mapping across different domains (Ungerer & Schmid 2001:128). In Cognitive Linguistics research, metaphor is regarded as one of the most basic and important methods in extending the meanings of words (Taylor 2001: F34). Metaphor plays a crucial part in human beings'understanding of the world as well as language. As already recognized by Black in a precognitive context, metaphors act as"cognitive instruments"(Black 1962: 37). This means that metaphor is not only a way of expressing ideas but also a way of thinking about things. Metaphor can bridge the gap between abstract things and people's understanding. In terms of mapping, the features of the source domain will be mapped onto the target domain. Then people can conceptualize the abstract things as concrete things. And metaphorical mapping can help us to judge and explain the bounding of abstract nouns. In details, there are three approaches to bounding in terms of metaphor: (a) bounding by ontological metaphor, (b) bounding by structural metaphor, (c) bounding by orientational metaphor, which can provide us with a systematic explanation about how the boundaries are built in discussing the countability of abstract nouns.To make the present study more convincing, an experiment is conducted among higher vocational college students. From the analysis of the data gained from this experiment, two points are proved: (a) The metaphorical approach is a useful and effective way to judge the countability of abstract nouns; (b) The effectiveness of this approach to judging the countability of abstract nouns can last for a long time. On these grounds, we are enlightened that if students are taught to judge the countability of abstract nouns by means of the metaphorical approach, they will achieve a better result in English learning.The present study may shed light on English teaching. On the basis of this study, this thesis explores three implications for English teachers, English learners and textbook designers respectively. All in all, employing Cognitive Linguistics principles in the classroom can produce good results which should not be ignored. In the long run, the contribution of Cognitive Linguistics to language teaching is sure to be beneficial since it surly improves and enrich teaching and learning.