A Cognitive Approach To The Hua Word Family In Modern Chinese

"Word family" is one of the research subjects of morphology.The current studies on it are limited to the description and analysis of the internal structures of individual words in the family;rather than focus on the systematically conceptual basis of its formation,which results in discrete and isolated discoveries to some extent.Based on HUA frame,this thesis studies the hua word family in Chinese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,aiming to discover the laws of formation and the mechanisms of word meaning change and shift in the famiiy on the more comprehensive,systematical and unitary basis.With the previous studies as the starting point,the thesis studies,not only macroscopically and diachronically,but also microcosmically and synchronically,all the hua word family members in《汉语大词典》and《现代汉语词典》under the guidance of Frame Semantics by way of comparison,induction and introspection.A lexical concept frame is a kind of encyclopedic knowledge network containing correlated concept elements;there is a central concept in the frame;any word representing an element can activate the whole frame.According to Frame Semantics,we find out that there is a common feature in word family—a word family is based on a conceptual frame,or,in other words,there is certain similarity between the word family and its frame.Based on the analysis of the data,we find that hua word family members are mostly compounds,so we mainly study the compounds which are combined by two or more morphemes.There are two ways to represent the compounds in hua word family: attributive part "花" + central part,attributive part + the central part "花"."花" can be both the attributive and central part.In both ways lie some similarities and differences.As an attributive part,"花" and the central elements can represent the possessive relation,or presuppose an ACT EVENT frame;When "花" occurs as a central part,they two elements can represent the subordinate hierarchical category of flower.In some compounds,there are some intrinsic and essential similarities between "花"(whether it is the attributive or the central part) and the things that other elements represent.For the sake of the limited space,my study about word meaning change and shift just focuses on that of hua.From the perspective of Frame Semantics,we find that the change and shift of the meaning of hua mainly rely on the profiling of the relevant elements of the HUA frame or ACT EVENT frame and the shifting of the conceptual frame of hua.Meanwhile,according to the data analysis,we assume that the major cognitive mechanisms of word meaning change and shift are metaphor and metonymy.Due to the word meaning change and shift,hua becomes a polysemous word.Finally,this thesis points out the main reasons why hua turns to be polysemous:1) the mode of meaning extending;2) human beings' thinking model (from concrete to abstract);3) the change of the syntactic function of hua.What's more,some other reasons should not be ignored:social environment,customs and habits,cultural tradition,etc.Most importantly,the underlying cause for word meaning change or shift in hua word family is the similarities or relativities between the original concept and the target concept.Based on the encyclopedic knowledge network of hua,this thesis studies the hua word family comprehensively and systematically.Our study,focusing on the generation as well as understanding of hua word family,is an innovative application of Frame Semantics Theories;and is a supplement of cognitive lexical semantics of modern Chinese.What's more,this study of hua word family might be helpful for learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign language worldwide.