Studies On English Shell Nouns-from Perspectives Of Cognition

This study mainly deals with a special kind of abstract nouns—"shell nouns"and their linguistic environments. There are a large number of such kinds of nouns in English, including case, chance, fact, idea, news, point, problem, position and so on. These nouns with high frequency are used to capture the idea that they create conceptual shells for complex pieces of information expressed by phrases or clauses. Therefore, they are proposed as"shell nouns"by Hans-J?rg Schmid, who is a famous German grammarian.The uses of"shell nouns"reflect the experiential foundation of language structure. There is a large amount of complex information which needs to be re-expressed or predicted in the discourse. However, due to the limited capacity of memory, such information cannot be re-mentioned linearly. It has to be packaged by"shell nouns". The language information packaging not only reveals the iconicity between reality and the discourse, but also means that the language structure reflects the human's cognitive structure."Shell nouns"are surprisingly versatile and powerful linguistic conceptual tools.Recently, more and more scholars at home and abroad have begun to focus on"shell nouns"as their research objects. Based on the former studies, this paper makes use of mental space theory, conceptual integration theory, experimental identity and container metaphor, tries to analyze and discuss the characteristics, classifications, grammatical patterns, functions and cognitive effects of"shell nouns", and aims to explain the fundamental reason for their existence. It offers us a new perspective to explore abstract nouns. The current study attempts to elaborate the uses of"shell nouns"from the following aspects:1. Why do speakers use"shell nouns"so frequently?2. What is the relationship between"shell nouns"and"shell contents"?3. How do"shell nouns"function in different grammatical patterns? This paper has applied cognitive inference to study English"shell nouns", based on the COBUILD corpus. Through the analysis of the collected data, it suggests that the frequency of vocabulary uses has connection with human's cognition. It also reveals that"shell nouns"are context-dependent. Without the"shell contents", they will become superficial and information-thirsty, just like empty containers. Moreover,"shell nouns"serve the functions of characterization, focusing and topicalization, and linking."Shell nouns"also serve the cognitive effect of temporary concept formation, i.e. conceptual partitioning, reifying and hypostatizing, and conceptual integrating. In addition,"shell nouns"are a core feature of English academic vocabulary.