Theoretical Analysis Of Retronym

Retronym, as a special kind of compounding constructions, the “unnecessary” languagemaker, usually a modifier, makes it different from the general phenomenon of lexicalbroadening. Current studies on retronym at home and abroad concentrate on the popularscience education, while the academic research is rare. This thesis focuses on the analysis ofthe coinage and transmission mechanisms of retronym and its pragmatic value from theperspectives of linguistics.Firstly, from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this thesis puts forward a possiblemodel of the coinage of retronym from the view of categorization, metaphor and prototypeshift and split. Based on the qualitative distinguish between each phases in the coinage ofretronym, the generation model of retronym is established.Secondly, by analyzing the transmission of retronym from the perspective of memetics,the research shows that because of the duplication and transmission of strong memes inretronym, a lot of words that share the same memes are coined, which leads to the iconicityof language at the lexical level.And by the summarization of retronym examples in different fields of society, theresearch shows that retronym has strong vitality not only in the field of science, but in variousdomains, which is because retronyms are of great pragmatic value in conversation. Byanalyzing the edible oil advertisements in China, the pragmatic value of retronym has beencarefully examined at the angel of advertising.This research reveals:(1) retronym is not a simple language phenomenon, but a reflection of human cognitionat language level;(2) as a dynamic language phenomenon, human cognitive mechanismsfunction in the generation process of retronym subconsciously or unconsciously;(3) thestrong meme in retronym are duplicated continuously during its transmission, therefore a lotof new words that shares the same meme are coined, which results in the iconicity oflanguage at the lexical level;(4) the “original redundant” information embodied in retronym is of strong pragmatic value in conversation.