Metaphoric And Metonymic Studies On Swearwords In Hohhot Dialect

Falling into the Jin group in China’s dialectal regions, Hohhot dialect occupies a vital position in dialectal studies. Among others, the swearwords with "huo", "hou" and "gui" as suffixes bear unique typological characteristics. The previous studies concerned have touched upon the semantic features of this kind of swearwords, but little literature has been found that discusses the cognitive motivations. Therefore, it is necessary for us to continue this pursuit.According to Cognitive Linguistics, language abilities are part of general cognitive abilities. That is to say, relevant cognitive motivations must exist behind language phenomena. Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) and conceptual metonymy theory (CMyT), two important parts of Cognitive Linguistics, proves to be great success in seeking the motivation of lexical demonstrations.In view of this, this dissertation is intended to approach the cognitive motivations of the swearwords with "huo", "hou" and "gui" as suffixes from the perspectives of CMT and CMyT within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. The dissertation is specifically devoted to the following questions:(1) What is the cognitive motivation of the suffixes, "huo", "hou" and "gui", attached to swearwords in Hohhot dialect? (2) What is the cognitive motivation of the roots of swearwords of this kind in Hohhot dialect?This dissertation is an explanation-oriented qualitative study. The data are non-closed, which are mainly collected from The Western Chinese Dialectal Dictionary of Inner Mongolia (Ha Seng & Sheng Li 1995). It is concluded that (1) the cognitive motivation of the suffixes, "huo", "hou" and "gui", attached to the swearwords in Hohhot dialect, can be summarized as follows:the inhuman concepts these suffixes designated are used as source domains mapped onto the target domains referring to human. Thus, humans are conceptualized through inhuman concepts so that the semantic feature of swearing is realized. Therefore, the cognitive motivation of these suffixes is CMT; (2) The roots of swearwords with "huo", "hou" and "gui" as suffixes often single out one salient aspect of people so that the whole target concept of people is activated and conceptualized. Thus, the demonstrations of the roots of the swearwords in question are motivated by CMyT.The significance of the study is mainly reflected in the following two aspects. First, the employment of CMT and CMyT in discussing the cognitive motivations of the swearwords with "huo", "hou" and "gui" as suffixes deepens the understanding of swearwords of this kind, and provides a perspective or attempt for dialectal studies. Second, this dissertation extends the research fields within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics.