A Study Of Cognitive Metonymy In Netspeak

Internet is one of the greatest inventions in the twentieth century, which has a deep influence on every aspect of people’s lives. With the wide spread of Internet and computers, great changes have been made in human life. The Internet has led people to a new Internet cultural era. As a new special linguistic phenomenon, Netspeak has been born. Different from our daily communication and written language, this new type of language possesses the distinctive features of figurativeness, simplification, diversity and openness. Nowadays, Netspeak plays an increasingly remarkable role in daily communication. Netspeak enriches the vocabulary in language and greatly affects human life as well. The special linguistic phenomenon has attracted more attention from all sectors of the society. Therefore, it is quite necessary to conduct studies on Netspeak.As a newly arisen language phenomenon, the vocabularies in Netspeak fully embody the nature of metonymy and meet the fast and efficient needs in network communication. In Cognitive Linguistics, metonymy is not just a rhetorical device but a cognitive process. The nature of metonymy is the substitution between an entity, an event and another one on the basis of salience property. This thesis starts from conceptual framework in cognitive metonymy, tries to combine theories in cognitive metonymy with Netspeak to conduct a research on the working mechanism and meaning construction of metonymy in Netspeak in order to better understand the formation of Netspeak and facilitate the development and application of cognitive metonymy as well.This thesis consists of three parts which include introduction, main body and conclusion. The major concrete contents are as follows:The first part is introduction. It is an introduction to the study background of the thesis and a summary of the previous studies on Netspeak and metonymy. Besides, a review is given in this part including the innovation points, research methods, research purpose and the theoretical and practical significance.The second part is the main body of the thesis, which is composed of four chapters.Chapter Ⅰ is the literature review of the whole thesis which includes three sections. An introduction to cognitive metonymy theories is stated in the first section. Detailed illustrations are given on the definition, nature and classification of cognitive metonymy. A comprehensive explanation is carried out on the cognitive properties of cognitive metonymy and the classification based on Panther & Thornburg’s view. Based on Panther & Thornburg, cognitive metonymy is classified into three categories:referential metonymy, predicational metonymy and illocutionary metonymy. The first one is the most frequently seen one that is also called referential shift. The second refers to the substitution of one statement for another. It refers to that the potentiality of an event metonymically relates with the actuality event. The last implies the speech act which means one part of the speech acts can metonymically represent the whole scenarios in the whole speech acts. An overview of Netspeak is stated in the second section including the definition and features. The third section is a systematic illustration of the relationships between Netspeak and cognitive metonymy. From the illustration, the author points out that Netspeak embodies the nature and feature of metonymy.Chapter Ⅱ is the analysis of referential metonymy in Netspeak, its working mechanism and meaning construction process. A large number of examples are demonstrated which prove that referential metonymy is a cognitive thinking mode with explanatory power in the construction of Netspeak. Since referential metonymy is the most common form in life, so there are abundant data analysis on the application of referential metonymy. Two sections are included in this chapter. The first one is an analysis on lexical level; the other is syntactic level. On lexical level, homophones, acronyms and abbreviations and coined words are listed in the thesis. On syntactic level, some newly arisen sentences in Netspeak are listed in the thesis. The Netspeak on syntactic level is primarily the newly arisen three or four-character which express a sentence meaning.Chapter Ⅲ is the analysis of predicational metonymy in Netspeak, its working mechanism and meaning construction process. Predicational metonymy occurs at event level rather than entity level. An explanation is given in this chapter on how meanings of metonymic expressions are constructed at event level. Different from referential metonymy, predicational metonymy is the metonymy of the predicate. It includes potentiality for actuality and general for specific. Two sections are included in this chapter. The first section is the analysis of potentiality for actuality. The second section is the analysis of the general for the specific.Chapter Ⅳ is the analysis of illocutionary metonymy in Netspeak, its working mechanism and meaning construction process. An analysis is given in this chapter on the metonymic Nestpeak at speech acts or scenarios. A speech act is composed of three components:the BEFOR, the CORE/RESULY and the AFTER. Each component of the scenario with the potentiality can metonymically stand for the whole speech act scenario. It has great explanatory power on comprehending indirect speech acts. Two sections are included in this chapter. The first section is an analysis on direct speech acts; the second section is indirect speech acts.The third part is the conclusion of the thesis. A generalization is made in this chapter including the main findings and shortcomings of the thesis. Through the analysis of cognitive metonymy in Netspeak, a new research perspective is provided on Netspeak generation, development and application of cognitive metonymy. Certain theoretical and practical significance are exhibited which are enlightening for the innovative development in Netspeak. Cognitive metonymy enriches language vocabularies and facilitates network communication. Moreover, the author points out the limitation and shortcomings of the research and makes some suggestions on future research in order to make a more comprehensive and systematic research on Netspeak.