A Research On The Cognitive Mechanism Of The Network New Word-Family Of “zhai”

In recent years, the new word-family of "zhai" has becoming increasingly popular, which has attracted the attention of many scholars. However, previous studies of the new word-family of "zhai" mostly remain in such static fields as, semantics, syntax, and other aspects, but do not find out the internal mechanisms of its meaning variation. This study intends to apply the two theories: Conceptual Blending Theory(hereinafter, called CBT) and Coercion Theory(hereinafter, called CT) together as the theoretical background. It is discovered that CBT is deficient in interpreting the production mechanism of certain words and phrases, and CT cannot fully explain the generation mechanisms of them, either. Thus, this paper attempts to integrate CBT and CT together to reveal the internal generation mechanism of the new word-family of "zhai" and then to verify the effectiveness of the integration.In this study, we believe that the output and the understanding of the emergent meaning of the new word-family of “zhai” cannot be fully explained by a single cognitive mechanism, but needs a coordination and an integration of a variety of cognitive styles. We try to apply Conceptual Blending Theory and Coercion Theory in cognitive linguistics as the theoretical background and the 287 items of the new word-family of “zhai” which are collected from such channels as baidu.com, YAHOO network, People’s Daily, Xinhua network, Fenghuang network, Chinese Language Life Status Report in the recent five years as the corpus as well as the qualitative and quantitative research method to dig out the internal cognitive mechanism and to make a reasonable explanation of the new word-family of “zhai”. This paper mainly focuses on the following aspects: the feasibility of the integration of CBT with CT in explaining the new word-family of “zhai”; different processes of meaning production between different types of “zhai” phrases. And the followings are what the research finds:Firstly, CBT has its own defect in explaining the production mechanism of the new word-family of “zhai”. In other words, CBT cannot explain why some conflicting and contradictory components of the phrases of “zhai” in the input spaces can enter the blended space smoothly. In addition, CBT is unable to present a clear explanation of how these conflicting elements enter the blended space, either. However, this can be resolved by CT. As for CT, it cannot fully explain the whole process of the meaning construction of the new word-family of “zhai”. Thus, these above are the feasibility of integrating CBT with CT in the explanation of the new word-family of “zhai”.Secondly, Through the detailed analysis of the “zhai + X” structure and the “X + zhai” structure, we find that all the new word-families of “zhai” will go through the process of conceptual blending, in which coercion plays a vital role. In terms of the “zhai + X” structure, coercion usually happens between the whole construction and the word “zhai”. While as for the “X + zhai” structure, the process of coercion depends on the part of speech of “X”. When X is an adjective, coercion usually happens between the two items(X and “zhai”). When X is a noun, coercion usually happens between the whole construction and two items. When X is an adverb, coercion happens between the adverb and the word “zhai”. In addition, when X is a noun, the final meaning generation and construal of the “noun + zhai” structure will involve the process of metaphor.A comprehensive and systematic cognitive research on the production mechanisms of the new word-family of "zhai" will have certain significance to the development of cognitive linguistics and can also exert cognitive influence on people who pay attention to the internet neologisms.