A Comparative Study Of The Meaning Construction Of English And Chinese Noun-noun Compounds From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory

As an important way of word formation to express new concepts,English and compounds are highly productive.According to the statistics of Yuan Chunfa and Changning(1998),compound nouns account for 51.1%of all the compounds consisting of components.Although noun-noun compounds are simple in form,they entail meanings and rich semantic relations.Scholars at home and abroad have researched compounds from various perspectives.Their studies mainly focus on the formation compounds and the semantic relations between the constituents.These studies,however,fail to elaborate on the dynamic meaning construction of noun-noun compounds.After a thorough investigation into the extant literature from various aspects,the author has found that the Conceptual Integration Theory proposed by Fauconnier(1997)is powerful in explaining the meaning construction of noun-noun compounds.The theory emphasizes the dynamic construction process of meaning.It provides a good theoretical framework for people to study the cognitive activities hidden in different languages.Conceptual integration networks are classified into five types:simplex network,mirror network,single-scope network,network,and multiple blend network.Based on relevant linguistic studies and for the purposes of this present study,the author has classified English and Chinese noun-noun compounds into types:relational type,conjunctive type,property-mapping type,paralleling type,hybrid type blended type.According to the different features of different types of noun-noun compounds,as well as the different properties of integration networks,the author has analyzed these six types of compounds in the above five networks.Through the analyses of English and Chinese noun-noun compounds from the of the Conceptual Integration Theory,this study has achieved the following findings:Firstly,the results of the thesis confirm that the Conceptual Integration Theory has a powerful explanatory force in the dynamic meaning construction of both English and noun-noun compounds.And the meaning construction of noun-noun compounds in both and English languages shares the same cognitive mechanism.Secondly,considering the different features of different kinds of English and noun-noun compounds,as well as the features of different types of integration networks,study has found the following correspondence.The meanings of relational noun-noun compounds can be constructed in simplex networks.The meanings of paralleling and conjunctive noun-noun compounds can be constructed in mirror networks.Property-mapping noun-noun compounds can be explained in single-scope networks.Hybrid noun-noun compounds can be analyzed in double-scope networks.And blended noun-noun compounds can be best explained in multiple blend networks.Thirdly,the study has also found some differences between English and Chinese noun-noun compounds.When analyzing the paralleling type of noun-noun compounds,the study has found that compounds like ??("character")and ??("quality")only exist in Chinese language.Although there are two paralleling morphemes in the compound,the meaning of one of them disappears when combined.In fact,this is due to the fact that Chinese people like repeating their words,and disyllabification is an important trend in the development of Chinese lexicology.Fourthly,it is also found that background knowledge and encyclopedic knowledge of language users are essential in the meaning construction of English and Chinese noun-noun compounds.Most noun-noun compounds have semantic indirectness,which means that the meaning of a compound cannot be obtained from the literal meanings of its constituting components.And some noun-noun compounds have metaphorical quality,which means that the two components constituting a compound show metaphorical features in the course of the meaning construction,with one component metaphorically modifying the other component.And it is found that noun-noun compounds having semantic indirectness do not necessarily have metaphorical quality,but those owning metaphorical quality necessarily have semantic indirectness.This thesis makes a comparative study of English and Chinese noun-noun compounds from cognitive perspective.The research findings support and enrich the Conceptual Integration Theory in general and the study of compounds in particular.Meanwhile,the research findings of the present study also shed light on second language acquisition,especially in the area of vocabulary learning.