A Metonymic Approach To Chinese Lexical Abbreviations

This research is to discuss and analyze the motivation, production and interpretation of Chinese lexical abbreviations so as to discover the cognitive basis for Chinese lexical abbreviation, thus providing a tentative answer to the question why Chinese words and phrases can be abbreviated. A metonymic approach is taken to explore these questions. Metonymy in cognitive linguistics is viewed as a basic cognitive faculty that is available to every ordinary person. It is a common way people think and act. One type of the basic metonymic cognition is to use part of a thing to stand for the whole thing. Chinese lexical abbreviation is based on this part-for-whole metonymic cognition.The Principle of Least Effort is seen as the essential motivation of Chinese lexical abbreviation. To reach the goal of least effort in language use, both interlocutors should be taken into account. In the speaker’s respect, the goal of least effort is reached by means of the part-for-whole metonymy in Chinese lexical abbreviation. In the hearer’s respect, metonymic contiguity leads to the goal of least effort in that it reminds the hearer of the original expressions easily. The methods and principles of producing Chinese lexical abbreviations aim to seek metonymic contiguity between the Chinese lexical abbreviations and their original expressions.The process of producing Chinese lexical abbreviations is a kind of metonymic mapping. Metonymic mappings can occur on either the conceptual level, or the formal level of language, or both, which cause conceptual metonymy, formal metonymy and conceptual-formal metonymy, respectively. The last two result in the shortening of the linguistic form thus leading to Chinese lexical abbreviations. The process of producing Chinese lexical abbreviations is in nature the process of metonymic mapping between two linguistic units, including partial mapping on the formal level and holistic mapping on the conceptual level. It is because of these two kinds of mapping taking place simultaneously that the meaning of the Chinese words and phrases, whose forms are shortened, remains unchanged.Interpreting Chinese lexical abbreviations is a cognitive process of metonymic mapping as well as pragmatic inference. The process includes two main stages: first spreading activation in the internal lexicon, and then narrowing down the options. When a Chinese lexical abbreviation is perceived, the related nodes on the network of the internal lexicon are activated, and the activation spreads to other relevant nodes. As a result, the hearer can associate with other relevant linguistic forms and concepts. Then, the hearer narrows down the options by virtue of stereotypical relations and/or cognitive context to understand this abbreviation correctly.In short, the cognitive basis of Chinese lexical abbreviations is metonymic cognition, the motivation of Chinese lexical abbreviation—the Principle of Least Effort—is embodied by the part-for-whole metonymy and metonymic contiguity, the process of producing Chinese lexical abbreviations is a kind of metonymic mapping, and interpreting Chinese lexical abbreviations is a process of pragmatic inference based on the metonymic cognition. It is because of this universal metonymic cognition that Chinese lexical abbreviations can survive and prosper.