A Corpus-Based Study On Metaphorical Semantics Of English Spatial Prepositions By Chinese EFL College Students Of Non-English Majors

The number of prepositions accounts for a small proportion in English,but they are frequently used and are enriched a wide range of meanings,which plays an important role in the understanding and use of English.According to Kennedy(1998),one out of eight words in English is a preposition.The concept of space occupies an important position in the human cognitive process.Most prepositions are endowed with space semantics.The metaphorical meanings of space prepositions are closely related to the cultural environment of language users.Due to the differences in thinking mode between Chinese and Western,Chinese students show great differences from native speakers when using prepositions.Based on prototype theory,image schema,and space metaphor in cognitive linguistics,this study retrieves the top five space prepositions(in,on,at,from,up)in CLEC(ST3,ST4)and BNC(W1,W2)by the concordance function in Ant Conc.Then the frequencies of these prepositions in the space domain and other metaphorical domains are compared by Pearson Chi-square test in SPSS to check if there are differences and similarities between the two sub-copra.After that,log-likelihood is used to check whether Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors underuse or overuse the prepositions in the metaphorical domains.By analyzing the experimental data,the results are as follows:(1)On the whole,compared with British college students,Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors overuse preposition “in”.By analyzing preposition “in” in the different metaphorical domains,it can be found that there is no difference in the manner domain,and that Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors underuse preposition “in” in the object domain and state domain,and overuse preposition “in” in the time domain and logic domain.(2)On the whole,compared with British college students,Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors overuse preposition “on”.By analyzing preposition “on” in the different metaphorical domains,it can be found that Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors underuse preposition “on” in the object domain,state domain,time domain,and logic domain,and overuse preposition “on” in the manner domain.(3)On the whole,compared with British college students,Chinese EFL college students ofnon-English majors underuse preposition “at”.By analyzing preposition “at” in the different metaphorical domains,it can be found that Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors underuse preposition “at” in the scale domain and target domain,and overuse preposition “at” in the time domain,manner domain,and state domain.(4)On the whole,it shows no usage difference of preposition “from” between these two corpora.However,when it comes to the specific metaphorical domains,it can be found that there is no difference in the manner domain,and that Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors underuse preposition “from” in the object domain and state domain,and overuse preposition “from” in the logic domain,time domain,scope domain,and number domain.(5)On the whole,it shows no usage difference of preposition “up” between these two corpora.However,when it comes to the specific metaphorical domains,it can be found that there is no difference in the state domain and time domain,and that Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors overuse preposition “up” in the number domain.By analyzing the results from different aspects,the author finds out the main reasons why there is no difference in the metaphorical semantics of prepositions is the positive transfer of mother tongue;the reasons why Chinese ELF college students of non-English majors underuse the metaphorical semantics of preposition are the negative transfer from mother tongue,limitation in lexical breadth,and weakness in lexical depth;and the reasons why they overuse some are the negative transfer from mother tongue,violation of quantity maxim,and weakness in collocational competence.By analyzing the prepositional usage similarities and differences between Chinese EFL college students of non-English majors and British college students,this study is helpful for Chinese students and teachers to understand the meanings of prepositions and the problems in learning prepositions.The author also gives some suggestions on how to learn and teach prepositions in the specific domains.