Research On The Metaphorical Metonymy Mechanism Of Pictographic Knowing Characters From The Perspective Of Image Schema

As one of the six categories;associative compounds constitute an essential part of Chinese characters.The earliest form of associative compounds is hieroglyphic associative compound in the ancient time,which belongs to hieroglyphics of Chinese,the most ancient forms of symbols in expressing meanings and recording languages.Hieroglyphic are combinations of forms and meanings,which are pictographic characters that express meanings in their vivid forms.The earliest forms of Chinese characters can be traced back to oracles,which are the earliest form of hieroglyphics of Chinese.So,in the system of hieroglyphics,hieroglyphic associative compounds are also the most original form of associative compounds nowadays.The configurations and meanings are essential parts for forming hieroglyphic associative compounds.Although many scholars have made studies on associative compounds to detect the forms and meanings.However,few studies combine the forms and meanings of associative compounds together to make research.Besides,fewer studies have cast sight to hieroglyphic associative compounds,which are the most original forms of associative compounds in the modern time.Thus,on the basis of former studies of associative compounds,this thesis turns its sight to hieroglyphic associative compounds,which intends to studies the configurations and meaning formations together through the theories of Image Schema and Metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy,which are combined together to form a theoretical model called ISM Model.Through ISM Model,this study aims to find the image schemata of hieroglyphic associative compound.Then,on the basis of image schemata,this study aims to detect the metaphor mechanism,metonymy mechanism,and metaphtonymy mechanism of the hieroglyphic associative compounds' meaning formation.Based on the theoretical framework of ISM Model,which is a combination of the theories of Image Schema,Metaphor,Metonymy and Metaphtonymy,this study conducts the analysis of the hieroglyphic associative compounds collected in the thesis.Based on the theory of image schema,this thesis analyzes all the hieroglyphic associative compounds in details.This thesis proposes seventeen image schemata for the symbols consisting hieroglyphic associative compounds,in which 6 image schemata,“Undertake”,“Grip”,“Pick”,“Capture”,“Kneel”,and “Path”,are newly proposed.According to the similarities of the seventeen image schemata,they are divided into three schema categories,which are Human body schema category,Object schema category,and Human body & Object schema category.On the basis of seventeen image schemata found for hieroglyphic associative compounds,this thesis further detects the metaphor mechanism,metonymy mechanism and metaphtonymy mechanism of hieroglyphic associative compounds,finding that the metaphor mechanism involves six categories,which are part-whole metaphor mechanism,interaction metaphor mechanism,container metaphor mechanism,splitting metaphor mechanism,scale metaphor mechanism and counterforce metaphor mechanism.Metonymy mechanism includes three categories,whole-part metonymy mechanism,part-whole metonymy mechanism and link metonymy mechanism.Metaphtonymy contains twelve categories,which are part-whole(object)metaphtonymy mechanism,full-empty metaphtonymy mechanism,splitting metaphtonymy mechanism,part-whole(human body & object)metaphtonymy mechanism,interaction metaphtonymy mechanism,restraint metaphtonymy mechanism,undertake metaphtonymy mechanism,grip metaphtonymy mechanism,pick metaphtonymy mechanism,capture metaphtonymy mechanism,kneel metaphtonymy mechanism,and path metaphtonymy mechanism.All of these categories of metaphor mechanism,metonymy mechanism and metaphtonymy mechanism are derived from the image schemata of hieroglyphic associative compounds.In conclusion,there are seventeen image schemata of hieroglyphic associative compounds.On the basis of image schemata,this study finds that most hieroglyphic associative compounds express meanings through metaphtonymy mechanism.Some express meanings through metaphor mechanism,and only a few through metonymy mechanism.According to the analysis on hieroglyphic associative compound through vi image schema,metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy,this study finds that image schema is the basic structure of metaphorical mapping,which is a support for the statement that image schema is the preconceptual structure of metaphorical projection.