A Contrastive Study On Lexicalization Patterns Of Access Path Fictive Motion Expressions In English And Chinese

In recent years,fictive motion has become an important research topic in cognitive semantics.As one of the subordinate branches of fictive motion,an access path refers to a depiction of a stationary object’s location in terms of a path.This study discusses the lexicalization patterns of access path fictive motion in English and Chinese under the framework of Talmy’s Lexicalization Pattern Theory.This study further investigates the similarities and differences on lexicalization patterns of the two languages.Based on the texts of "TED English Chinese Parallel Corpus of Speech",retrieved by the key words "across","through","down" and"over",this study obtains the preliminary research data,which is later screened and classified through manual work.The lexicalization patterns of Chinese access path expressions are classified according to Chinese translations.Considering the limitations of parallel corpus,this study selects two authoritative native language corpora,COCA and CCL,as auxiliary corpora to further validate the research findings.This study has yielded the following findings based on the research data collected:1)The number of access path expressions is relatively small in both English and Chinese.2)Both English and Chinese include three lexicalization patterns when expressing access path.There are two common types,including the "complete path pattern" and the "pragmatic path pattern".There is a unique pattern in English and Chinese respectively,including the "overlapping path pattern" and the "static reference pattern".3)There are three similarities between English and Chinese in expressing access path:First,the retention of path information.Second,the omission of moving entity.Third,the expression of duration and distance of motion.Also,there are three differences:First,the encoding mode of path elements is different.English access path uses prepositional phrases to represent key path information,while Chinese access path uses verb phrases to represent key path information.Second,the encoding order of path elements is different.English access path usually places the stationary object in the subject position,while Chinese access path tends to put it at the end of the sentence.Third,both English and Chinese have their own unique expression structures and modes.There are similarities between English and Chinese in expressing access path,which reflect the universality of cognitive models behind different languages.The differences are inextricably linked with the internal characteristics of the two language systems,the translator’s translation methods,and the way of thinking between the two nations.This study summarizes the types of lexicalization patterns of access path in English and Chinese,and further discusses the similarities and differences on lexicalization patterns of the two languages,which has certain reference value for second language teaching,English-Chinese translation,and the typological research of motion event.