A Study On English Herb Names Based On The BMR Model

Herbs have an essential position and role in human society.The use of herbs in English-speaking countries has a long history and a wide range of applications.The naming of English herbs is influenced by various social factors such as English and American culture,history,and religion.Therefore,herb names have gradually formed over the long-term use of herbs by humans.In light of this,this thesis takes English herb names as the object of study to reveal their naming patterns and cognitive mechanisms on the one hand and to explain the characteristics of metaphorical and herb names and the influence of social factors behind them on the other.This thesis takes a cognitive sociolinguistic perspective and combines the Conceptual Blending Theory,the Naming Metaphor View,and the Cognitive Reference Point Theory to construct the BMR model(B represents the Conceptual Blending Theory,M represents the Naming Metaphor View,and R represents the Cognitive Reference Point Theory).The model explores the cognitive process and mechanism of English herb naming.The BMR model reveals that metaphor and metonymy are inseparable in the naming process,while the cognitive process is the naming process,and the naming process is the cognitive process.This thesis systematically analyses 460 herb names from the Handbook of Medicinal Herbs.Through corpus analysis,229 herb names were identified as metaphorical,including four types of conceptual metaphors: “herbs are people,” “herbs are animals,” “herbs are things,” and “herbs are plants.” 231 herb names were identified as metonymic,highlighting the characteristics of herbs(growing area or environment,colour,smell,texture)and the features of a specific part of the herb(leaves,fruit,roots).Studies have shown that subjective psychological factors with emotional overtones influence metaphorical herbal naming.And socio-cultural factors play an important role in metaphorical naming,and the characteristics of such herbs are usually compared with the phenomena of human society.Therefore,metaphorical naming inherits herbal knowledge and culture;herb names are important cultural and social cognition representations.In metonymic herb names,the subject of the herb is not mentioned,but the subject is referred to by the characteristics of its category or part of it.Among them,there are three types of relationships between the tenor and the vehicle in the naming process of metonymic herb names: the vehicle is a part of the tenor,the vehicle is associated with the tenor,and the vehicle contains the tenor.The metaphorical and metonymic analysis of herb names reveals that the relationship between metaphor and metonymy is inseparable,and most metaphorical names are named based on metonymy.At the same time,this thesis demonstrates the feasibility of the BMR model in analyzing the naming mechanism,which provides a new idea and analytical framework for naming research.