概念整合理论视角下2014年WordSpy英语新词意义建构的研究
1 Introduction
1.1 Background and Significance of the Study
Language, a mirror that reflects changes in society, is the epitome of the development of politics, economy and culture. With rapid globalization and deep influence of informational revolution, people have to experience the things that they have never seen or imagined. When the existing vocabulary can no longer satisfy the needs of communication, neologisms come into being. Among the three elements that comprise a language, pronunciation and grammar are more stable compared with vocabulary. As a matter of fact, vocabulary is the most dynamic and most sensitive element that responds to the changes in a language.The study of English neologisms dates back to 20th century, and are mainly carried out from the perspectives of word-formation, semantics and lexicology. Most linguists endeavor to make clear the origin and usage of newly emerged words, while few of them focus on employing the approach of cognitive linguistics. But with the painstaking efforts made by numerous respectable cognitive linguists, cognitive approach has proved itself on providing a new perspective of explaining linguistic phenomena. The rudiment of Conceptual Integration Theory is Mental Space Theory proposed by Gilles Fauconnier in his book Mental Spaces (1985). This theory originated from Conceptual Metaphor Theory presented in Metaphors We Live By written by Lakoff & Johnson(1980). While unveiling the process of generating and interpreting the meaning of natural languages, Mental Space Theory was still ambiguous in specific procedures. Nevertheless, with the publication of a series of devoted works, i.e. Principles of Conceptual Integration (1996), Conceptual Integration Networks (1998), The Way We Think : Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities (2002), Fauconnier finally brought forward the mature Conceptual Integration Theory. The meaning of “conceptual integration” refers to the blends of mental spaces, which are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk, for purposes of local understanding and action. The establishment of Conceptual Integration Theory provides us with a handy tool to discover the hidden iceberg of the meaning construction and information integration of languages.
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1.2 Research Questions
This thesis attempts to answer the following three questions: (1) Can Conceptual Integration Theory be applied to analyzing the meaning construction of English neologisms? (2) How does the Conceptual Integration Theory interpret English neologisms? (3) How do conceptual integration networks correspond with types of English neologisms?
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2 Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Neologism
The term “neologism” is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme. This word is formed by two roots, “neo” and “logo”, and in Greek, “neo” means new, “logo” means speech or utterance. Thus, the combination of these two roots account for the meaning of neologism, which is “new word”. The explanations of neologism given by authorized dictionaries are as follows: a new word or a new meaning for an established word in Webster’s New World Dictionary(1951); any word phrase, or sense that came into popular use or enjoyed, a vogue in the given period in The Oxford Dictionary of New Words(1998); a new word or expression or a new meaning of a word in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary(6th Edition) edited by Albert Hornby(2000). Bussman(1991), in his work Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics, expresses that neologisms are newly-formed language form recognized by part of the language users. The famous online encyclopedia “Wikipedia”, combined with the ideas of Malmkjaer(2006) and Levchenko(2010), defines a neologism as the name for a newly coined term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Coming from the perspective of linguistics and with a different purpose, linguists propose other versions of the definition of neologisms. Bloomfield(1933) defines a word as “a free form which is not a phrase, is a word. A word then is a free form which does not consist entirely of (two or more) lesser free forms: that is, a word is a minimum free form.” Plag(2003) conceives that new words are able to describe the new things and new concepts, convey some people’s attitudes or provide some variables, the new meaning arises whenever a short form is added by some morpheme. According to Bowker and Pearson(2002) a neologism may also be formed in another way, however, by assigning a new meaning to an existing word, sometimes called a semantic extension. Chinese linguist Han Qingguo(2003)maintains that neologisms are the words that are created to adapt to new invention, new things or new social phenomena, besides, existing words can also be recognized as neologisms when added with new meanings in new cultural context. In linguistics, neologism is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created(“coined”) - often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form.
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2.2 Previous Studies on English Neologisms Abroad
John Algeo(1991), the noted American neologism expert, demonstrated in the preface of his book Fifty Years Among the New Words, “although the dictionary of new word is warmly welcomed by readers only in recent years, actually the compiling of English dictionary began with the collection of new word ever since 1604.” In this regard, the research of English neologisms started from the compilation of English dictionaries. Some early English dictionaries like Table Alphabeticall (1604, Robert Cawdrey), An English Expositor: Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Used in our Language (1616, John Bullokar), and The English Dictionarie (1623, Henry Cockeram) all contained so-called “hard words”, which were absolutely new words to people in those days. These “hard words” were prompts for the scientific and systematic research on neologisms in the 20th century. In 1902, the book Word-Coinage, Being an Inquiry into Recent Neologisms, Also a Brief of Literary Style, Slang, and Provincialisms written by Leon Mead (1902) was recognized as the first book studying neologisms. Unlike a dictionary of neologisms, this book contained some articles about new words, in which the idea of making research on new words was put forward for the first time in history. Besides, lots of examples of new words created by some American writers at that time were also included. In 1920, a dean of the English department of United States Naval Academy named Alphonso Smith (1920) wrote a book entitled New Words Self-defined, in which 420 new words were illustrated by examples. He indicated specific date for every sentence that firstly contains certain new word. Though most of the new words recorded in this book are military words, it represented the first attempt to study English neologisms in the form of dictionary compilation. Another way to study neologisms was first used by Dwight Bolinger, a librarian in New York. He created a column The Living Language in the newspaper Words, discussing the neologisms in periodical sequences during 1937-1940. While in 1943, his column was brought into a magazine American Speech and renamed as Among the New Words. In the next year, Professor I. Willis Russell took the place of Bolinger and became the chief-editor of the column. The article he wrote Words and Meanings, New introduced a lot of new words and their new meanings.
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3 Theoretical Framework ...... 8
3.1 Introduction to Conceptual Integration Theory ......8
3.2 Conceptual Integration Network Model ...... 9
3.2.1 Mental Spaces ..... 10
3.2.2 The Process of Conceptual Integration ......... 12
3.2.3 Optimality Principles ......... 13
3.2.4 Types of Conceptual Integration Networks .......... 14
4 Cognitive Analysis on 2014 English Neologisms on Word Spy .......... 17
4.1 Classification of 2014 English Neologisms on Word Spy .... 17
4.1.1 English Neologisms Created by Word-formation ....... 18
4.1.2 English Neologisms Created by Adding New Meanings to Existing Words...... 21
4.1.3 English Neologisms Created by Borrowing Words from Other Languages......21
4.2 Conceptual Integration Theory-based Analysis ...... 22
4.3 Summary of Result and Analysis ....... 32
5 Conclusion .......... 33
5.1 Major Findings of the Study ........ 34
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study ........ 35
4 Cognitive Analysis on 2014 English Neologisms on Word Spy
In the above chapters, this thesis has gone through the literature review on the study of English neologisms and the theoretical framework of Conceptual Integration Theory. Linguists of different times have studied on English neologisms for a long time and from various aspects. Lexicology and morphology have been putting their emphases on the classification and the formulation of neologisms. Conceptual Integration Theory stands as a hypothesis to possess the explanatory power for explaining the meaning construction of English neologisms. From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, the formation of neologisms can seen as a cognitive phenomenon that constructs new meanings through blending various information. The process is a reflection of human beings’ cognitive ability, creativity and imagination. As for this chapter, the application of Conceptual Integration Theory on analyzing English neologisms is based on the traditional classification methods. The first part of this chapter focuses on analyzing how English neologisms are formed and how to classify the collected neologisms into proper types from a morphological perspective. While the second part, the main body of the whole thesis, endeavors to explain the meaning construction of the collected English neologisms by applying Conceptual Integration Theory.
Conclusion
This chapter functions as the conclusion of the whole thesis, and consists of two parts. In the first place, main findings of the thesis is supposed to be summarized. Then, limitations and suggestions are brought forward as assistance for future studies.Conceptual Integration Theory offers a fresh perspective to interpret the meaning construction of English neologisms. Through examining the fundamental theories of Conceptual Integration Network - mental spaces, the process of conceptual integration, optimality principles and types of conceptual integration networks, the theoretical framework for analyzing English neologisms is established. This thesis is based on the 2014 English neologisms on Word Spy, which is an international website for words’ lovers. The analysis of the data is initiated from classifying the collected neologisms into different lexical categories. The method of word-formation accounts for the emergence of most English neologisms, and it includes compounding, blending, affixation, abbreviation and analogy. Another two important methods to create neologisms are via adding new meanings to existing words and borrowing from other languages. Conceptual Integration Theory-based analysis proceeds from the traditional classification of the collected English neologisms. As word-formation contributes the most to create English neologisms, more efforts are made in this regard. During the process of analyzing, a cognitive mechanism is generally formed to parse the meaning construction of English neologisms. First, two input spaces are established. To distinguish the types of conceptual integration networks, frames of the input spaces have to be examined as the different condition in each frame will definitely lead the meaning construction of the collected neologisms to fall into different types of conceptual integration networks. Then, cross-space mappings facilitate the connections between two input spaces. As last, during the elaboration, background knowledge and imaginative work are added to generate the emergent structure.
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