An Exploration on the Modes of Word Meaning Extension Based on Metaphorical and Metonymic Mechanisms

Abstract

According to the cognitive linguistics, metaphor and metonymy, as the two basic cognitive methods, are the main resource of meaning extension. Based on that, we attempted to explore the meaning extension modes through studying the concrete language materials of Kan and the visual verb group. The extensions of Kan, the basic level category word, are motivated by the two metaphorical modes of thinking-as-vision and mentality-as-vision, the three metonymic modes of "core behavior and its supportive acts", "the whole event and its parts" and "the behavioral result and its process". Most visual verbs have the metaphorical extensions and inherit the mind-as-vision and mentality-as-vision modes of Kan. It shows that the whole word group is affected by the same metaphorical and metonymic mechanisms. The extensions of word meanings in one group share the same modes. In order to improve the intelligent level of natural language processing, we should not only mark the existing meaning extensions into the machine readable dictionary, but, more important, turn the extension modes into executable programs that will make the machine have a certain capability of sense prediction. The extension modes should be explored with word group as unit and basic level category words as emphasis.