代写语言学硕士论文题目：隐喻理论视角下反义词不对称性探讨--以“up/down”为例

本文是一篇语言学硕士论文，本研究将隐喻理论引入到反义词不对称现象的研究中，旨在深入阐释反义词不对称的生成机制。反义词可以分为互补反义词、极性反义词和方向反义词。互补反义词表示非此即彼的关系，二者完全对立且无中间状态；极性反义词表示同一义域的两极，二者之间存在中间状态；方向反义词表示两个状态朝相反方向改变，互为条件，相互依存。

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background

There are many asymmetric phenomena in language.Antonyms,as a paradigmaticmanifestation of semantic opposition,demonstrate significant asymmetry.They areasymmetric in word-formation and order.For instance,the antonym pair“up/down”,formed through metaphorical cognition,can be used in“add up”but not in“add down”.Domestic research,from the perspectives of markedness theory,pragmatics,corpuslinguistics,semantic categories,and contrastive linguistics,has revealed the superiorityof unmarked items in frequency and distribution,and confirmed the asymmetric semanticextension via corpus methods.Foreign Studies,from experimental linguistics,morphology,and corpus analysis,has demonstrated antonymic asymmetry in cognitiveprocessing,morphological markedness,and sociolinguistic application.

Nevertheless,despite research from markedness theory,pragmatics,and corpuslinguistics,the cognitive mechanisms of antonymic asymmetry remain under-explored.Markedness theory explains some asymmetry but not semantic expansion patterns.Pragmatic studies focus on usage but lack cognitive analysis.Corpus studies describephenomena but pay scant attention to metaphor’s intentionality,supervenience derivation,and second-order representation.Metaphor-based research touches on bodily experiencemapping but it has yet to comprehensively integrate profound cognitive features likeintentionality,supervenience derivation,and second-order representation.

1.2 Research Methodology

This study,guided by metaphor theory,employs a case-study approach,taking theantonym pair“up/down”as an example to systematically investigate antonymicasymmetry.The specific methods are as follows.

This study employs the Spoken BNC2014 corpus and utilizes the AntConc tool foranalysis.Subsequently,the data is manually cleaned and organized.AntConc,developedby Laurence Anthony,is a freely available open-source corpus analysis tool.It has beenwidely applied across diverse fields such as linguistics,literature research,and textmining.In the present study,AntConc serves as the primary corpus analysis instrument,offering robust support for the investigation of the asymmetry of the antonym pair“up/down”.For instance,within the framework of this research,by leveraging its wordfrequency statistics function,AntConc facilitates the identification of high-frequencylexical occurrences that contain“up”and“down”.This process furnishes fundamentaldata for subsequent in-depth analysis.Moreover,through its context search function,itbecomes possible to retrieve the contextual instances of a particular word or phrase within the corpus.This not only visualizes the contextual occurrences of a specific wordor phrase but also allows for a clear visualization of the usage of the target vocabulary.As a result,researchers can closely observe the disparities in its usage across differentcontexts.Furthermore,the collocation analysis function of AntConc is capable ofidentifying the high-frequency words that co-occur with the target vocabulary.By doingso,it effectively reveals the collocational relationships between words.In this study,through a meticulous analysis of the collocations of“up”and“down”,we can gain amore profound understanding of the semantic inclinations and collocation patterns ofthese two antonyms within the real-world corpus.This comprehensive exploration ofAntConc’s functions contributes to a more detailed and accurate examination of theresearch topic at hand,enabling a more nuanced understanding of the languagephenomena related to the“up/down”antonym pair.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Domestic Studies on Antonymic Asymmetry

This section reviews the domestic literature on antonymic asymmetry.Domesticresearches have been carried out from the perspectives of markedness theory,pragmatics,corpus linguistics,metaphor theory,semantic category theory,and contrastive linguistics,which provide a rich theoretical and empirical basis for understanding antonymicasymmetry.

1)Markedness Theory Perspective

Markedness theory provides a foundational analytical framework for the study ofantonym asymmetry.Shen Jiaxuan(1999),is a leading researcher in domestic markingtheory.In his monograph Asymmetry and Markedness Theory,he systematicallyclassifies and interprets linguistic asymmetries and devotes a chapter to antonymicmarking patterns.In antonym pairs,asymmetry is manifested in multiple aspects:unmarked words have higher frequency than marked words,and unmarked words havewider distribution than marked words.These findings established a methodologicalfoundation for further research on antonym asymmetry.

On this basis,domestic scholars have studied the asymmetry of antonyms in theframework of markedness theory,and further refined the application of markednesstheory.Shi Yuzhi(2001)elaborated the symmetry and asymmetry of affirmation andnegation,and held that in a pair of antonymic adjectives,the positive component has abroader semantic range and is used far more frequently than that of the negativecomponent.Yu Liming(2006)applied markedness theory to analyze the asymmetric phenomena in the Chinese language,pointing out that the asymmetry in antonym pairs isoften influenced by the semantics of the central word.Lang Xianwen(2012)analyzed theantonym pair“high/low”using markedness theory,noting that"high,"with salientfeatures and positive meanings,exists as an unmarked term,creating asymmetry with“low”.Cheng Xiongyong’s(2017)cross-linguistic study showed that while markednessis cognitively universal,its specific manifestations are modulated by language type andcultural models.For instance,the Chinese antonym pair“up/down”is more asymmetricalin social hierarchy metaphors than in English.

2.2 Foreign Studies on Antonymic Asymmetry

Research on antonym asymmetry abroad has yielded fruitful results in fields such aspragmatics,morphology,sociolinguistics,experimental linguistics,and corpus linguistics.Through theoretical exploration and empirical analysis,scholars elucidate theasymmetric pattern of antonyms from semantic,pragmatic,cognitive,and morphologicallevels.

1)Pragmatic Perspective

Herbert L.Colston(1999)investigated the asymmetry of negation from a pragmaticperspective and found that when the expectation of an event is positive,“not good”and“bad”carry the same meaning,whereas“not bad”and“good”do not.However,when theexpectation of an event is negative,this asymmetry disappears.

2)Morphological Perspective

Anna Maria Di Sciullo(2005),in her work Asymmetry in Morphology,provides anin-depth exploration of asymmetry in morphology.She analyzed the theoretical basis,morphological domains,feature asymmetry and its performance in interface in detail.

3）Experimental Linguistics Perspective

Hoosain and colleagues(Hoosain et al.,1978)elucidated the phenomenon ofassociative asymmetry in the memory of antonyms,discovering that positive words aremore easily recalled than negative ones;Ruytenbeek and other scholars(Ruytenbeek etal.,2017)focused on negated adjectives,providing both theoretical and experimentaldescriptions,and found that the strength of Implicit Association Test(ITA)asymmetry ismore pronounced in morphological antonym pairs;Diana Mazzarella and Nicole Gotzner(2021)primarily investigated the polarity asymmetry in the interpretation of negatedantonyms from an experimental linguistics perspective,concluding that the asymmetricinterpretation of negated antonyms is mainly attributed to the polarity of the adjectivesand is unrelated to the face-threatening potential of the antonyms in context.Theirresearch included a study on the asymmetry of“up”and“down”,revealing thepsychological and cognitive mechanisms behind the asymmetric interpretation ofantonyms in negative sentences.

Chapter Three Theoretical Basis.............................21

3.1 Metaphor Theory................................21

3.2 Features of Metaphor..................................23

Chapter Four Classification and Formation Causes of Antonym Asymmetry..................28

4.1 Definition of Antonym Asymmetry............................28

4.2 Classification of Antonym Asymmetry...................................30

Chapter Five Analysis of the Cognitive Mechanisms of Semantic Asymmetry inAntonyms...................................42

5.1 Cognitive Mechanism Analysis of the Process-Dynamic Meaning of Antonyms..43

5.1.1 The Process-Dynamic Meaning of Antonyms...........................43

5.1.2 Intentionality of Antonym Process-Dynamic Meanings..................................45

Chapter Five Analysis of the CognitiveMechanisms of Semantic Asymmetry inAntonyms

5.1 Cognitive Mechanism Analysis of theProcess-Dynamic Meaning of Antonyms

In this section,based on the theory of metaphor,the asymmetry of theprocess-dynamic meaning of antonyms is elucidated.Specifically,based on thecharacteristics of intentionality,supervenience derivation,and second-orderrepresentation in metaphor,this section dissects the mechanisms underlying theasymmetry of the process-dynamic meaning of antonyms.It further elucidates thedeep-seated reasons for the shaping of this asymmetry by metaphor.

5.1.1 The Process-Dynamic Meaning of Antonyms

In this section,based on the theory of metaphor,the asymmetry of theprocess-dynamic meaning of antonyms is elucidated.Specifically,based on thecharacteristics of intentionality,supervenience derivation,and second-orderrepresentation in metaphor,this section dissects the mechanisms underlying theasymmetry of the process-dynamic meaning of antonyms.It further elucidates thedeep-seated reasons for the shaping of this asymmetry by metaphor.5.1.1 The Process-Dynamic Meaning of Antonyms.

Chapter Six Conclusion

6.1 Major Findings and Implications

This study,grounded in metaphor theory,provided an in-depth analysis of theasymmetry of antonyms.The results demonstrate significant theoretical and practicalimplications for applications such as foreign language vocabulary teaching and research.Specifically,the major findings of this study are as follows.

With the evolution of language and the continuous expansion of metaphoricalmeanings,the formal asymmetry of antonyms has become increasingly prominent.Thisasymmetry is not accidental,as features such as intentionality,supervenience derivation,and second-order representation in spatial metaphor theory explain the underlying causesof this phenomenon.

First,intentionality feature of spatial metaphor plays a pivotal role in the semanticconstruction of antonyms.Take the prototypical antonym pair“up/down”as an example.As typical antonyms,“up”is typically associated with concepts such as positivity,upward movement,and progress,while“down”is linked to negativity,downwardmovement,and decline.This intentional discrepancy leads to their semantic asymmetry.

Second,supervenience derivation highlights the interconnection betweenpsychological states and the physical world.For instance,the antonym pair“up/down”not only describes physical positions but also metaphorically represents psychologicalstates and social phenomena.This supervenient relationship between the mental andphysical domains further exacerbates their asymmetry.

Third,second-order representation involves the meta-cognitive reinterpretation ofmetaphors.In language use,antonyms are often conferred new metaphorical meaningsthat feedback into their original senses,resulting in formal asymmetry.

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