VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ***** ĐỖ TUẤN LONG THE TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS OF “OVER, ABOVE, UNDER, BELOW” (Chuyển di nghĩa không gian sang nghĩa phi không gian của “Over, Above, Under, Below”) A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Major: English Linguistics Code: 9220201.01 Hanoi – 2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***** ĐỖ TUẤN LONG THE TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS OF “OVER, ABOVE, UNDER, BELOW” (Chuyển di nghĩa không gian sang nghĩa phi không gian của “Over, Above, Under, Below”) Major: English Linguistics Code: 9220201.01 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Supervisor: Assoc. LÂM QUANG ĐÔNG Hanoi - 2022 DECLARATION I declare that this doctoral dissertation, entitled The transference from spatial to non-spatial meanings of “Over, Above, Under, Below”, is entirely the result of my own work. The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or tertiary institution, and to the best of my knowledge, neither does it contain material previously published or written by another person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. Signature Đỗ Tuấn Long i ABSTRACT The transference from spatial to non-spatial meanings of “Over, Above, Under, Below” Four prepositions over, above, under, below, constituting the vertical axis and two synonymous pairs in the English language, are exploited to denote both spatial and non-spatial meanings.
This so-called meaning transference phenomenon is rather complex and there exist many research trends aiming at uncovering the human cognitive processes throughout such mental representations in which over is a case (Roussel, 2013). This mixed-methods study aims to explain how the spatial meanings of the four words ―over, above, under, below‖ are transferred to non- spatial meanings within the 2017 COCA corpus, genre: Fiction with 1350 instances of over, 336 instances of above, 987 instances of under, and 170 instances of below by making use of AntConc (64-bit, version 3. In the light of Multimodal Image Theory and Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the mappings from SPACE domain to non-spatial domains, image-schema transformations, and a range of conceptual metaphors associated with the four words were systematically analyzed to first identify the meanings of the four words and then account for the mechanisms of their meaning transference. It was found that mappings together with image-schema transformation are significant in motivating the meaning transference processes.
The results of the study are summarized as follows: (i) The prototypical meanings of the four words, encoded by pairs of image complexes, designate the relative spatial UP-DOWN positions and potential forces between the TR and LM; (ii) Spatial meanings of the four words cognitively generates within three spatial modalities of thought: Visual space, Maneuver space, and Kinetic space; (iii) Non-spatial meanings of the four words are attached to a range of conceptual metaphors which are spatially grounded. In other words, three spaces provide concrete image-schemas or experience which are virtually represented/ mapped on to abstract experience shown by the retaining salient spatial aspects. ii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Lâm Quang Đông for transferring me his specialized knowledge, his inspiring me the love in linguistics as well as his valuable suggestions, advice and correction during the thesis throughout.
I also take this opportunity to thank all my lecturers, especially Professor Nguyễn Hòa, Prof. Nguyễn Quang, and Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS – VNU) for many of their interesting lectures, which have surely contributed to the foundation of my thesis. My gratitude also goes to the Board of Deans and my staff members at the Faculty of Language Education and Professional Development, ULIS - VNU for their support and sympathy when I am in need.
Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my family, especially my wife for her support, encouragement and understanding, without which my dissertation would not have been accomplished. Hanoi, May 2022 Do Tuan Long iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF TABLES.
ix LIST OF FIGURES. xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. The rationale of the study. Aims, objectives and research questions.
The scope of the study. Significant assumptions of CL in this study. Key research methods and techniques. The structure of the study.6 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS AND A LITERATURE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS APPROACHES TO THE MEANING TRANSFERENCE OF “OVER, ABOVE, UNDER, BELOW”.
Dictionary meaning and the proposed view of meaning. Word classes of over, above, under, below. Prototype theory in respect to meaning transference. Spatial scenes and corresponding construal.
Primary breakup of a spatial scene. Spatial scenes involving motion. The theory of domains. Basic, image-schematic and abstract domains.
Other characteristics of domains. The transition from spatial to non-spatial meanings of spatial and non-spatial markers: Cognitive processes and construal operations underlying this transition. Image-schema in respect to meaning transference. Metaphor and metonymy in respect to meaning transference.
Basic tenets of construing a scene. Previous approaches to the meaning transference of over, above, under, below. Image-schema transformations approach. The multiple levels of schematization.
Metaphorical development due to inference based on usage .51 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. A multimodal approach to the meaning transference of over, above, under, below. Multimodal Image Theory to over, above, under, below as spatial markers. Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory to metaphorical uses of the four words.
Data and data processing. Data and data collection .70 CHAPTER 4: MEANINGS OF UNDER AND ITS TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS. Under as a spatial marker. The Visual space images of under.
The Maneuver and Kinetic space images of under. Non-spatial meanings and the meaning transference processes from spatial to non-spatial associated with under .90 CHAPTER 5: MEANINGS OF BELOW AND ITS TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS. Below as a spatial marker. The Visual space images of below.
The Maneuver and Kinetic space images of below. Non-spatial meanings and the meaning transference processes from spatial to non-spatial associated with below .105 CHAPTER 6: MEANINGS OF OVER AND ITS TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS. Over as a spatial marker. The Visual space images of over.
The Maneuver space images of over. The Kinetic space images of over. Non-spatial meanings and the meaning transference processes from spatial to non-spatial associated with over .131 CHAPTER 7: MEANINGS OF ABOVE AND ITS TRANSFERENCE FROM SPATIAL TO NON-SPATIAL MEANINGS. Above as a spatial marker.
The Visual space images of above. The Maneuver and Kinetic space images of above. Non-spatial meanings and the meaning transference processes from spatial to non-spatial associated with above .145 vi Chapter 8: CONCLUSION. Human construal processes associated with meaning transference of over, above, under, below.
Limitation of the study. Recommendation for further research .151 RELATED PUBLISHED PAPERS. I vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CL: Cognitive Linguistics CMT: Conceptual Metaphor Theory LM: Landmark MIT: Multimodal Image Theory TR: Trajector viii LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: Characteristics of the TR and LM (Talmy, 2000:183) .13 TABLE 2: Partial inventory of basic domains (Evans & Green, 2006:234) .16 TABLE 3: Distinctions between basic domains and image-schema (Evans & Green, 2006:235) .17 TABLE 4: The human construal processes .18 TABLE 5: List of image-schemas (Evans & Green, 2006:190) .21 TABLE 6: Other types of metonymies (Evans & Green, 2006) .27 TABLE 7: Schemas proposed by Lakoff (1987) for over besides the central schema (Evans & Green, 2006:337) .34 TABLE 8: A summary of Boers‘ analysis of over.37 TABLE 9: Responses of Extended CMT to issues of Conceptual Metaphor Theory .40 TABLE 10: Over as a spatial marker .42 TABLE 11: The total meanings of over in its semantic network .46 TABLE 12: A list of proposed metaphors by Lakoff & Johnson (1987) .59 TABLE 13: The information of data collected .62 TABLE 14: Metaphorical Identification Procedure (adapted from Pragglejaz Group, 2007).63 TABLE 15: Mappings from SPACE to STATE domain in sentence (29) .69 TABLE 16: The prototypical meaning of under .74 TABLE 17: The Visual space of under .76 TABLE 18: The Maneuver and Kinetic space of under .79 TABLE 19: Visual and functional information of spatial under .80 TABLE 20: Mapping from spatial to non-spatial of under associated with ―MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN.81 TABLE 21: Mapping from spatial to non-spatial of under associated with ―HIGH ix STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN.82 TABLE 22: The mapping of under when the LM exerts forces on the TR .84 TABLE 23: The mapping of under associated with ―PROTECTION IS SHELTER‖ .87 TABLE 24: The mapping of under associated with ―TRUTH IS A HIDDEN OBJECT‖ .88 TABLE 25: The mapping of under associated with ―UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN‖ (COGNITIVE DEFICIENCY IS DOWN) .89 TABLE 26: The mapping of under associated with ―RESTRICTIONS ARE BOUNDARIES‖ .90 TABLE 27: A summary of metaphors associated with under .90 TABLE 28: The prototypical meaning of below .94 TABLE 29: The Visual space of below .96 TABLE 30: The Maneuver and Kinetic Space of below .98 TABLE 31: The mapping of below associated with ―MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN‖ .101 TABLE 32: The mapping of below associated with ―HIGH STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN.102 TABLE 33: The mapping of below associated with ―TOWARDS THE BEGINNING OF WRITTEN DISCOURSE IS UP; TOWARDS THE END OF WRITTEN DISCOURSE IS DOWN‖.103 TABLE 34: A summary of meaning transference from spatial to non-spatial of below .105 TABLE 35: The Visual space and Maneuver space of over .112 TABLE 36: The mapping from spatial to non-spatial meanings of over associated with ―MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN‖ .116 TABLE 37: The mapping from spatial to non-spatial meanings of over associated with a combination of ―HIGH STATUS IS UP + HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP‖ .118 x TABLE 38: The mapping of over associated with ―COGNITION IS PERCEPTION‖ .120 TABLE 39: The mapping of over associated with the Conduit metaphor .122 TABLE 40: The mapping of over associated with metaphor ―AN ACTIVITY IS A PATH‖ .128 TABLE 41: The mapping of over associated with ―TIME IS A PATH AND ENTITIES MOVE ON IT‖ .129 TABLE 42: The mapping of over associated with ―TIME IS A MOVING OBJECT‖ .129 TABLE 43: A summary of meaning transference from spatial to non-spatial of over .131 TABLE 44: The spatial degree of over .133 TABLE 45: The prototypical meaning and Visual space of above (Deane, 2005) 135 TABLE 46: The Maneuver and Kinetic space of above .137 TABLE 47: The mapping from spatial to non-spatial meanings of above associated with ―MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN‖ .141 TABLE 48: The mapping from spatial to non-spatial meaning of above associated with ―HIGH STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN.142 TABLE 49: The mapping from spatial to non-spatial meaning of above associated with ―TOWARDS THE BEGINNING OF WRITTEN DISCOURSE IS UP; TOWARDS THE END OF WRITTEN DISCOURSE IS DOWN.143 TABLE 50: A summary of meaning transference from spatial to non-spatial of above .146 xi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: Location of the lexical concept KNUCKLE in a hierarchy of domain complexity (Evans & Green, 2006:232) .16 FIGURE 2: Spatial relations between the boy, the sink, and the glass .19 FIGURE 3: Image-schemas denoted by over, above, under, below (Tyler & Evans, 2003: 130) .21 FIGURE 4: Extension of X (Langacker, 1987:373) .22 FIGURE 5: There was a significant improvement over the base model.24 FIGURE 6: Modification of ―There was a significant improvement over the base model‖ .