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“隐喻是抽象语言的核心”这个概念由莱克夫在他的概念隐喻理论中提出。比如“Grasp”一词,在谈论对一件事的理解时通常会由紧紧抓住这个隐喻来实现。“Grasp an idea”这个词组是个典型的例子。借助美国最大的历时语料库COHA,本文旨在通过研究动词“Grasp”用法的历时演变,以此希望发掘出该词的用法在演变历程中所呈现的特定模式。对该词用法的研究将会回溯至早一些的的年代,来分析该词的用法在较早时期和现代美国英语之间的差别。由于较早时期的例子数量较少且大多具有代表性,而较为近的时期的例子则数量庞大且重复率较高,因此在研究后者时将选取最具有代表性的例子来进行研究。通过上述研究,本文希望揭示本意为物理动作的单词是如何实现其隐喻性使用的,一窥其中的机制。
“Metaphor is the core of abstract language ” This concept is proposed by Levk in his theory of conceptual metaphor. For example, the word “Grasp”, usually speaking of a metaphor when talking about an understanding of something. The phrase “Grasp an idea” is a classic example. With the help of COHA, the largest diachronic corpus in the United States, this paper aims to explore the specific patterns that the usage of this term presents in the evolutionary process by studying the diachronic evolution of the verb “Grasp ” usage. The study of the usage of the word will go back to earlier ages to analyze the difference between the usage of the term and the American English in the earlier period. Due to the small and mostly representative number of examples from earlier periods and the large number and high repetition rates of more recent periods, the most representative examples were selected for the study. Through the above research, this paper hopes to reveal how the word intended as a physical action can be used metaphorically, and to get a glimpse of the mechanism.