This thesis has aimed to set out the classification and word production of foreign-inspired Chinese terms (FICT) within the language system of modern Chinese. FICT refers to a group of vocabulary items in Chinese as a recipient language, where formation is motivated by foreign entities or concepts and designated by some foreign words, but no established foreign elements are in fact transferred from the donor language. The thesis establishes a group of terms identified as a particular category of Chinese borrowings according to the motivation of word production, concerning human bodily perception and cognition experience of foreign entities or concepts. Chinese borrowing is categorized as four types: phonic loans, semantic loans, loan blends and FICT, based on the motivation of sound, form and meaning of foreign words, and sensory perception and cognition of foreign entities and concepts. Cognitive semantics, adopted as an approach in the thesis, is a study of mind and its relationship with embodied experience and culture. Employing language as a key methodological tool for uncovering conceptual organization and structure, this study explores the methods of FICT word production, such as sensory perceptual and metaphorical production in terms of principles of cognitive semantics within the Chinese language system. The various types of Chinese borrowings are analysed in terms of the theory of categorization, and FICT in particular are examined under the semantic model proposed here. It is hoped that the thesis is able to open a new approach to the investigation of Chinese loan words and the process of FICT word production within cognitive semantics. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/189408 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Li, Suogui, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Humanities and Languages |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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