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Semantic Classification and Cognitive Mechanism of Chinese “Body-Part” Compounds with Semantic Exocentricity

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Chinese Lexical Semantics (CLSW 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 12278))

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Abstract

This study starts from the semantic eccentricity of compound words and analyzed 95 eccentric semantic compound words composed of Chinese “body part” nouns. We then divided them into two classes in terms of their meanings, namely compounds referring to “people” and compounds referring to “thing”. The second class can be further divided into two subtypes, i.e., “personal characteristics” and “diseases/symptom”. The number of the compounds shows that the morphological pattern [X + body part] is still productive in modern times, which is now mainly reflected in the production of new words. In addition, some compounds have been reanalyzed semantically in the two major classes of compound words as mentioned, and the two word-base subtypes of “tool” and “behavior” have been derived from the compound words of “disease/symptom” type. Such derivation also proves the productivity of [X + body part] with semantic eccentricity. Finally, this study has illustrated the cognitive mechanism of the compounds based on Conceptual Metonymy and Conceptual Integration theory and has found their cognitive path: the word base and the “body part” nouns activate metonymy operation, and then conceptual blending takes place between the two targets via certain semantic relations between them. In the process of metonymy operation, the salience of the word base and body part nouns play important roles at both generic level and basic level of metonymy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    New words refer to words that are selected from NWD and the Internet.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China

    Qi Li

Authors
  1. Qi Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qi Li .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Meichun Liu

  2. Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kongg, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Chunyu Kit

  3. School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Qi Su

Appendix: 95 Exocentric Compounds Formed by [X + Body Part]

Appendix: 95 Exocentric Compounds Formed by [X + Body Part]

Body parts

Conventionalized compounds

New compounds

shǒu 手 ‘hand’

贝斯手, 弓箭手, 提琴手, 炮手, 火枪手, 键盘手1, 打手, 辩手, 乐手, 高手,副手, 舵手, 新手, 老手, 快手1, 国手, 钓手, 铁手, 枪手1, 骑手1, 强手, 拳手, 扒手, 名手, 写手

键盘手2, 快手2, 段子手, 游戏手, 手机手, 买手, 枪手2, 骑手2, 代购手, 发包手, 鼠标手

tóu头 ‘head’

滑头, 刺头, 冤头, 冤大头, 猎头, 空头, 戆头, 对头, 孱头, 无厘头

N/A

jiǎo 脚 ‘feet’

国脚

乌龙脚

nǎo 脑 ‘brain’

首脑

恋爱脑, 事业脑, 游戏脑, 城市脑, 全球脑, 咸鱼脑, 方脑壳

yǎn 眼 ‘eye’

千里眼, 法眼, 青眼, 势利眼, 二五眼

四眼, 啤酒眼

ěr 耳 ‘ear’

顺风耳

空耳

ròu 肉 ‘flesh’

N/A

小鲜肉, 老鲜肉, 老腊肉

zuǐ 嘴 ‘mouth’

快嘴, 铁嘴, 名嘴

乌鸦嘴, 大嘴巴

bí 鼻 ‘nose’

酒渣(糟) 鼻

草莓鼻

liǎn 脸 ‘face’

黑脸, 红脸, 花脸

异国脸, 大众脸, 生脸, 熟脸

zhǐ 指 ‘finger’

N/A

乌龙指, 键盘指

zhǒu 肘 ‘elbow’

N/A

网球肘

xī 膝 ‘knee’

N/A

跑步膝

wàn 腕 ‘wrist’

N/A

大腕, 小腕

jiān 肩 ‘shoulder’

N/A

驾驶肩

xīnyàn 心眼

死心眼

N/A

gǔtóu 骨头 ‘bone’

贱骨头, 软骨头, 硬骨头, 懒骨头

N/A

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Li, Q. (2021). Semantic Classification and Cognitive Mechanism of Chinese “Body-Part” Compounds with Semantic Exocentricity. In: Liu, M., Kit, C., Su, Q. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12278. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81197-6_71

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81197-6_71

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81196-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81197-6

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