TITLE:
Meaning Construction of Environmental Discourse from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics
AUTHORS:
Honglian Zheng
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Discourse, Discursive Studies, Meaning Construction, Cognitive Linguistics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.9 No.5,
May
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: This article aims at providing a theoretical framework for the meaning construction of environmental discourse from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, which highlights the dynamic process of conceptualization. It firstly discusses the theoretical essence, goals and principles of meaning construction of environmental discourse on the basis of cognitive linguistics, and then proposes two fundamental theoretical models: 1) Cognitive model of meaning formation of environmental discourse. 2) Operation model of meaning construction of environmental discourse. The first model explores the cognitive origin, basis and pathway of meaning formation of environmental discourse from the embodied view of meaning. The second one illustrates the cognitive operation process of meaning construction by observing the interaction among discursive modes, cognitive strategies and semantic mechanisms. In the last part, the theoretical significance of meaning construction is discussed from the following four aspects: discursive relation, cognitive characteristics, cognitive mechanism and discursive transformation. This article suggests that the cognitive and operation models can offer guidance and reference for the analysis practice of environmental discourse on a micro level, and for the exploration of the semantic origin and hierarchy of environmental discourse on a macro level as well.