“桃夭”的语义原型及其演变

＂桃夭＂一词来自《诗经.周南.桃夭》篇名,成词之初直到宋朝,其原型意义一直为＂桃花繁盛美好的样子＂,而在元代到清代的典籍中＂桃夭＂一词的原型意义却演变为＂女子嫁娶之事＂。从认知图式的角度分析,可以看出这种意义流变是因为在人们反复体验中建立起来的＂桃夭＂一词的图式,通过隐喻机制,由原型意义发展出的边缘意义＂女子嫁娶＂逐渐转移到中心,取代了原来的原型意义。

Tao-Yao:The Prototypical Meaning and Its Evolution

The word Tao-Yao was originated from The Book of Songs.The prototype meaning of the word when created was ＂beauty of blooming peach blossom＂.The meaning evolved however to ＂marriage of female＂ in books of Yuan Dynasty.On researching the meaning of the word in books from Tang to Qing Dynasty,the paper analyses the evolution of the word meaning on the base of Cognitive Psychology as well as the schema and metaphor theories.From the view of cognitive schemata,we can see that the reason of this meaning evolution is that schemata of the word Tao-Yao comes from people＇s repeated experience,and through metaphor mechanisms,the edge significance ＂marriage of female＂gradually came to the center,and finally replaced the original prototype meaning.