earticle

영어

English prepositions have been known to include seemingly heterogeneous and unrelated meanings. Therefore, traditionally, the diverse meanings of a preposition are treated as something to be memorized. However, cognitive semantics considers the meanings of prepositions to be interrelated to each other, and can in fact provide the linguistic motivations in these interconnected relationships. In this paper, based on the cognitive semantics, the seemingly unrelated meanings of off are explained in a more holistic and systematic way. Among different tools of cognitive linguistics, perspectivization is adopted in the analysis of off. The meanings of off are categorized based on which part of the image schema is highlighted. In the image schema of off, a trajector moves from its source to a goal over a path. Depending on which part, among source, goal, and path is highlighted, the basic spatial meaning of off is extended diversely, creating various literal and metaphorical meanings. The result shows that the meanings of off always emphasize the source part of its image schema, unlike the meanings of away whose main emphasis is on the goal part.