英语词汇新成员McWords及其认知阐释

摘要

In recent years there have appeared a large number of new words with a Me-prefix. The boom- ing Me-Words can he traced back to the Scottish and Irish cultural tradition of adding Me- to their surnames. The examination and analysis of how the meanings of some Me-Words evolved reveals that metaphor is the formation mechanism behind these new words.%近些年英语中出现了一个庞大的词族——Mc-前缀词。该词族的产生可以追溯到苏格兰和爱尔兰人姓氏前缀这一文化传统。对部分Mc-前缀词的词义考证以及分析表明隐喻是Mc-前缀词的词义形成机制。