Cognitive Explanation of “Away” within the Framework of Semantic Schema

摘要

Particles play a very vital role in the language of English. Particles are mostly used as elements that help to encode grammatical categories. And it is one of the compulsory testing items in different kinds of examinations, such as TEM-4, TEM-8, CET-4 and CET-6. It is noted that particles have been distressing the students and teachers in China, which has been confirmed by the multiple testing outcome. Traditional schools of linguists hold the view that the complex senses of particles and their complicated collocations are idiomatic and arbitrary. Cognitive linguists believe that there exist certain logical relationships among the multiple senses of particles. Based on the theory of image schema, this paper discusses the projection of the particle “away” from the basic spatial domain to other non-spatial or abstract domains, thus analyzing the multiple meanings of “away” from a new perspective.