Schema Representation, Semantic Network Construction and Construal of the English Direction Preposition “To” and “Toward(s)”

Abstract

For a long time, prepositions have been a class of words that have attracted the attention of scholars. However, from the perspectives of Structural Linguistics, Transformational-generative Linguistics, and Functional Linguistics, different scholars have emphasized the collocation of prepositions with other parts of speech to form a conventional linguistic unit, but have not studied the prepositions themselves. So far, most studies on English prepositions from the perspective of cognitive linguistics have focused on the prepositions with obvious spatial conceptual meaning. Still, there has not been sufficient cognitive research for some prepositions without spatial conceptual meaning. Therefore, this article selects the direction prepositions “to” and “toward(s),” from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, using category theory, schema theory, and construal theory, and combining the metaphor and metonymy to extend the meaning, to analyze and distinguish, finally construct schema representation, semantic network and construal of the English direction preposition “to” and “toward(s)”.