INTERACTION OF METAPHOR AND METONYMY IN FORMATION OF CHINESE COMPUTER-RELATED TERMINOLOGICAL COMPOUND WORDS

Abstract

The article discusses cognitive mechanisms of how computer-related terminological compound words form, as well as distinctive characteristics of their conceptualization in the Chinese language. The study demonstrates data elements reflecting primary ontological extralinguistic objects borrowed from other lexical-thematic donor groups participate in the creation of terminological compound words. The interaction between data elements is reflected mentally, while the selection of the relevant type of propositional relations takes place, and such universal supercategory qualitative processes involved in the formation of the proposition as the processes of metaphorization and metonymization are activated. The analysis of the interaction of metaphor and metonymy during the creation of computer-related terminological compound words discussed in the paper makes it possible to determine the criterion for identifying the semantic head of the compound word, or to demonstrate its absence, as well as characterize the terminological compound words from the standpoint of endo- and exocentricity, which is essential for understanding the problems of word formation in the Chinese language.