Cognitive Linguistic Studies of Locatio-Spatial Expressions in Natural Language

自然语言的认知语言学研究（尤其是方位和空间表达）是信息科学及其相关领域中最重要的研究课题之一，然而，对这些语言表达的基本机制的研究却很少。在本研究中，我们探讨了三个基本问题的地方空间表达，特别是参考日本和英语。在第一年，我们考察了日语和英语中方位空间表达的基本类型（主要是日语方位标记和英语方位介词）。第二年，阐明了日语和英语方位空间表达的概念结构的编码过程。在第三年，我们研究了认知过程中的一般特点的隐喻扩展的具体意义的抽象意义的日语和英语的位置空间表达。

The cognitive-lignuistic study of natural languages (especially, that of locative and spatial expressions) is one of the most crucial and significant research topics in the field of information science and related fileds.However, little research has been done for the clarification of the underlying mechanisms which conceptually characterize such linguistic expressions. In this research, we have investigated three basic problems concerning locatio-spatial expressions with special reference to Japanese and English. In the first year, we examined the basic types of locatio-spatial expressions in Japanese and English (espetially, Japanese location markers and English locational prepositions). In the second year, the process of encoding the conceptual structure of Japanese and English locatio-spatial expressions was clarified. In the third year, we investigated the cognitive processes which generally characterize the metaphorical extension of concrete meanings to abstract meanings in Japanese and English locatio-spatial expressions.