Foreword

Cognitive Semantics is the forefront of semantics research，and the Talmyan Cognitive Semantics is the most typical representative of Cognitive Semantics．From the perspective of the Talmyan Cognitive Semantics，this study uses a combination of both qualitative and empirical research methods to explain the conceptualization of a basic category of macro events（Talmy，2000b，2016，2017b；Li，2018，2020；Ren，2021；Li＆ Liu，2022），namely spatial stationary events，and analyzes the typological characteristics of the representation forms of such events．In this book，PosB and BowPed picture series were used as experimental tools．English and Chinese data were collected through elicitation experiments．After sampling，corpus samples of the two languages were obtained．Pearson chi-square test，Fisher exact test and cluster analysis in SPSS software were used to explore the spatial conceptualization process involved in the representation of spatial stationary events in the two languages．On this basis，the typological characteristics of the two languages in representing such events were explained．This book adopts a minimalist approach to solve the typological problem，i.e.，a dichotomy of the stationary events，which are divided into two different types in accordance with the syntactic positions of the locative construction and the verb representing the core schema． This book is revised from the author's doctoral dissertation，and some revisions were made in some places when it was published．

As the basic category of macro-events， motion events include two types：translational motion events and spatial stationary events（Talmy，2000b：25），but most scholars neglect the study of the latter．Leonard Talmy（2000b：222）held that both English and Chinese are satellite-framed languages（S-languages）．However，in terms of spatial stationary events，the typological characteristics of their representations in the two languages are not the same as his claim．In this book，twenty-six Chinese native speakers and six English native speakers were interviewed．According to the author's research，a significant part of the path components（i.e.sites）in the stationary events are mainly expressed in spatial adpositions，but their co-events are dominantly expressed in positional verbs or are simply omitted．

Firstly，by comparing the meanings of the English and Chinese spatial adpositions，the author explains the three parts of the spatial schematic system of the two languages．The first part is the componential．Talmy proposed that there is a list of universal fundamental spatial categories and fundamental spatial elements in language．This study explains and compares this semantic inventory in English and Chinese in detail．The second part is the compositional，which is related to the synthesis process of spatial schemas．The preliminary conclusion of this book is that English and Chinese have different pre-packaging of the representation process of spatial schemas．The third part is the augmentive．Taking IN-type schemas in two corpus samples as examples，this book finds that English and Chinese basic spatial schemas can be extended to non-basic spatial schemas by using topological features，dimension transformation and motion state changes（such as changing static state into virtual motion）．In addition，some of Talmy's claims were falsified．For example，Talmy believes that the English spatial preposition schema inside is sensitive to the fundamental spatial category of phase of matter（Talmy，2005，2010a）．However，the study found that the English IN-type spatial prepositional schema， including the inside -type spatial schema and its corresponding Chinese“ li 3”-type monosyllabic and disyllabic spatial postpositional schemas，are not related to this fundamental spatial category．In a word，the empirical study confirms the following point of view：the deep semantic structure of the English and the Chinese closed-class spatial expressions is systematic and shared by both languages．

Secondly，we analyze the co-events represented by the positional verbs in stationary events．In this book，based on the Talmyan macro-event theory，the analyses of the coevents of the elicitation data are carried out．Through our analyses of the sample data in the two languages of English and Chinese，it is found that all the six types of co-events（Talmy，2000b）are observed to present．But they have different distributions．The data demonstrate that the English interviewees concentrate more on a precursion or an enablement co-event which comes before the main event，while the Chinese interviewees pay more attention to a subsequent co-event which is the result of the current main event．Besides，the two languages use different sentence patterns to represent the coevents．This is due to the fact that they have different representation systems．Generally speaking，the co-events of spatial stationary events in both languages are mostly represented by positional verbs，with a few represented in other syntactic constituents such as vocabulary or clauses．

Thirdly，in terms of the representation typology of spatial stationary events，this book is completely different from Talmy's claim of English and Chinese as S-languages．The finding indicates that，in English，when the main verbs are such verbs as lean ， lie ， put ，and sit ，and in Chinese，when the main verbs are such verbs as fang 4，“put”， kao 4，“lean”，and rao 4，“coil”，the sentences representing the stationary events tend to possess the S-language characteristics，with a percentage in English data sample being 39.2％，and Chinese data sample 49.8％．Besides，when the framing main verbs are respectively be in English and zai 4，“at”in Chinese，the sentences in both languages demonstrate a hybrid typology of both V-language and S-language，with a percentage in English data sample being 60.8％，and Chinese data sample 50.2％．Thus，it is concluded that the Talmyan S-language typology obviously fails to be applicable to the representation of the spatial stationary events in both languages，and on the contrary，both demonstrate a greater tendency ofhybrid typology here．Besides，this book shows that when the semantic typology of specific macro-event representations is analyzed，it is sometimes necessary to further subdivide the semantic components of the core schema．For instance，the path component of the core schema of motion events may be subdivided into more specific elements such as vector and conformation（Talmy，2000b）．Finally，in analyzing peripheral sentence patterns，such as the ones representing spatial stationary events，it is necessary to introduce the category of constructional satellite in order to identify their typological features．

This book mainly has the following contributions．Firstly，it comprehensively explains the systematic similarities and differences regarding the spatial semantics and its representing processes between the superficial forms of the English and the Chinese representation of the spatial stationary events．Secondly，it elaborates in detail the relations between the spatial perception system and the spatial linguistic forms，and theoretically establishes a bridge between the perception system and the linguistic representation of spatial stationary events．Thirdly，the typological features of the English and the Chinese representation forms of the spatial stationary events are systemically expounded，and this method may also be further used to investigate the typological features of the representation forms of the other macro-event types．

In sum，from the perspective of Cognitive Semantics，this book elaborates the cognitive mechanism in and the formal typology of both the English and the Chinese representation of spatial stationary events and therefore advances the conceptualization and typology study of such events and even of the overall macro-events by a small step．Based on this study，future research can use ERP and other EEG devices to verify the theoretical point of view：the speech is mainly the function of neurons or some new functions after the integration of those neurons，just as the living function of houses is mainly the function of the natural environment such as caves or the functions after the integration of various building materials．Thus，the langue is a house．The residents in this house are semantics．The neurons are the main natural environment and core building materials for constructing language．

The readers of this book are linguistic researchers and teachers，postgraduate students and senior undergraduates majoring in linguistics，and people interested in linguistics．

Longbo Ren
March 15，2023
School of Foreign Languages
Henan University of Science and Technology