Using the theoretical constructs of “image schema” and “conceptual metaphor,” this study examines the use and historical development of on track and off track as a pair of metaphorical idioms in American English. Specifically, this article is concerned with usage patterns and semantic changes of the expressions over the past two centuries in three American English corpora. We study the semantic features of the subject nouns as the “trajectors” and the diverse verbs used with the on/off track metaphors in order to uncover the main cognitive mechanisms underlying the use of the two idioms. The results of the study delineate how the development of the metaphorical idiom pair was largely motivated by PATH/FORCE conceptual metaphors based on image schemas and licensed by the Event-Structure Complex Metaphor; this demonstrates the important role of image schemas and conceptual metaphor in language use and development. The results also reveal that, in using metaphors based on image schemas, speakers/writers may activate very specific embodied images, and that context influences the use of the metaphorical idiom pair. Our results also support findings from previous corpus-linguistic theory-guided corpus studies of lexical/syntactical constructions, confirming again the vitality of this research.

中文翻译：

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概念隐喻和图像模式：对轨道上/轨道外习语对发展的语料库分析

本研究利用“意象图式”和“概念隐喻”的理论结构，考察了 on track 和 off track 作为一对隐喻习语在美式英语中的使用和历史发展。具体而言，本文关注三个美国英语语料库中近两个世纪以来表达的使用模式和语义变化。我们研究了作为“轨迹”的主语名词的语义特征以及与 on/off track 隐喻一起使用的各种动词，以揭示使用这两个习语的主要认知机制。研究结果描绘了隐喻习语对的发展如何在很大程度上受到基于图像模式的路径/力量概念隐喻的推动，并得到事件结构复杂隐喻的许可；这表明图像图式和概念隐喻在语言使用和发展中的重要作用。结果还表明，在使用基于图像图式的隐喻时，说话者/作者可能会激活非常具体的具身图像，并且上下文会影响隐喻习语对的使用。我们的研究结果还支持了先前语料库语言理论指导的词汇/句法结构语料库研究的发现，再次证实了这项研究的活力。