Semantic Salience of Dialectal Expressions in Chinese Modern Classical Local Novels from the Perspective of Embodied Cognitive Linguistics

Abstract

Chinese modern classical local novels, imbued with rich cultural empathy and unmistakable geographical distinctiveness, craft a linguistic tapestry that reflects the nation’s aesthetic ethos. Dialectal lexicon, functioning as both a vessel of indigenous tradition and a medium of lived experience, proves instrumental in shaping characters, articulating emotion, and driving narrative momentum. Yet scholarly attention has largely prioritized dialect’s stylistic attributes and symbolic cultural value, leaving two critical gaps: a methodical examination of how dialect achieves semantic salience within textual structures, and a lack of in-depth discussion on the embodied cognitive co-construction path between the writer and reader. This paper introduces salience theory in embodied cognitive linguistics, constructs an analytical framework of “writer's embodied cognition-language salience-reader’s embodied cognition”, and selects five Chinese modern classical local novels, including Shen Congwen’s Border Town, Xiao Hong’s The Field of Life and Death, Zhao Shuli’s The Marriage of Xiao'er Hei, Sun Li’s Lotus Lake, and Jian Xian’ai’s Water Burial, as the primary texts, and systematically investigates the semantic salience mechanism and embodied cognition function of three categories of dialect words: object, person, and action. Starting from the three dimensions of language form, contextual embedding, and cultural schema, this study reveals how writers use dialect words to achieve semantic foregrounding, and how readers engage in semantic processing and emotional resonance through experiential activation. It is found that dialect words assume the functions of social identity coding, action portrayal, and cultural image construction in novels, respectively, showing a three-in-one salience mechanism of “language structure--narrative strategy--embodied cognitive acceptance.” This study innovatively applies salience theory to literature, illuminating the embodied cognitive path of literary language and advancing linguistic-literary interdisciplinary research.