A Cognitive Semantic Study on Preposition-AT-ON-IN

Having image schema as a focus and from the aspect of cognitive linguistics, this article discusses pro-cesses in building conceptual metaphorical meanings from some spatial words. By considering conceptual metaphorical meanings of the words AT - IN - ON, we find that schema is the path to spatial conceptual metaphorical meanings and similarity is the cognitive basis to build those meanings. The author deals with func-tions of human body experience and cognitive processes in building abstract meanings.