Semiotic study of the preposition "on" in contemporary English.

The study is dedicated to the semiotic analysis of the preposition "on" in modern English, covering its semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic characteristics in the context of complex sign systems. The material consists of data from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), as well as from the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries, allowing for the identification of patterns in the usage of "on" across diverse contexts: spatial, temporal, abstract, and causal relationships. The analysis revealed that the semantics of "on" depends on its collocation with nouns, verbs, and adjectives, while its pragmatic function is often related to conveying logical or culturally specific relationships. A comprehensive approach to the data from corpus linguistics and lexicographic sources identified the polysemy of "on," which is influenced by contextual and cognitive factors, confirming its role as a key element in structuring English discourse. The main research methods, necessitated by the need to identify the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic features of the preposition "on," include semantic, contextual, and pragmatic analyses. Additionally, table, summarizing, descriptive, and retrospective methods were used to process the material. The main findings of the study include the identification of the core component of the semantics of the preposition "on" – the postulation of a temporal or spatial contact with an object. This core component is preserved in all types of realization of the linguistic sign "on" – in its iconic, indexical, and symbolic forms. Secondarily associative mental schemes arising from the core component of the semantics of "on" are manifested in the semiotic space of complex signs of idioms and phrasal verbs. The authors identify the following secondary semantic models: cyclical action, maximum proximity to a certain state or event, achieving maximum potential, continuous ongoing action, activation of something / transitioning to a working state, and optimal localization of the subject. The functioning of the linguistic sign "on" as a particle in a phrasal verb, a preposition, and an adverb demonstrates its ability to form, within the framework of complex signs, relationships of semantic paradigmatics, syntactic paradigmatics, and narrative syntax, respectively. A contrastive comparison of the preposition "on" with prepositions that can participate in the formation of similar syntactic constructions can reveal its linguistic and pragmatic presuppositions.

semiotics, semantics, pragmatics, syntactics, English language, preposition, linguistic sign, mental schema, paradigmatics, presupposition