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Abstract Default meaning is the research focus in post-Gricean pragmatics. Based on historical pragmatics and cognitive grammar, this paper attempts to provide an integrative model of pragmatics and cognition for the exploration of cognitive motivations and diachronic change of default meaning. Metonymy, metaphor and metaphtonymy contribute to diachronic change of default meaning. Default meaning changes from utterance-token meaning through entrenchment, and finally changes into a new word meaning through conventionalization. Breaking the (post-)Gricean tradition of the principle-based inferential model, this study proves that different types of meaing cannot be strictly divided, and the generation of default meaning is a process of diachronic change from individual contextualization to collective conventionalization.
Key words: default meaning; diachronic change; pragmatics; cognition
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