2. Literature Review
2.1 Cognitive Structure
2.1.1 Definition of Cognitive Structure
    Cognitive structure was put forward for the first time in the 1930s by Kurt Lewm, the famous German topological psychologist, and got further developed by many other scholars later (Ju, 2008, p. 13). Cognitive structure is closely related to cognitive process. According to Blumenthal (1977), “this is a single-channel process under a narrow time constraint that is reflected in all the above elementary actions of attention. In these actions the brain selects, sums, integrates, constructs, or elaborates the mass of sensations and memories, and it initiates behavior—all at very rapid speeds”(p. 55). Therefore, cognitive structure affects the process of cognition to a very large degree. Ausubel (1963: 217) once stated, “cognitive structure, that is, an inpidual’ s organization, stability, and clarity of knowledge in a particular subject matter field at any given time”. And he argues that cognitive structure is composed of facts, concepts, propositions and theories that one can recall at the moment, including not only the knowledge one has accumulated, but also the practical experiences in one’ s life (Zhang & Yang, 2010, p101). Bruner defines the core of cognitive structure as a set of categories and category coding system. The “category” here includes objects with similar attributes, and principles of categorization (Zhang .& Yang , 2009, p. 101). In the paper written by Jiao (2004), it can be concluded that cognitive structure features its complication, three dimension, regular combination and ability of being remolded. Based on the definition of cognitive structure mentioned above, it can be said that the cognitive structure for dish names is composed of various ingredients, shapes, colors, cooking ways, flavors, odors, cutting ways, unique culture loaded in them, aesthetic perception and inpidual stories that may have happened before. And the analyses of dish names that will be discussed below are all based upon the elements listed just now. 从概念认知结构探讨菜肴英译中的中华饮食文化审美意识传递(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_25956.html