The Prototype Theory And The Prototypical Effect In Word Meaning

Cognitive linguistics is a newly emerging linguistic school or research approach in international linguistic theory field since 1960s. Prototype theory and basic-level category theory are the hottest topics of cognitive linguistics. The chief views of prototype theory include the following points: the world consists of categories; members of a category are not defined by a set of sufficient and necessary conditions; members bear resemblance but with different status, such as good and bad examples in a category; not all properties are binary; the boundary between categories is fuzzy. These points overcome the shortcomings in classical views of Aristotle and are more convincing in interpreting the phenomenon in the world. The study on lexical meaning plays a pivotal role in current linguistic field, and linguists probe into the nature of words form all possible angles. One important cause that linguists attach much importance to word study is that some semantic features of word can be embodied on the level of syntax and even be determining element to syntactic structure. Many researches have been done to the word meaning, yet these study remains to be an assumptious nature because they just studied some individual words. Although these studies are helpful in improving our understanding of lexical meaning, many things remain to be a mystery. This dissertation, based on prototype theory of cognitive linguistics, forms an assumption about word meaning formation, and then it discusses the inter-relations of the meanings of word in details.The dissertation consists of six parts. The first part explains the purpose of this paper and gives a brief introduction to the history of the study on lexical meaning, and especially the psychological orientation in semantic study. At the same time, this part elucidates the cognitive philosophy of language, and its subjectiveness in linguistic studies. After introducing the relations held between the real world, cognition and lexical meaning in a cognitive point of view, the second part puts forward an assumption of meaning formation; it further brings out a framework for polysemous study. In the semantic structure it contains basic and extended meanings, and a reason can be found in those basic meanings for extended meanings. Thus a framework for polysemous study is established. Chapter three to five are the most important and original parts. On the basisof three features of prototype theory, the author approaches the gradience, relevance and extension of lexical meanings respectively from the angle of the prototypicality, similarity and openness of category. In the final part, the dissertation sets forth that the prototype theory as burgeoning branch is full of vital power and also shows the decided superiority on semantics, phonology, grammar and syntax. Although we can get a satisfactory answer about the lexical meaning with the help of prototype theory, there are still some problems which are the result of the limitations in prototype theory itself.