Applications Of Prototype Theory In Lexical Analysis

Prototype theory (PT), a notion proposed in the mid 1970s by theAmerican psychologist Eleanor Rosch, has now been employed to account fornumerous linguistic phenomena. This thesis is intended to make attempts inapplying this newly established theory to the question of lexical analysis, withspecial attention attached to the aspects of lexical definition, polysemy, andlexical change.The paper consists of six parts. To begin with, the author dedicates a briefintroduction to the establishment of PT and some pioneering researches wherePT is employed to solve linguistic problems. And also in this part theprospects for further research in this regard and the purpose and significanceof the author's research are pinpointed.Chapter One is contributed to defining the theme of the research andreviewing preceding literature regarding categorization, that is, the ClassicalApproach and the Cognitive Approach. Besides, shortcomings of thetraditional approach to lexical analysis are pointed out and the advantages ofthe cognitive-oriented prototypical approach are put forward in this chapter.Chapter Two gives an account of PT in detail. First, the concept"prototype"is defined and its characteristics are summarized. Then, somesignificant notions entailed by PT are illustrated, such as salience, centrality,radial structure, family resemblance, fuzziness, basic level categories, scripts,frames and schemas, and so no. The third and last section of this partexplicates the motivation of PT for lexical analysis.Chapter Three constitutes the main body of the paper. It is composed ofthree sections. Section One demonstrates the prototypical approach to lexical...