Cognitive Study On Polysemy In Terms Of Prototypical Category Theory

The theory of categories has developed from Aristotle's classical approach to the prototypical category theory of cognitive linguistics. The theory of prototype and basic-level categories proposed by American psychologist Rosch overcomes the defects that classical approach cannot avoid. Linguists have attempted to apply the prototypical category theory to semantic study since it is presented. S. L. Tsohatzides explores the relationship between meanings and prototypes in his thesis collection Meanings and Prototypes: Studies in Linguistic Categorization, in which D. A. Cruse's Prototype Theory and Lexical Semantics and Ahrienne Lehrer's Prototype Theory and Its Implications for Lexical Analysis both discuss the fuzziness and polysemy of semantic category and prove the theory applied to linguistic study will, to a great certain extent, propel the study of semantic category. Many domestic and foreign linguists' pioneering researches in polysemy lay a solid foundation for this thesis.The researches on polysemy within the traditional approach, especially, the structuralism, based on Saussure's arbitrariness, emphasize the internal structure of linguistics by deriving the different senses of a linguistic form through the context. They isolate language from the external world, such as, human experience and cognitive devices and regard polysemy as a linguistic coincidence;therefore, the traditional approaches lack strength and conviction, and cannot give a full and rich explanation of polysemy. The cognitive sciences rule out the restrictions of the structuralism and supply polysemy with a reasonable explanation. Cognitive linguists take into consideration the encyclopedic knowledge for the characterization of linguistic meanings. A linguistic form gets its meaning by profiling or highlighting a particular region or configuration in the relevant domain. If different uses of a linguistic form require reference to two different domains, it strongly indicates it is polysemous. This thesis first makes a contrast analysis on classical approach and the prototypical category theory, and points out the defects of classical approach. Based on experientialism, it introduces the prototypical category theory tothe semantic analysis and points out that there is a motivating factor to the relationship of different senses of a polysemous linguistic form. The central sense is extended to others through two cognitive devices—metaphor and metonymy and two processes—radiation and concatenation. Thus, the cognitive approach overcomes the inadequacy of traditional structuralism on polysemy analysis. This paper mainly discusses polysemy on the lexical categories and also makes a tentative exploration on tense and syntactical categories.The application of the prototypical category theory and family resemblance to polysemous phenomena in linguistics provides theoretical guidance and resolution to the traditional semantics. Moreover, it propels the development of cognitive linguistics.