A Study On Sense Arrangement Of Spatial Prepositions In ELODs And ECLDs From The Perspective Of Metaphor

Vocabulary learning is not a passive process, but a process that learners form thecognitive structure actively, that is, learners get the vocabulary meaning actively insteadof accepting it passively. Learners construct the framework of word meaning actively bylinking the new meaning with the existing meanings. Therefore, if the meanings of theEnglish Learners Dictionaries (ELDs) and English Chinese Learners Dictionaries(ECLDs) can be arranged in the sequence from the easy to the difficult and from thefamiliar to the unfamiliar, it will be much helpful for learners to find the laws behind thesense arrangement. What’s more, the linkage between the previous learnt sense and thenew one can be established. For example, if a student has already mastered the firstmeaning of the entry “in”(at a point within an area or a space…), when s/he is learningthe second meaning (during a period of time...), s/he tends to link the second meaningwith the first one logically. On the contrary, if the contact between the old and the newmeaning is not set up, and the learner merely remembers all of the senses one by oneaccording to the order of the dictionary entry, it is a type of rote memorization, which isnot only inefficient, but also a rational and logical meaning system is hard to establish inthe learner’s mind.Taking the significance of preposition entry into consideration, this study tries tofind out the underlying laws of preposition sense arrangement from the perspective ofmetaphor theory. Combining the metaphor theory and dictionary meaning compilation,the author points out that metaphor theory is one of the most important theoretical basisfor the arrangement of English preposition senses, and plays a positive guiding role forthe acquisition of English prepositions. The author first uses metaphor theory to analyzethe spatial meanings and metaphorical meanings of spatial prepositions, then discussessense arrangement of spatial prepositions in several representative ELDs and ECLDs.Although some of the dictionaries give a brief description of the sense arrangement ofthe prepositions, learners still have difficulty in connecting their familiar meaning to thenew meaning in learning. Thus the author addresses the problem that if there is aneffective way of revealing directly to the users the inter-meaning structure of apreposition such as “in” through the sense arrangement of the proposition. After a closeranalysis of several typical preposition entries in ELDs and ECLDs (both at home andabroad), the author finds that in the aspect of sense arrangement of spatial prepositions the ELDs and ECLDs have the following problems:(1) The important status of spatialmeaning is not paid enough attention to, since the treatment of spatial senses isinconsistent in the dictionaries. The exact nature of the relationship between spatialmeanings and metaphorical meanings is not obvious to learners.(2) The retrieving pathis rather vague, which is not beneficial to the improvement of learners’ retrievingefficiency.Through analysis of the problems, the author puts forward suggestion that the sensesshould be arranged in order of their interior semantic relation and metaphorical rule, andindex should be added to save retrieving time. Finally, author hopes that this study candraw lexicographers’ attention in compiling ELDs and ECLDs.