Entry Arrangement And Definitions Of The Bilingualized Dictionary Under The Inspiration Of Prototype Theory

As a popular theory of the cognitive psychology, Prototype Theory can provide a convincing explanation for mental mechanism of the word meaning acquisition. Different from the traditional Classical Category Theory, Prototype Theory holds that the representation of the concept is realized by prototype which is concrete. People learn new things by connecting them to the prototypes they are already familiar with and making comparison between new things and those prototypes. Similarly, second language learners also acquire new words by means of connecting new words with words they are already familiar with. With bilingual definitions, the bilingualized dictionary provides learners with both linguistic and cognitive learning condition. Learners can get the exact meaning of the word through the source language, and establish its position in the language system. The understanding of the new words can also be furthered by referring to the translation in the target language and making association and comparison between the source language and the target language. The bilingual definitions in the bilingualized dictionary are not merely the result of a combination of the definitions from the monolingual learner's dictionary and a translation into the target language. They should coordinate with each other to make up for the shortcoming of each other and to help learners to gain a full understanding of the words.