A Study On Noun Acquisition From The Perspective Of Category Theory

Vocabulary acquisition always composes the most significant element of language acquisitionand the noun acquisition is regarded as the most crucial part, since noun is the vitalcomponent of vocabulary and enjoys the most flexible usage. However, most learners arefacing a fatal problem of noun acquisition due to the lack of a more scientific and efficientapproach in their language learning. This thesis aims at having a study on noun acquisitionfrom the perspective of category theories. After the introduction to relevant theories, namelyprototype theory and basic level category theory, an empirical study on noun acquisition iscarried out to explore the correlation between the learners’ application of category theoriesand the learners’ achievement of noun acquisition. Pretest and post test are employed inExperimental Class and Control Class which involve lists of nouns belonging to differentcategories. Based on the findings of the study, the conclusion is drawn that there is a certaincorrelation between the employment of category theories and the learners’ achievement ofnoun acquisition and under the guidance of category theories, learners may make greaterprogress. As there are limited studies that specifically focus on noun acquisition from theperspective of category theories currently, significance of this study is to explore the effectsof category theories on noun acquisition and help the learners to cultivate a more scientificand efficient approach to facilitating their noun acquisition.