Conceptual Metaphor Theory And College English Vocabulary Acquisition

Conceptual Metaphor Theory believes that metaphor is not only a prevalent language phenomenon but also an indispensable cognition tool to human beings. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argued that when one conceptual domain is understood in terms of another conceptual domain, we have a conceptual metaphor. The fact that a large amount of expressions are closely linked with conceptual metaphors contributes new insights into foreign language vocabulary teaching. The application of conceptual metaphor theory has been drawing increasing attention within applied linguistics. Nowadays, the importance of metaphorical competence starts to be recognized by scholars.Vocabulary plays an essential role in foreign language learning. As a core part of language learning, vocabulary acquisition should be stuck to all the way through the process of English learning. Nowadays many non-English majors complain that a lot of time has been spent on English vocabulary, but little has been gained. How to tackle this problem? Scholars at home and abroad think that metaphor is an important process of expanding word meanings and English vocabulary evolves from the basic ones. Therefore, after learners have mastered some basic vocabularies, they can learn about some knowledge of conceptual metaphor and are able to infer word meanings in a metaphorical cognitive way. In the process of metaphor, English thinking can be developed and the efficiency in vocabulary acquisition can be improved as well. This could be a promising exploration.There are altogether six chapters in the thesis. The first chapter is an introduction. The second chapter includes a literature review of metaphor theory and its contemporary studies. The third chapter is mainly about the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which includes the definition, the mechanism, classifications and characteristics and functions of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The fourth chapter is about the application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in English vocabulary teaching. Conceptual Metaphor Theory can be use in the teaching of polysemy, the teaching of idioms, the teaching of cultural implications, the teaching of words connection and the teaching of new words. The fifth chapter proposes some suggestions on the application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory into College English vocabulary teaching. The sixth chapter is conclusion.On the whole, teaching English vocabulary by use of metaphor may become the trend of applied linguistics in the near future. Relevant parties including education authorities, teachers and learners etc. should devote enough attention to this area.