A Study On The Application Of Prototype Category Theory To English Polysemy Teaching In Vocational College

Polysemy is a common phenomenon in human language. It refers to a word which has two or more than two meanings. Traditional linguistics affected by structuralism, emphasizes the structure of language, and ignores the association of different meanings of a polysemous word. Based on the prototype category theory in cognitive linguistics, this paper emphasizes the connection between the central members and the peripheral members of the meanings of a polysemous word. In polysemous words learning, students should first acquire the basic meaning of a polysemous word, upon which they further pick up other non-basic meanings with the help of prototype category theory. This can efficiently activate students’ vocabulary hierarchical structure and vocabulary semantic net map, get them to learn polysemous words in an economic way and to develop their ability of guessing polysemous words at the same time.Based on the previous researches and experiments of prototype category theory applied in polysemous words teaching and learning, the research questions of the paper are stated as follows: Can the application of prototype category theory to polysemous words teaching arouse the students’ interest in polysemous words learning? Can the application of prototype category theory to polysemous words teaching facilitate students’ long term memorization of polysemous words? Can the application of prototype category theory to polysemous words teaching improve the students’ ability of guessing polysemous words?This paper takes empirical methods as its research method. Two intact classes are selected from Yingkou Technical and Vocational College. One class is selected as experimental class, and the other class is selected as control class. All the subjects have been in college for one year. In the experimental class, the prototype category theory is applied in teaching polysemous words; while in the control class, the traditional teaching method is used to teach polysemous words. This experiment lasts one semester. At the end of the experiment, based on the analysis of experimental data, the conclusions are found.The result of the post-test one shows that the mean score of EC and CC are respectively28.19and25.30, the value of Sig.(2-tailed) is0.024which shows that there is significance between EC and CC. It indicates the teaching method based on prototype category theory has played an important role in polysemous words teaching and learning. By analyzing the data the conclusions are summarized as follows: First, the teaching method based on prototype category theory can arouse the students’ interest in learning polysemous words. Second, teaching under the guidance of prototype category theory is more efficient than the traditional teaching method in long term memorization of polysemous words. Third, the application of prototype category to polysemous words teaching can develop the students’ ability of guessing polysemous words.This thesis is composed of five chapters. The introduction includes the research purpose, the significance of the research, the research questions and the layout of this paper. The literature review introduces what the linguists abroad and at home have studied about prototype category theory and polysemy and also introduces the devices of metaphor and metonymy. In the part of methodology, the research method, teaching method, the subject, the teaching materials and the teaching process are introduced. According to the data of the experiment the conclusion was made.