Semantic Cognition Of Polysemy In English Prose From The Perspective Of Prototype Theory

With the development of cognitive linguistics, prototype theory has been gradually applied to the teaching studies of polysemic words, through which some effective and efficient ways of acquiring polysemic words were achieved. However, most of the researches just neglected the relationship among the different senses of a polysemic word as well as the motivations hidden behind. According to the basic characteristics of prototype theory, the meaning of polysemic words itself is a category, in which the different senses are its category members, typical or non-typical. The typical sense(s), also called the semantic core, is located in the center of the category, with other non-typical ones structuring around. What’s more, the boundaries among the different senses are not clear-cut. In other words, due to the ever-changing outside circumstances, the semantic core would change and new senses would be added in thereby.In the light of predecessors’ achievements, this proposed study mainly conducted exploration and analysis from the following two aspects. Firstly, the author makes an analysis of the semantic structure of polysemic words based on prototype theory. Secondly, in order to intuitively verify the effectiveness and efficiency of prototype theory in the cognition process of polysemic words in English prose, the author selects several typical examples from Readings in Modern English Prose, in which at least one commonly seen but confusing polysemic word is included. And the prototype theory is used to account for the relatively precise meaning of the concerned polysemic word in English prose.By the analysis of the typical examples one by one, the author finds that due to the unique style of English prose, the meaning of the words used exhibits openness, which leads to difficulties in semantic cognition of some polysemic words. Fortunately, prototype theory brings a way out. The part of case analysis just verifies the explanatory power of prototype theory in semantic cognition of polysemic words. As a study of polysemic words, this thesis gives much priority to the exploration and explication of the relationship among the different senses of polysemic words as well as the motivation hidden behind, especially within the specific genre of English prose. This study aims at helping the readers to get relatively exact meaning of a polysemic word in English prose by proper employment of prototype theory, so that the readers can get the original intension of the writer, which will in turn improve their appreciation ability of modern English prose as well as other literary works.