A Study On Polysemy In Light Of Lexical Priming Theory

Polysemy is one of the most frequently occurring linguistic phenomena in English,the investigation of which is vital to English vocabulary teaching and learning,as well as dictionary compiling.The present study provides a case study of and points out the significance of how Lexical Priming Theory casts light upon English teaching and learning of polysemes.The study probes into how to manage a polyseme when constructing and comprehending sentences and texts in the use of one sense from its other senses by turning to distinct priming features of all different kinds.The present study is corpus-based.Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed to investigate the statistical evidence extracted from British National Corpus(BNC)in light of Lexical Priming Theory proposed by Michael Hoey in 2005.The study respectively explores collocation,colligation,sematic association,pragmatic association and textual priming features of the polyseme devotion in the corpus data from concordance hits,and then makes comparison and contrast among the priming features of the four senses.The investigation becomes possible by using the corpus analysis software AntConc3.4.3,in which concordances and collocates are displayed from different angles by setting the options equipped in this analysis tool.Moreover,eyeball inspection and manual operation is also indispensable so as to make a nice complement to the semantic deficiency of the software.Based on WordNet 2.1,four definitions of devotion as using noun are listed,namely 1)feelings of ardent love,great affection or admiration for someone;2)commitment to some purpose and a particular activity;3)religious zeal;the willingness to serve God;4)(usually plural)religious observance or prayers(usually spoken slightly).After the detailed exploration,several findings can be summarized as follows:(1)Concerning collocation,the most distinct collocates of devotion are adjectives,nouns and prepositions.With regard to noun collocates,Sense One and Sense Two coordinate with abstract nouns that are more concerned with love and dedication,while Sense Three and Sense Four with religions.The adjectives characterized with degree and states of feelings are mostly found in the former two,while the latter two are modified by adjectives of different religions and mental states.The majority of prepositions that collocate with devotion are “to”,“with” and “of”,among which “devotion to” and “with devotion” are particularly found in the former two senses.The distinction between Sense Three and Sense Four lies in the fact that the former is more abstract and mental while the latter more concrete and physical.(2)With regard to colligation and owning to the word class of devotion as using noun,devotion can function as subject,object,predicative and adverbial.All senses have such colligations as Det.+ N;N + and/or/,+ N;Prep.+ N;N + Prep.;N +Predicate and N + Clause.The colligational patterns of all senses follow pretty much the same with one another,but they are different in number.Compared with Sense Three and Sense Four,Sense One and Sense Two are characterized by colligations N+ Predicate and N + Clause(attributive clause),among which devotion works as subject linked by linking or stative verbs,and even some notional verbs which are mostly found in Sense Two.The two colligations attempt to describe or further explain the attributes of devotion.Accordingly,colligation Det.+ N appears for the majority in Sense One and Sense Two,which modifies devotion using all kinds of adjectives.(3)Regarding semantic association,collocates around devotion are usually in the same semantic field.When looking at semantic preference,the kinds of adjectives and noun collocates are pretty much differentiating factors.Sense One and Sense Two are usually modified by adjectives of degree and they often coordinate with near synonyms of love and affection as well as dedication and loyalty.Sense Three and Sense Four are intimately related with religion in which Sense Three means religious zeal or fervor while Sense Four implies a religious exercise or practice,an act of prayer or private worship.Sense Three focuses on psychology,while Sense Four on behavior.Concerning semantic prosody,all senses of devotion are mostly primed positively,despite several rare cases of contradiction.(4)As for pragmatic association,to be pragmatically primed is to be contextually marked.Thus,here contextual markers serve as the key differentiating factors.When the context falls into the expressions of love and affection,it stands a very fair chance being Sense One to convey a strong and violent emotion.The context of Sense Two being pragmatically primed can be time,wealth,energy,and effort that have been spent on things like ideals,work,duty,cause,science and organization.Sense Three produces pragmatic association with attitude towards religion,while Sense Four is pragmatically primed more than that of Sense Three,which is involved with contextual markers of time,means,places,persons,reasons or purposes,and states of performing prayers.(5)Turning to textual priming features,Sense One mainly falls into domains of arts,imaginative prose and world affairs,and Sense Two in applied science,social science,commerce and finance,and politics.Sense Three and Sense Four are primarily in Belief and Thought.However,this is not absolute.On cohesive links,all senses of devotion are found in semantic relations of synonymy,antonymy and meronymy,and through repetition and contrast the text progresses forward.Regarding positioning,Sense One and Sense Two are mainly primed sentence-initial as subject or theme to be described or explained.While Sense Three and Sense Four are primed with the tendency to favor final position as an object following a preposition or a verb.Undoubtedly,the present study has made several contributions in three aspects:First,the investigation to polysemy from the perspective of Lexical Priming Theory enables a better comprehension and production of sentences and texts.Second,a command of priming features of authentic data can guarantee the naturalness and authenticity of vocabulary teaching and learning as well as dictionary compiling.Third,the present study provides a model for self-directed vocabulary learners to investigate collocation in different levels of polysemy.Moreover,teachers should introduce the corpus-based teaching approach and show learners how to use a corpus in class if conditions permit.As a consequence,it is highly promotable for English teachers and learners as well as dictionary compilers to take priming features of lexical items into account and put them into good use.