The Study Of English Polysemy Learning Strategies Based On The Prototype Theory

Polysemy is a common phenomenon of human language.It reflects the principles of language economy and cognitive economy.The polysemy not only decreases the required size of vocabulary greatly and reduces the burden of language learning for the learners,but also satisfies the need of variety of language communication.However,the polysemy learning has always been a tough problem in vocabulary learning.Influenced by the traditional linguistics,the vocabulary learning is focused more on the inner factors of the word such as the formation,etc.instead of its external factors,such as the relations with human cognition.Therefore,the traditional strategy for polysemy learning tends to be the mechanical memorization or guessing from the text,etc.Due to the lack of understanding of the relationships and the semantic network,the memory effect is poor and polysemy learning is inefficient.The rise of cognitive linguistics provides a novel and theoretical approach to learn polysemous words.According to cognitive linguistics,polysemy is a language phenomenon whereby a word has many interrelated senses.It is formed by extending the core or prototype meaning to peripheral ones,and is the product of the cognitive categorization and conceptualization.The resemblance between the prototype and its family members is the inner basis and structure of the formation of polysemy.The metaphor and metonymy are the main cognitive mechanisms for polysemy.The study of polysemy shares common features with the category study.This paper aims at exploring polysemous words on the basis of the prototype theory of category and the cognitive connections among the multiple sense items,as well as their working mechanisms,in order to guide polysemous words learning for non-English major college students.100 freshmen from Northeast Forestry University are chosen for an interview,a questionnaire and two vocabulary tests.The data are collected and analyzed by the SPSS 19.0(Statistical Product and Service Solution)and Excel.Finally,the results are mainly discussed 1)the current situation of strategies used in the learning of polysemous words;2)effects of cognitive mechanisms and semantic networks on the memorizing and using the peripheral meanings;3)Whether the core meaning will do better for students to acquire figurative meanings of polysemous words than the non-core meaning?This study has both theoretical and practical significances.Theoretically,it discusses the polysemous phenomenon on the basis of prototype theory from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,focusing on the inner and intrinsic relations of the multiple sense items of the polysemy,which has some theoretical guidance;practically,it makes an empirical study of the non-English major college students and proposes some concrete strategies for polysemy learning from the analysis of the results of the study,which has some significance for guiding polysemy teaching and learning.