An Empirical Study On The Polysemy Learning Effectiveness For English Majors:from The Perspective Of Prototype Category Theory

Polysemy is one of the key characteristics of natural language which is a common phenomenon in English learning.Learners are often under great pressure when they learn polysemy because of the various meanings of a polysemous word.So it’s necessary to explore a way which can help the students learn polysemy effectively.As the learners majoring in English,they are needed to obtain higher level for English language and therefore it is very important for English majors to grasp the meanings of polysemy accurately.The relation between different meanings of polysemy is explained based on the prototype category theory（PCT）in cognitive linguistics in this paper.Three questions are put forward as followings:（1）How is the level of English major students’ polysemy learning?（2）What effect does the polysemy learning based on prototype category theory have on the polysemy understanding and meaning retention compared with the traditional learning method?（3）What is the students’ feedback and comment towards the polysemy learning based on the prototype category theory?In this study,two natural classes（26 in EG and 26 in CG）in a university are randomly selected as the experimental group（EG）and the control group（CG）.There is no significant difference in the learning of polysemy between the two groups.In the process of the experiment,the polysemy learning model guided by the prototype category theory is used to the EG,meanwhile,metaphor and metonymy are used to analyze the extended meaning and the peripheral meaning.The traditional polysemy learning model（The teachers introduce the meanings without mentioning the relation between them.）is adopted by CG.The duration of the experiment lasts two months.In the first and third week after the experiment,post-tests are conducted to the two groups in order to examine the effect of the students’ polysemy learning.By analyzing the data results in SPSS,the following conclusions are drawn:In the pre-test one,the means of the two groups are 27.19 for EG and 28.42 for CG（full score is 60）.The data shows that the polysemy learning level of the students is limited.The data for the post-tests indicates that the learning method guided by the prototype category theory is more helpful for the students’ meaning understanding and retention.The students in EG are more active and enthusiastic in the learning model based on the theory.They think the polysemy learning based on the PCT is effective and they would like to apply it into polysemy learning.The result shows that the different meanings of a polysemous word are not separate but related.It will be helpful to have a better meaning understanding and meaning retention if their relations are given more attention.Some implications for polysemy teaching and learning can be drawn from analyzing the results.Proper use of the prototype category theory,metaphor and metonymy in teaching and learning polysemy can improve the efficiency for teaching and learning vocabulary.