英语空间介词语义成员的分类与习得——基于范畴化理论的实证研究

Classification and Acquisition of English Spatial Prepositions by EFL Learners:The Perspective of Categorization Theory

本文以认知语言学的范畴化理论为基础,考察中国学生对英语介词in、on和over语义成员的分类和习得情况。研究发现:1)中国学生在3个介词核心语义成员的分类上倾向于与英语本族语者一致,而在非核心成员的划分上则与本族语者有很大的不同;2)3个介词核心语义成员的分类和习得难度远远低于非核心成员;3)不同介词由于具有数量不同的空间语义成员和空间语义特征,其认知复杂度也有差别,因此,它们对学习者造成的学习困难也存在差异;4)学习者的空间语义知识并不一定随着他们整体语言水平的提高而提高。

Engaging the categorization theory of cognitive linguistics,the present study investigated 186 Chinese EFL learners' classification and acquisition of English prepositions in,on and over.Results show that,(1)the learners and the English native speakers tend to agree on classifying the core members of the prepositions,yet differ on categorizing non-core members;(2)It is much more difficult for the learners to classify and acquire the non-core members than the core members;(3)different prepositions pose varying learning difficulty for the learners,due to their various semantic features,and simplicity or multiplicity of their meanings;and(4)the learners' knowledge of spatial prepositions does not necessarily develop along with the improvement of their general proficiency.