从意义范畴谈大学英语词汇教学改革

A Cognitive Interpretation of College English Lexical Teaching and Learning

意义范畴的相关理论表明:一个多义词就是一个语义范畴,包括原型意义、非原型意义和隐喻意义,它们都可以通过各自潜在的意象图式予以解释。因此,大学英语教学对常用词不能满足于字面的局部意义,要有全面的认知,要从词义、搭配和语体等方面指导学生充分挖掘其潜在的交际价值;在教学中要适当运用认知语言学的相关知识,以引导学习者化抽象思维为形象思维,促进其词汇习得;要让学生认知英语常用词汇的词义特征,以帮助其有效运用,并促进其自然朴实话语风格的形成。

Based on the hypothesis of image schema and metaphorical mapping,the paper investigates the characteristic of the preposition over and in（examples of basic level words）,and confirms that a polysemous lexical item is a category senses.The analysis has the following pedagogical implications： 1）College English lexical teaching should not be limited to the mere literal translation of words;instead,it should make adequate explanation about their prototypical,non-prototypical and their metaphorical meaning so that learners could have a full understanding of the communicative values of those words.2）Proper introduction of some cognitive hypothesis into classroom instructions could help change abstract thinking into concrete image-based thinking and this could in turn facilitate learners’ association in their learning and promote their acquisition of the target language.3）Cognitive interpretation and an effective use of English basic level words could also,to a certain extent,help foster English learners’simple and natural communicative style.