原型范畴理论与英语多义词词汇教学

Prototype Category Theory and Vocabulary Teaching in English Polysemous Words

多义词是语言的普遍现象,而原型范畴理论为多义词的不同词义提供了充分的理据。本文以牛津高阶英汉双语词典中的若干多义词为例,应用原型范畴理论解释多义词不同词义之间是如何联系起来的,并由此得出:在多义词的教学中,教师应该注重原型意义的教授,有意识地去寻找多义词各词义间的家族相似性,使学生整体上把握各词义之间的联系,提高多义词的习得效率。

Polysemy is a common phenomenon in language, and prototype category theory provides full motivation for different meanings of a polysemous word. Taking from Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary some polysemous words as examples, this paper explains how the different meanings are linked based on prototype category theory. And it comes to the conclusion that in teaching polysemous words, teachers should emphasize the prototype meaning and consciously find out the family resemblance among different meanings so that students can wholly grasp the connection among different meanings of polysemous words. Thus improving the efficiency of acquisition of polysemous words can be expected.