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1、The study of polyseme in cognitive linguisticsAbstract: Analyzing the situation of English polysemous words with experiential view, metaphoric point and prototype view in cognitive linguistics. Focus on the problem and difficulties in language communication and English teaching. Make the inspiration
2、 of studying English polysemous words and the English lexical teaching. Improve the competence of comprehending and using language. Key words: polyseme, cognitive linguistics, English lexical teachingLanguage is the significant tool in people communication. The accuracy of language expression is the
3、 key point to ensure quality of communication. While the polyseme takes many problems and inconvenience in communication and social work, at the same time, it enriches our language deeply. Polyseme is the universal phenomenon in human language and it shows economical principle. It reduces the heavy
4、burdens of people lexical memory with same morphology of different meaning. The tendency of development of polysemous words is overwhelming; polysemization became the convenient and sufficient way to know the world and a method better than coinage, word formation and loanword. It is crucial of Engli
5、sh learner to understand this linguistic phenomenon. At the first, the definition of polyseme is the precondition to research. A polyseme is a common linguistic phenomenon; it is a word or phrase with different but related senses. Because applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural pr
6、ocess of language change, looking at words etymology is helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution; as words become lost in etymology, what once was a useful distinction of meaning may no longer be so. Some apparently unrelated words share a common historical origin, however, so etymo
7、logy is not an infallible test for polysemy, and dictionary writers also often defer to speakers intuitions to judge polysemy in cases where it contradicts etymology. 2Next, it is necessary to realize the situation of polysemous words in communication and cognitive linguistics. The meaning of a word
8、 has diachronic developed and changed constantly. Absolute invariance is not exist, and any part of the language will change said Saussure 1. Words and phrase show the changes of language-old words disappeared, new words appeared, existing vocabulary of word meaning has changed. The changes include
9、change of word meaning and old words increase new meaning. Expressing new meaning from old words can satisfy social requirement of people. The situation and phenomena of polyseme is the necessary stage in the development of meaning of a word. With the fast development of human society, economy and c
10、ulture, the polyseme became more interesting and used generally and widely. How to analysis the polyseme in cognitive linguistics? Three basic cognitive linguistics theories: experiential view, metaphoric view and prototype view. The experiential view means semantics is a psychological phenomenon, w
11、hich based on body experience, and a result of the interaction between brain and objective world. A central point of cognitive linguistics is semantics based on sense experience, which gets through by perception and sensorimotor capacity 3. The meaning of language comes from the cognition of combina
12、tion between people and objective world, and the explanation by users. The meaning, which based on personal experience and cognition has bright individual character, shows the diversity on semantics. Like the proverbial blind men grasping an elephant, some people said it likes columns, some people s
13、aid it likes fan. The answer is right for their cognition based on their own experience; but the answer is wrong, because of just sectional not entirety. Therefore, not all the polyseme can be explained by experiential view. The metaphoric view means words formed new meaning with metaphorical meanin
14、g. Human put the controlled and specific conception on the new knowledge and abstract concept with cognition and reasoning, to find the similitude of things. The meaning of words expands to fringe meaning from central meaning and became polyseme. The metaphor cognition plays irreplaceable role to po
15、lyseme. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not just in language, but also in thought and action. A common definition of a metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows how two things are not alike in most ways and similar in another important w
16、ay. They explain how a metaphor simply understands and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another 4. Metaphor built people system concept generally; decided to people communication; and became rich source of polyseme. The metaphor theory shows that polyseme only has one essential meaning; other belongs to metaphorical and derived meaning. Metaphorical meaning has uncertainty, unlimitedty and diversity. Blake thinks that in all metaphor has the difficul
