The Acquisition of Polysemous Words in Maritime English from a Cognitive Perspective

Abstract

The acquisition of English polysemous words is an important theory regarding category division in cognitive linguistics. It emphasizes that the boundaries of categories are fuzzy, the status of members within a category is unequal, with a distinction between the center and the periphery. This paper conducts an in-depth exploration of the acquisition process of English polysemous words from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, analyzes the cognitive connections and evolution mechanisms among the various senses within polysemous words. By introducing the prototype category theory and metaphor theory, this paper reveals the cognitive motives for the generation and development of polysemous words and explores the applications of these theories in English vocabulary teaching. Research shows that the acquisition of English polysemous words not only depends on the improvement of memory, but more importantly, it links known concepts with unknown concepts through cognitive means such as metaphor and metonymy, thereby expanding and enriching the meaning network of vocabulary.