Prototype Effects In The Categorization Of Tense-Aspect System In English

Prototype effects not only emerge in the non-linguistic conception, but also appear in all the strata of linguistic conception, including the tense-aspect system. Tense-aspect system remains one of the most important and difficult areas of linguistic description. The study of tense and aspect is in principle no different from the study of any other component of linguistic structure. Centered on the abstract category of tense and aspect, a detailed survey is carried out as to the prototype effects in the categorization of the system. The investigation reveals that category Tense-Aspect, starting from the prototype of simple present tense, extends in the way of concatenation like linked chains and expands in the way of radiation like sunrays, and that vagueness exists in the boundary of tense-aspect category. The vagueness in the boundary of category Tense-Aspect helps the construction of the category. Family resemblance is the internal structure and metaphoric mechanism is the cognitive tool, which together contribute to the construction the tense-aspect category. Both in form and meaning, the category presents this particular feature in the process of construction.However, the research on the tense-aspect system is mainly confined to the frame of traditional model and Halliday's model of functional grammar. Intending to provide some new vision to the tense-aspect system by extending the research from the traditional model and Halliday's model of tense and aspect into the domain of cognitive linguistics, an investigation on the tense-aspect system is conducted in the light of Rosch's and Taylor's approach to linguistic categorization. This paper also attempts to exhibit that prototype effect plays an effective role in the cognitive activities of human beings, and to spark off more focuses on the practical application of the theory to foreign language teaching, since the great vitality of a linguistic theory lies in its great value in teachingpractice. Like the lexical acquisition and tense-aspect categorization, prototype theory provides the same forceful interpretation to sentence types and lexicography so on. However, the research on these subjects remains a virgin land, and there is large space to be cultivated. Therefore, the study on the prototype theory remains a subject worth our further attention.