A Study On The Effectiveness Of Conceptual Metonymic Thinking In English Vocabulary Instruction

Metonymy has been a familiar concept of traditional rhetoric, which has been regarded as a special figure of speech assigned to metonymy. In rhetoric, its main function is treated as the substitution of one word for another. It is restricted to substitutions among names of human beings, places, animals and so on. Recently, cognitive functions of metonymy have been paid more and more attention to by cognitive linguists. They regard that metonymy is based on the experience of human body, triggering off association and imagination of human beings. It represents an important primary thinking mechanism and cognitive style. Metonymy is conceptual in essence. Based on the conceptual essence and its cognitive characteristics, metonymy is called "conceptual metonymy" accurately for this cognitive phenomenon by linguists. Conceptual metonymy is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a thinking mechanism, which is a cognitive style of conceptualization from one thinking domain to another. And it provides possibility for human beings to recognize one thing from another thing’s characteristics of the connotation. It is, in fact, a mode of alternative thinking, which is a thinking activity looking for an alternative model. Conceptual metonymic thinking mechanism plays an important role in understanding of matters, concept formation and development of language. Conceptual metonymic thinking is, as it were, our basic cognitive and thinking mode that we live by.Conceptual metonymic thinking has a great impact on the development of language. Therefore, it is of significance to research on the effectiveness of conceptual metonymic thinking used in language acquisition and instruction, especially in foreign language instruction, from the cognitive perspective. Based on its detail research of the theoretical background, definition, classification and essence of conceptual metonymic thinking, this thesis analyzes that conceptual metonymic thinking can explain the phenomenon and essence of polysemy and conversion in English in a better way, and it also plays an effective role in understanding and broadening meanings of vocabulary.This experiment adopted experimental method in order to research the effectiveness of conceptual metonymic thinking in English vocabulary instruction. In the experiment,65students from two classes, who were freshmen of senior high school and studying in Sunshine Training School in Dalian for their instruction after class as well, were chosen at random to be the sample. Class One was chosen as the experimental class, while Class Two was chosen as the control class. These students’English proficiencies were roughly the same. This experiment lasted for half a year. Data of questionnaires, pre-test and post-test was collected and analyzed by SPSS16.0software in order to do the significance testing for scores of students in the experimental class and the control class. The experimental results show that, students from the experimental class have a higher ability in understanding and applying English vocabulary than those from the control class. So conceptual metonymic thinking is an effective cognitive way and important tool for understanding and broadening vocabulary meanings. It plays a significant role in guiding English vocabulary instruction. The application of conceptual metonymic thinking in English vocabulary instruction has a positive effect on improving English learners’abilities of lexical competence, understanding as well as application of English. Therefore, it is of importance in directing the research in the future.