The Metonymic Mechanism Of English Denominal Verbs And Its Teaching Application In High School

This paper sets out to make an explanatory study of the metonymic mechanism of denominal verbs and its application. Based on the relationship between denominal verbs and metonymy and its related theories within the framework of cognitive linguistics, the paper tries to find out the metonymic mechanism of denominal verbs and then applies it to vocabulary teaching in high school. The study intends to:(1) probe into the relationship between metonymy and denominal verbs and the metonymic mechanism of denominal verbs;(2) design two sample lessons of English denominal verbs teaching to investigate its application;(3) highlight the cognitive nature of English denominal verbs and its educational value to offer some insights for the study of denominal verbs.The paper aims to lead both teachers and learners to a new perspective of teaching and learning denominal verbs, namely, the perspective of cognition and offers a new approach to probe into new teaching and learning strategy. Besides, the paper attempts to fill the gap between theoretical interpretation and its application. A review of related literature shows that the previous studies mainly focus on elaborating working mechanism of denominal verbs from different perspectives and few have delved into its application.The underlying hypothesis of the study is that metonymy is the cognitive mechanism of English denominal verbs and the metonymic mechanism can be applied to teaching in high school. On the basis of the hypothesis, two general questions with two specific questions respectively are proposed:1. What is the working mechanism of denominal verbs?(1) What is the inherent relation between metonymy and denominal verbs?(2) How is the meaning of denominal verbs constructed?2. How to apply the metonymic mechanism to the teaching of denominal verbs?(1) What are the possible constraints in the teaching application of English denominal verbs?(2) How to conduct the teaching application of English denominal verbs in high school?Through analysis and deduction, the study finds out that metonymy is the cognitive foundation of denominal verbs, which motivates denominal verbs to be constructed and be construed by people. Denominal verbs are one of the embodiment of metonymy at the lexical level. Denominal verbs result, mainly, from the interactions between ICM, perspective salience and conceptual integration. Based on previous studies, it is found that denominal verbs are a kind of action ICM. In the same ICM, the semantic features of a noun map, elaborate and integrate among four mental spaces to form its verb equivalent. In the process, salience plays an important role in highlighting the prominent features of the conceptual meaning of a noun.Due to some subjective and objective factors, the paper conducts its application by working out two sample lessons of English denominal verbs teaching in high school. Chapter four explores the possible constraints that influence the study of teaching application. They are encyclopedic knowledge, cultural model, context and personal cognitive ability. Then this chapter systematically expounds the teaching application of English denominal verbs in high school. Based on the metonymic mechanism, the procedures of teaching application go as these: first, the teacher decides the target words and finds the related sentences. Then, the teacher presents the materials and guides students with their learning by raising questions in terms of its metonymic mechanism. Finally, the teacher assigns related homework for further enforcement. In the last section of the paper, some specific suggestions are proposed for the teaching and learning of English vocabulary.