A Study Of English Word-formation Based On Prototype Theory Of Category

Word-formation,as an essential linguistic phenomenon,treats the internal structure of the word as its main region.In other words,words can be divided into the smallest linguistic unit—morpheme,and word-formation refers to property,phonetics,as well as semantics of the morphemes and how to combine them into new words.According to prototype theory of category,prototype is the cognitive reference point that human beings use to categorize the world.It is the best and most typical member in the category while the other members of the category are centered on it.This thesis,from perspective of Cognitive Linguistics,employs prototype theory of category into English word-formation,and concentrates on its categorial structure,which not only benefits to a further understanding of the internal structures as well as rules of English words,but also facilitates learners’ vocabulary learning and makes it possible to rapidly enlarge vocabulary to some extent.This thesis mainly consists of three parts.The first part is the introduction,which is mainly about perspective,background,objective and significance of the thesis.It claims that a cognitive analysis of English word-formation under the prototype theory of category can perfect the analyzing system of English word-formation.The second part,as the body of the study,is composed of three chapters.The first chapter presents a literature review of word-formation and prototype theory of category.The first section is an overview of word-formation which is introduced from three aspects: structuralism on English word-formation,generative grammar on English word-formation,and cognitive linguistics on English word-formation;the second one is an overview of prototype theory of category,mainly including classical theory of category and prototype theory of category etc.Of which prototype theory of category is elaborated from Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance,Rosch’s the Notion of Prototypes,Dirk’s Prototypical Categories as well as Prototypical Members and Non-prototypical Members etc.,which lay solidly theoretical foundations for the composition of this thesis.The second chapter employs prototype theory of category into the analysis of combination word-formation in a specific way,and expounds from four sections: first ofall,it presents English combination word-formation,a process of word-formation that combines two or more existing words or even morphemes in the language,which mainly involves derivation and compounding;second,it analyzes prototypical roots and prototypical affixes in combination word-formation,among which the morphemes with all the four attributes(i.e.morphologically bound,fixed in position,productive as well as semantically generic or non-specific)own a prototype position in the category of the affix,while those without any of the attributes belong to prototype members of the root;third,it introduces non-prototypical roots and non-prototypical affixes respectively,among which the former primarily includes bound roots and fixed-position roots while the latter Qusi-affixes;finally,it summarizes the categorial structure of English combination word-formation: it is found that owing to the prototypicality of the affix and the root combination is in fact a two-centered prototype category presenting a continuum from typical derivation to typical compounding with cases of varied membership degree in between.The third chapter implements prototype theory of category into the analysis of conversion word-formation in detail,principally discussing from four sections: first of all,it analyzes conversion of grammar,including the full conversion and the partial conversion;second,it explains conversion of meaning;third,it represents conversion of form;at last,it elaborates the categorial structure of English conversion word-formation:conversion of grammar as a whole,especially the full conversion of grammar,is of rather higher prototypical gridence and is usually considered as prototypical conversion;while non-prototypical conversion,which holds a non-typical or peripheral status,is plotted against two dimensions,i.e.meaning and linguistic form;it forms a cline continuum from full conversion of grammar to conversion of meaning and conversion of form.The last part is the conclusion of this thesis.It summarizes the whole study and obtains some research findings.Besides,it also puts forward some limitations of this study,and some suggestions are provided for the further study in this field.Prototype theory of category has already been extensively applied to research of semantics,as well as pragmatics,syntax and even phonology etc.Nevertheless,only a few achievements,based on the perspective of prototype theory of category,have been made in the word-formation.As a matter of fact,the prototype theory of category is stilltheoretically robust when it comes to this field neglected before.It aims at exploring the categorial structures of English word-formation so as to extend the application fields and perfect the research models of English word-formation.