Abstract
The prototype view of word meaning is widely held in cognitive linguistics. However, it is generally a fixed and static view. This paper attempts to propose a dynamic prototype view of meaning and explicates it through a corpus analysis of ‘110’ in China. It tentatively argues that meaning prototype is dynamic, functional, and developmental in nature, conceptually accommodating the different syntactic and semantic values of a word with ease, its dynamic relying heavily on central knowledge, which moves and develops through metonymy and metaphor in the use of a word. Meaning prototype develops in the uses of the word, and meaning develops in accordance with meaning prototype. In a different period or scenario, a different meaning prototype is likely to attain the forefront as the figure, and the previous meaning prototype fades to become the ground, although it may sometimes be ushered back to the figure position in a particular scenario.
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