Metaphor Analysis of Polysemy and Middle School English Vocabulary Acquisition

Abstract

Language is an important way for people to communicate. Whether we can master and properly use the polysemy of language will directly affect the accuracy of communication. Polysemy means that the same word form bears multiple meanings. Its function is to reduce the number of words and the burden of memorizing words, which is the embodiment of the principle of human language economy. In the process of word meaning expansion, metaphor mechanism plays an extremely important role. Metaphor is an expression tool to understand and explain another corresponding thing by means of one thing. It is a mapping from one cognitive domain to another. The cognitive theory of metaphor has guiding function and application value to foreign language teaching, especially English vocabulary teaching to a great extent. Vocabulary teaching based on cognitive metaphor theory is helpful to systematically sort out and learn polysemy. The systematic and generative features of cognitive metaphor theory are helpful for English learners to build their logical expansion ability of word meaning. Studying polysemy from the perspective of cognitive metaphor will certainly promote the development and innovation of English vocabulary teaching.