Prototype of the English Verb Stand：A Mental Representation of Chinese Learners

Abstract

This paper presents two experiments investigating the prototype of the English verb stand for native Chinese learners of English. Using the criteria of ease of elicitation and the magnet effect of prototypes, the study employed a sentence generation task and a sentence sorting task. In the sentence generation task, subjects were asked to produce ten sentences using the verb stand. In the sentence sorting task, a separate group of subjects were asked to sort the sentences into groups based on the meanings of stand. The results indicate that the senses “be upright or on one’s feet” and “get up onto one’s feet from another position” serve as prototypes of the verb stand for native Chinese learners of English. The findings highlight the multi-faceted nature of prototypes, suggest a reliable methodology for its investigation, and reveal how exposure to a specific sense influences prototypes among L2 learners.