Polysemy and Metaphor

There are specific reasons for the formation of polysemy. It is common phenomenon for statement of polysemy, and it is the inevitable outcome for the development of society. It is a simple and effective approach to meet people’s cognition. As a widespread cognitive approach for people, metaphor is the source of the polysemy situation. The cognitive theory of metaphor in vocabulary teaching has the extremely vital significance. This paper first analyzes polysemy in English and discusses relationship between polysemy and cognitive metaphor, aiming to shed some lights on vocabulary learning and English teaching.