2. Literature Review

     Games are activities in rules, which people are willing to participate in. Ancient Greek philosopher Plato defines games that “Games are all sons’ (animal and human) lives and abilities for the jump needs of the conscious simulation activities” (Plato, 2000: 82). Aristotle’s definition of games is “ Games are the rest and recreation after the work, acts of sexual activities for any purpose with itself.” A CEO of Sony online Entertainment says: Games are activities for learning some skills in happiness. Games can be pided into puzzles and active games. Games can give you positive emotional experiences. They have the features of intrinsic motivation, autonomy and special reality. Modern games mainly refer to video games. But to learn languages well, puzzles are very important.

     Games as social and cultural phenomena, were born before our society. However, till the 19th century, people began to pay attention to games under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution. Many scholars began to do research on games. Researchers are not just biologist, psychologist, but many linguists, cultural scientists, logician and anthropologists. Therefore there are many theories about games.

     In the early period, an English engineer William Stephenson has the theory of the spread of games. He pides all human behaviors into two groups. One group is working, the other one is playing games. He says: working is a way to earning one’s living. (Yuan Guiren, 2004:20) In contrary, playing games is to meet one’s needs. Working spread is a communication-unpleased way. Game spread is just for fun, which is a communication-pleasure way. Stephoneson has his own unique insight. However, he defines games as a way of entertainment. But he ignores the theory of playing in learning.源.自|751,:论`文'网www.751com.cn

     During the second half of the 19th century to 1930s. It appears a lot of game theories. An English ideologist Herbert Spencer mentioned “the surplus energy theory of play”. K.Groos in German puts forwards “instinctive preparation theory of play”An American geologist called G．S．Hall raised “recapitulation theory”. (Yuan Guiren, 2004: 22) These are all classical game theories, which show the cause and functions of emergence of games. But these theories are deeply influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution, which are researched through biology. They are products of subjective speculation, which has no reliable basis of application. However, in my thesis, there are quiet a lot of examples of the application of games, which can support my theory.

     Then, it appears the psychoanalytic theory of S.Freud.Games are activities which can give children great fun.People even tried to help children overcome their emotional barriers. Later, the game theory of cognitive development raised by Piaget, then Vygotsky further develop the game research. They do research from the perspective of pedagogic, psychology and Sociology. However, there is no theory researched from semantics. In my thesis, I’ll discuss from the perspective of semantic.

     It is obvious that the research of theories of games has had a long history, which develop from simple to complex, from intuitional experience to psychological theory. And the research on the application of games is increasing. However, my thesis has shown the functions of games of primary school English learning. My research also has some examples. What is different is that I’ll discuss from the perspective of semantics.