英文专业词汇学考试复习资料.doc

Chapter 1 The Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary
1、The Definition of a Word
Lexicology focuses on the study of meanings and origins of words.
According to semanticists（语义学家）, a word is a unit of meaning.
A word is a minimal（最小的） free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning
and syntactic function（句法功能）.
2、 Vocabulary
All the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary.
3、 Sound and Meaning
The relationship between sound and meaning is no logic
4、 Sound and Form
There was more agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English.
With the development of the language, more and more differences arose between sound and
form.
5、 Classification of Words
No.
Classification
Example
Notes
1
By
use frequency
Basic Word Stock
（基本词汇）
The basic word stock forms the common core（共合）of the language.
Pronouns（代词） and numerals are semantically monosemous（单一的） and fairly limited in the respect of productivity（多产性）and collocability（搭配性）.
The most important feature of the basic word stock is all national character.
Nonbasic Vocabulary
Archaisms（古词语）：thou
Neologisms（新词）：AIDS
Argot（黑话）：persuader( means dagger)
Technical Terms

2
By notion
（有无实义）
Content Words（实义词）
Functional Words
3
By Origin
Native Words

Borrowed Words
Denizens（同代词）：port、shirt
Aliens（非同代词）：décor
Translation Loans（译借词）: lama（喇嘛）

4
By Morphology
   （形态）
Simple Words
Compounds and Derived Words
6、简答
（1）、What is the relationship between sound and meaning? Give examples to illustrate it.
The relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary and conventional. In different
languages, the same concept can be shown by different sounds. “Woman”, for example,
becomes “Frau” in German, “Femme” in French and “fu nv” in Chinese. On the other
hand, the same sound [mi:t] is used to mean “meet, meat, mete”, denoting different
things.
（2）、What are the four major reasons for the differences between sound and form?
The first reason (he internal reason) is that there are more phonemes （音素）than letters
in English. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than
spelling over the years. The third reasons that some of the differences more created by
the early scribes. The fourth reason is the borrowing.

（3）、How are words classified in the course book?
Words can be classified by different criteria and for different purposes. Words may fall
into: the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency; content words and
functional words by notion; native words and borrowed words by origin; simple words,
compounds and derived words by morphology.

（4）、What is the difference between denizens and aliens?
Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated（完全同化）
into the English language. But aliens are borrowed words which have retained their
original pronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognizable as foreign
in origin.
 Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary
1、The Indo-European Language Family
The prehistoric Indo-European parent language, thought to be a highly inflected （内部曲折
语）language.
Group
Classification
Including
Easter Set
(东支)
Balto-Slavic
Prussian、Lithuanina（立陶宛语）、Czech（捷克语）
Indo-Iranian
Persian、Bengali（孟加拉）、Hindi、Romany
Western Set
（西支）
Celtic
Scottish、Irish、Welsh
Hellenic
Greek
Italic
Five Romance languages:
Portuguese、Spanish、French、Italian、Romanian
Germanic
Four Northern European Languages (Scandinavian languages):
Norwegian（挪威语）、Icelandic（冰岛语）、Danish、Swedish
German、Dutch（荷兰语）、Flemish（佛兰芒语）、English
2、 Three Phases of the Historical Development
The first peoples who inhabited the land were Celts.
The second language known in English was Latin of the Roman Legions.
（1）、Old English（450-1150）
      In the 9th century England was invaded by Norwegian and Danish Vikings.
（2）、Middle English（1150-1500）
       The French influence on English vocabulary was one of the significant points of the
Middle English period.
The most important fact of the Middle English period was the steady erosion of the
inflectional systems of Old English.
（3）、Modern English（1500-present）
       In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient
Greek and Roman classics.
       It is estimated that about one fourth of modern English vocabulary has come from French.
3、 Foreign Elements in the English Vocabulary
In earlier stages of English, Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavian were the four major
contributors.
The simultaneous existence of French, Latin and English lasted for a century.
4、 Modes of Vocabulary Development
Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic change（旧
词新义）and borrowing.
Creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.
5、简答
What are the characteristics of Old English?
Old English also known as the Anglo-Saxon, has a vocabulary of about 50000 to
60000 words, which are almost monogeneous and entirely Germanic with only a
few borrowings from Latin and Scandinavian. Old English was a highly inflected
language. It was a synthetic language（综合性语言）.（Modern English is an analytic
language）Chapter 3 Morphological Structure of English Words
1、 Morphemes
The minimal meaningful units in English are known as morphemes（词素）.
2、 Classifying Morphemes
No.
Classification
Notes
1
Free morpheme

Bound morpheme
（粘着词素）
include two types: bound root and affix
are chiefly found in derived words
2
Derivational morpheme
confined to suffixes function as grammatical markers
Inflectional morpheme
（曲折词素）
3
Content morpheme
（实义词素）
On a semantic and syntactic basis, morphemes can fall into content/lexical and grammatical morphemes.

Grammatical morpheme
3、  Morphs（形素）
Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as
morphs.
4、  Allomorphs（词素变体）
An allomorph refers to a member of a set of morphs, which represent one morpheme.
5、  Affix
No.
Classification
  Notes
1
Inflectional affixes
according to the function

Derivational affixes
2
prefix
in view of their distribution （位置） in the words
Suffixes embrace both derivational suffixes and inflectional suffixes.
suffix
6、A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of
identity.
7、 简答
（1）、What is the difference between free morphemes and bound morphemes?
Free morphemes which have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free
grammatical units in sentences are independent of other morphemes, but bound
morphemes which cannot occur as separate. Words are bound to other morphemes
to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function.

（2）、What is the difference between derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes?
Derivational morphemes are used to derive new words, but inflectional morphemes are
employed used to indicate the syntactic （句法）relationship between words and function
as grammatical markers. Chapter 4 Word Formatio
The most productive ways of creating new words are affixation, compounding, and conversion.
1、Affixation
According to the position:
Classification
Including
Example
Notes
Prefixation
Negative Prefixes
（表示否定）
undemocratic,
disloyal
Generally speaking, prefixes do not change the word-class of the base but modify its meaning
Reversative/Privative Prefixes
（表示逆反）
unlock
Suffixaion
(Noun Suffixes)
a Deverbal Noun Suffix
（动词变名词）
dismissal,
assistant

a Denominal Noun Suffix
（名词变名词）
booklet, hostess
The words created by adding word forming or derivational affixes to bases are called
derivatives.
2、Compounding（复合法）
Example: workfare(work+welfare)
In adjective-plus-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes.
Verb compounds are created either though conversion or through back-formation.
3、Conversion（转类法）
The conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs is the most productive.
The conversion of two syllable nouns into verbs involves a change of stress.
Nouns fully converted from adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns.
4、 Blending（拼缀法）
The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns
5、Back-formation（逆身法）
Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation.
6、简答
（1）、What is the main difference between prefixes and suffixes?
Unlike prefixes which primarily effect a semantic modification of the base, suffixes
have only a small semantic role, their primary function being to changes the
grammatical function of a base, i.e. the change of the word class with a slight modification of meaning.
（2）、What are the three main features of compounds?
The three main features of compounds are phonological features, semantic features and
grammatical features. The word stress of a compound usually occurs on the first element.
Each compound should express a single idea just as one word. A compound tends to play
a single grammatical role in a sentence.
（3）、What is back-formation? What are the characteristics of back-formation?
Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes.
Words created through back-formation are verbs. Stylistically, back-formed words are
largely informal and some of them have not successfully gained currency.
（4）、What is acronymy? What is the difference between initialisms and acrnyms?
Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of composite
names of social and political organizations or phrases used as technical terms. Words
formed in this way are called initialisms or acronyms. Initialisms are pronounced letter by
letter, but acronyms are pronounced as normal words
7、论述题
Point out the formation of the following words?
No.
Classification
Including
Example
1
Blending
head+tail
autocide(automobile+suicide)、broasted(broiled+roasted)、chunnel(channel+tunnel)
head+head
comsat(communication+satellite)、telex(teleprinter+exchange)、Amerind(American+Indian)、sitcom(situation+comedy)
head+word
medicare(medical+care)、Eurasia(Europe+Asia)、autocamp(automobile+camp)
word+tail
Bookmobile(book+automobile)、workfare(work+welfare) , tourmobile(tour+automobile)
2
 Clipping
（截短法）
Front Clipping
quake(earthquake)、copter(helicopter)、chute(parachute) , phone(telephone)、scope(telescope)
Back Clipping
memo(memorandum)、gent(gentleman)、fan(fanatic)、disco(discotheque)
Front and Back Clipping
flu(influenza)、fridge(refrigerator)
Phrase Clipping
pub(public house)、zoo(zoological garden)、
pop(popular music)
3
Acronymy
（首字母拼音法）
(Depending on the pronunciation)
Initialisms
（首字母缩略词）
VOA、BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)、
UFO (unidentified flying object)、TB (tuberculosis)
Acronyms
NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization)、
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)、
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)、
TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language)、
1、“Medicare” and “sitcom” are blends. “Medicare” is formed by combining the head of “medical’
and the word “care”, and “sitcom” is formed by combining the head of “situation” and that of
“comdey’.

2、”Memo” and “flu” are clipped words. “Memo” is formed by clipping the lack of
“memorandum” and “flu” is formed clipping the front and lack of “influenza”.

3、”TB” and “NATO” are new words created through acronymy. “TB” from “tuberculosis” is an
initialism, while “NATO” from “the North Atlantic Treaty Organization” is an acronym.Chapter 5 Word Meaning and Componential Analysis（成份分析法）
1、Reference
Words are but symbols, many of which have meaning only when they have acquired
reference.
2、Concept（概念）
Meaning and concept are closely connected but not identical.
Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective
world in the human mind.
3、Sense
Unlike reference, sense denotes the relationships inside the language.
4、Motivation（理据）
Motivation refers to the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.
No.
Classification
Example
1
Onomatopoeic Motivation 
（拟声理据）
crow by cocks、quack by ducks、trumpet by elephants、
buzz by bees or flies、croak by frogs、squeak by mice、
neigh by horses、bleat by goats、hiss by snakes、
roar by lions and tigers
2
Morphological Motivation
（形态理据）
hopeful、useless、careful
3
Semantic Motivation
（语音理据）
Mouth (the mouth of a river)
4
Etymological Motivation
（词源理据）
pen
5、Types of Meaning
No.
Classification
Notes
1
Grammatical Meaning
Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning form the word meaning.
Lexical meaning itself embraces two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.
Functional words, thought having little lexical meaning, possess strong grammatical meaning whereas content words have both meanings, and their lexical meanings are prominent.
Lexical Meaning
（词汇意义）
2

Conceptual Meaning
There are few words with the same conceptual meaning and the same stylistic meaning.
Associative Meaning
（1）、Conceptual Meaning and Associative Meaning
No.
Classification
Example
Notes
1
Connotative Meaning 
（内涵意义）
mother、home
1、Opposite to the denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning.
2、Connotative meaning varies considerably according to culture, historical period, and the
experience of the individual.
2
Stylistic Meaning
（文体意义）
They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.
3
Affective Meaning
（感情意义）
Positive、Negative、
Both appreciative（褒义的）
or pejorative（贬义的):

1、Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative or pejorative.
2、Affective meaning, which is unstable, differs from the conceptual meaning.
4
Collocative Meaning
（搭配意义）
pretty woman and
handsome woman

 6、简答
（1）、What is reference? What are the characteristics of reference?
Reference is the relationship between language and the world. By means of reference, a
speaker indicates which things in the world are being talked about. The reference of a
word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. Although reference is
a kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context, it can refer to something definite.

（2）、What is conceptual meaning? What are the characteristics of conceptual meaning?
Conceptual meaning known as cognitive, denotative, or designative is the meaning given
in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. Being constant and relatively
stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as The same word
generally has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same speech
community. (language).

（3）、What is the difference bet