Lexicology复习要点.doc

Lexicology复习要点
Linguistics: Generally speaking, linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of language、 To be more exact, linguistics studies the general principles upon which languages are constructed and operate as systems of human munication
Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human munication、 It is a specific social action and a carrier of information、
Lexicology: Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language、 It deals with words, their origin, development, structure, formation, meaning and usage、
1、 Definition of Word:
Word: A word is a minimal free form of a language that has given sound and meaning and syntactic function、
A word prises the following points:
(1) a minimal free form of a language
(2) a sound unity
(3) a unit of meaning
(4) a form that can function alone in a sentence
2、 Sound and meaning:
The symbolic connection between sound and meaning is almost always arbitrary、
3、 Vocabulary:
All the words in a language make up its vocabulary、
4、 Classification of words:
Words fall into the basic words and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency, into content words and functional words by notion, and into native words and borrowed words by origin、
By notion, words can be grouped into content words and functional words、 content words denote clear notions and thus are known as notional words、 they include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals, which denote objects, phenomena, action, quality, state, degree, quantity, etc、
Functional words do not have notions of their own、 Therefore, they are also called empty words、 as their chief function is to express the relation between notions, the relation between words as well as between sentences, they are known as form words、
5、 Development of English vocabulary:
Old English (450 ~ 1150): Celtic Latin of the Roman Legions AngloSaxon of the Germantic tribes (now people generally refer to AngloSaxon as old English) religious terms brought by the introduction of Christianity (6th century) Scandinavian words of Norwegian and Danish vikings (the 9th century)
Middle English: French of Norman (1066) English came back (13th century)
Modern English: Early Modern English (1500 ~ 1700): Latin and Greek were borrowed in the time of Renaissance
Late Modern English (after 1700): absorbing words from all major languages of the world with the growth of colonization、 (Midseventeenth) new words created about science and technology (after World War II)
6、 Characteristics of English:
Old English: Old English was a highly inflected language, language of full endings、
Middle English: Language of leveled endings、
Modern English: English has envolved from a synthetic language (Old English) to the present analytic language、
8、 Causes of the development:
Generally, there are three main sources of new words: the rapid development of modern science and technology; social, economic and political changes; the influence of other cultures and languages、
9、 Morpheme:
The morpheme is “the smallest functioning unit in the position of words”、 Morphemes are the minimal meaningful units、
10、 Allomorph:
Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discreet units known as morphs、
Most morphemes are realized by single morphs and they coincide with words as they can stand by themselves and function freely in a sentence、 Words of this kind are called monomorphemic words、
An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds、
11、 Classification of morphemes:
Free morpheme: Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free、 These morphemes have plete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences、
Free morphemes are free roots、
Bound morpheme: Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words bound、 They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words、
Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words、
12、 Root and affix
Root: A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word, and it conveys the main lexical meaning of the word、
Free root: free roots can stand alone as words and provide the language with a basis for the formation of new words、
Bound roots(粘着词根): A bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root、 Unlike a free root, it is a bound form and has to bine with other morphemes to make words、
A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss for identity、 In terms of derivational and inflectional morphology, a “root is that part of a word form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed、” A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added、
Affixes(词缀): Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function、 According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups: inflectional and derivational affixes、
Inflectional affix (inflectional morpheme): An inflectional affix serves to express such meanings as plurality, tense, and the parative or superlative degree、 It does not form a new word with new lexical meaning when it is added to another word、
Derivational affix (derivational morpheme): it is so called because when it is added to another morpheme, it “derivates” a new word、 Many derivational affixes have a specific lexical meaning、
The most productive wordformations are affixation, pounding and conversion、
13、 Derivation:
Derivation: Derivation or affixation is generally defined as a wordformation process by which new words are created by adding a prefix, or suffix, or both, to the base、
Prefixation: Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding a prefix or bing form to the base、 Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base、
(1) Negative prefixes: a, dis, in (il, ir, im), non, un
(2) Reversative prefixes: de, dis, un
(3) Pejorative prefixes: mal, mis, pseudo
(4) Prefixes of degree or size: arch, extra, hyper, macro, micro, mini, out, over, sub, super, sur, ultra, under
(5) Prefixes of orientation and attitude: anti, contra, counter, pro
(6) Locative prefixes: extra, fore, inter, intra, tele, trans
(7) Prefixes of time and order: ex, fore, post, pre, re
(8) Number prefixes: bi, multi (poly), semi (hemi), tri, uni (mono)
(9) Miscellaneous prefixes: auto, neo, pan, vice
Suffixation: Suffixation is the formation of a new word by adding a suffix or a bing form to the base, and usually changing the wordclass of the base、
Suffixes have only a small semantic role, their primary function being to change the grammatical function of stems、 In other words, they mainly change the word class、
(1) Noun suffixes:
A、 Denominal nouns:
Concrete: The suffixes of this group are added to noun bases to produce concrete nouns: eer, er, ette, let, e、g、 profiteer (person who makes unfairly large profits)、
Abstract: The following suffixes e at them end of noun stems to form abstract nouns: age, dom, ery, hood, ing, ism, ship, e、g、 wastage, mileage, officialdom (officials as a group)
B、 Deverbal nouns:
The following suffixes bine with verb stems to create largely nouns denoting people: ant, ee, ent, er (or), e、g、 assistant, informant (one who gives information to police, etc、)
Suffixes of this group added to verb stems to produce largely abstract nouns, denoting action, result, process, state, etc、: age, al, ance, ation (ition, tion, sion, ion), ence, ing, ment, e、g、 linkage, carriage、
C、 Deadjective nouns: ity, ness, e、g、 popularity, productivity, happiness, largeness
D、 Noun and adjective suffixes:
A small number of suffixes, when added to stems related to human beings or nationality names, form words that can be both as nouns and adjectives: ese, an, ist, e、g、 Lebanese, Chinese
(2) Adjective suffixes:
A、 Denominal suffixes: ed, ful, ish, less, like, ly, y, e、g、 wooded, simpleminded、
B、 Deverbal suffixes: able (ible), ive (ative, sive), e、g、 washable, arguable, permissible, active, decisive, productive、
(3) Adverb suffixes: ly, ward(s), wise, e、g、 calmly, naturally, publicly, homewards, downward, onward, clockwise (in the direction in which the hands of the clock move), educationwise (so far as education is concerned)、
(4) Verb suffixes: ate, en, (i)fy, ize (ise), e、g、 originate (have…as origin); darken, heighten, strengthen, solidify (make…solid), beautify (make more beautiful); modernize, symbolize、
14、 pounding:
(1) pounding: pounding or position is a wordformation process consisting of joining two or more bases to form a new unit, a pound word、 pound is a “lexical unit consisting of more than one stem and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word、”
(2) pounds differ from free phrases in the following three aspects:
Phonetic features: In pounds the word stress usually occurs on the first element whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally stressed、
Semantic features: pounds are different from free phrases in semantic unity、 Every pound should express a single idea just as one word、
Grammatical features: A pound tends to play a single grammatical role in sentence、
(3) Classification of pounds:
Noun pounds
Adjective pounds
Verb pounds
15、 Conversion
Conversion: Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class、 Conversion is also known as functional shift; Conversion is also named zeroderivation for not adding an affix; The use of the verb converted is both economical and vivid、
16、 Abbreviation or shortening:
Abbreviation: Abbreviation refers to word formation through clipping, initialisms and acronyms、 These short forms are quicker and more convenient in use and for this reason they are being more and more popular especially in web English、
(1) Clipping:
A、 Clipping: Clipping denotes the deletion of one or more syllables from a word、 Words created by clipping are called clipped words、
B、 Type of clipping
Types
Examples
Front clipping
(aphaeresis)
earthquake, parachute, helicopter, telephone, omnibus, bulldozer
Back clipping
(apocope)
stereophonic, gentleman, fanatic, advertisement, dormitory, examination, champion
Front & back clipping
influenza, refrigerator
Middle clipping
(syncope)
Ltd (limited), yr (year/your)
Phrase clipping
Zoo = zoological garden
(2) Initialism:
Initialism: Initialisms are words formed from the initial letters of words, and pronounced as a sequence of letters、
(3) Acronyms
Acronyms: Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as single words、
(4) Blending
Blending: Blending is a process of wordformation by bining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word、 The result of such a process is called a blend, which bines the sounds_ and meanings of two others、
17、 Backformation:
Backformation: Backformation is a term used to refer to a type of wordformation by which a shorter word is coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a longer form already present in the language、
18、 Onomatopoeia
Most English words are conventional, arbitrary symbols; consequently there is no intrinsic relation between the soundsymbol and its sense、
19、 Reference:
Reference: Reference is the relationship between language and the world、 In other words only when a connection has been established between the linguistic sign and a referent does the sign bee meaningful、
Concept: which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind、
The meaning of “meaning” is perhaps what is termed “sense”、
20、 Motivation:
Onomatopoeic / Phonetic motivation: In modern English one may find some words whose sounds suggest their meanings, for these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises、 For example, bowwow, bang, cuckoo, ticktck
Morphological motivation: pounds and derived words are multimorphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of the morphemes bined、 For instance, airmail means to “mail by air”, readinglamp is the “lamp for reading”, miniskirt is a “small skirt” and hopeless means “without hope”、
Semantic motivation: Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word、 It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word、 e、g、 pen and sword in “The pen is mightier than the sword” suggest “writing” and “war” respectively、
Etymological motivation: The meanings of many words often relate directly to their origins、 The word laconic meaning “brief” or “short” is derived from Lacons, a tribe of people who were known for their “brevity of speech” and for their habit of never using more words than necessary、 Hence a laconic answer is a “short answer”、
21、 Semantic features:
Semantic features: The analysis of word meaning is often seen as a process of breaking down the sense of a word into its minimal ponents, which are known as semantic features or sense ponents、
22、 Semantic field:
Semantic field: Semantic field refers to a set of words (or lexemes) related in meaning、 Semantic field takes the view that the vocabulary of a given language is not simply a listing of independent items (as the headwords in dictionary would suggest), but is organized into areas or fields, within which words interrelate and define each other in various ways、
23、 Grammatical meaning(语法意义):
Grammatical meaning(语法意义) refers to that part of meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as the word class, singular and plural forms of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting)、
24、 Lexical meaning(词汇意义):
Lexical meaning(词汇意义) is the meaning of an isolated word in a dictionary、 This ponent of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word、
Lexical meaning itself has two ponents: conceptual meaning and associative meaning、
25、 Conceptual meaning(概念意义):
Conceptual meaning(概念意义) (also known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning、 Conceptual meaning forms the basis for munication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language、
26、 Associate meaning(关联意义):
Associate meaning(关联意义) is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning、 It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education, etc、
Associative meaning prises four types: connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, and collocative meaning、
27、 Connotative meaning (内涵意义):
Connotative meaning : In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations