The Greek Myth and English Vocabulary 英语论文.doc

the greek myth and english vocabularyabstract: modern english is in constant fusion of each nations language and culture and experienced a long historical development process after gradually evolved. so there are many loan words in english vocabulary, and most of the loan words, which come from greek language origin from greek myth. the greek myth has a great impact on english vocabulary, on the one hand, the produce of some english words directly transform from greek myth. on the other hand, the myth associates with the basic words closely. and it also has an important position in english idioms.key words: greek myth; english vocabulary; typesi. introduction a myth is a folk story expressing and symbolizing certain fundamental aspects of human existence. 1 greek myths were created in ancient times, but they still survive now, and were passed generation by generation because of the permanent fascination. they are of great significance in english vocabulary. in renaissance, european humanism scholars research and translate ancient greek and roman classical literature, so that a large number of greek myth vocabulary directly into english. 2 with the nations conflict and communication, the english vocabulary take in more and more greek myths words by many ways and types, such as, the root, the affix, and the idiom.ii. types of way to be absorbed in greek myth2.1 parts of words directly into english vocabulary in renaissance, european humanism scholars research and translate ancient greek and roman classical literature, so that a large number of greek myth vocabulary directly into english. 2.1.1 influence on basic english vocabularythe greek myth has some characters, who either have a certain typical characteristics, either they had special experience, so their name directly trans- formed into english common nouns. converted into common noun, retained the original spelling, its meaning is the symbol of the mythical figure meaning and implied meaning, this kind of transfer or extended and myth character or experience in close relations. at the same time, meaning of the connotation and denotation of all have very big grow, and in the form is not changed, its meaning by a single conversion for diversity, abstract into specific common. for example, siren is a sea monster, whose body is a half of man and a half of bird, she usually sings beautiful song to tempt voyager. now, in modern english, this word means charming beauty, good singer, whistle, alarm. fortune is a goddess who represent happiness and success. the word fortune means destiny, good luck and wealth in todays vocabulary. another example is genie, he also is a god and his duty is control the good soul of people and protect them in greek myth. now people always use this word express a mean of genius, talent and nature. 2.1.2 influence on flowers and plants in english vocabularyin modern english a lot of plants and flowers name with the ancient greek myth is closely related to the relationship. there is a greek myth about daffodils name. according to legend, narcissus is a handsome boy, who is achelous son. he is so pretty that many girls fall in love with him at the first sight, but he always ignore them, the goddess of nature also loved him and can not pull out, eventually gaunt and die. nemesis, the goddess of revenge, wants to retaliate for him, so she let him to be infatuated with his own shadow in the water, finally drop into the river, and die. the goddess of love loved him so she made him as a daffodil, so that he could watch himself everyday. that is the reason why do people also called the daffodil as narcissus.adonis, centaur and teasel, both of those flowers name are have they own greek myth.2.2 the influence on english root and affix greek mythology to english root and affix has been deeply implanted into english vocabulary.2.2.1 names have an influence on english roots firstly, the flora, was a goddess of flower. her husband was the god of west wind zephyr gave her a garden with a present. during spring, they walked hand to hand in the garden, where they go, where the flowers bloom. so flora as root, equivalent to plant plants. cognate words have floral (flowers, plants), florist (florist), and flourish (prosperity, bloom) and so on. secondly, pan is one of the greek myth of the mountain god, his has sheep foot and human head. because he looks weird, his mother abandoned him as soon as he born. he likes to wander in the mountain, with his strange voice and grimace scared passers-by, people are fear. fear from the pan, so fear is panic. thirdly, pluto, the god of the underworld. because have acheron the treasure and makes pluto as a root said wealth. cognate words include plutocracy plutocrat rule; plutolatry money worship.2.2.2 names and places have an influence on english affixes. this kind of conversion usually said abstract and general, most for prefix. meaning is the mythical figure ideal job function and symbolic meaning. goddess selene (syler nie) conversion evolved as selen - month, such as: selenodesist lunar experts, selenology month surface science, on physical. similarly, hebe - can be used for conversion, table youth, its from hebe (hebe, they specialize in world youth and serve olympia mountain the spirit, be skillful in play? , such as hebephrenial namely medicine refers to the adolescent stay chi disorder pluto (prue with) system hel of god, the god of the grave; because have acheron the treasure and similar pluto as the root said wealth; ares (ares) is the myth of the god of war, mars roman name (marr,). the ancient greeks observed strange reddish-brown mars, imaginary is his trouble there, so in his roman name mars to mars named. ares and this name is turned into a conversion areo - mars, such as areocentric (astronomy) to mars as the center, aerographic on the surface of mars; areography mars learning.2.2.3 myth story have an influence on the english geographical term the myth of the names in a specific root, plus a suffix said specific geographic term, become the world universal geographic terms. these geographic term by the ancient greeks had lived geographic range, with the mediterranean as the center. according to the greek myths, athens king theseus go to the crete (what is now crete) to battle with a devil, it is very dangerous, so hang black sail to show mourning, when they leave. with others help, theseus killed devil but he was so excited that forgot to change the white sails which means victory, when they come back, his father named aegean (aegean) saw the black sail considered that his son, theseus, already were unfortunate, under the immense grief of losing a son, the old king jump into the sea. so later generations took the area called the aegean sea. europe named by zeus. legend, europa is a beautiful amorous phoenician princess, zeus deceived her, and made her come into a sheep to carry him to a new continent for marriage. in return, the continent named europe by zeus, because the myth story is charming, so this word europe still be received.2.3 the influence on english idioms idioms are fixed phrase, with the unity of semantic and rigidity. the structure, idioms have the integrity of itself, of which each part is fixed, not any apart and replace. there are a lot of english idioms are from greek myth story, its literal meaning still has the rich connotation meaning.apple of discord3, this idiom means the cause of an argument, a conflict or a contention. there are a greek myth for the idiom. eris is an unpopular goddess, she is the origin of argument and conflict. one day, the wedding of zeuss son was not invited eris, that made her very unpleasent, so she throw a gold apple at the wedding and write something what is for the most beautiful goddess. all of the goddesses think that themselves is the apples owner so the mother earth hera, intelligence goddess athena and so on, have a dispute. zeus dont want to offend anyone who refused to award, and then they find the most beautiful man paris on earth to award the dispute. aphrodite promised paris she would give the spartan kings wife hellen for him, so paris consist that aphrodite is the most beautiful goddess. for the foolish decision, paris and his country paid a heavy price; trojan which is his country battle with greek for ten years. the gold apple led to a long trojan war, so apple of discord means the cause of argument or conflict. the stone of sisyphus means hard and invalid work,charons boat means pass away, the heel of achilles means somebodys fatal weakness, all