《泛读教程》III Unit 6 Vocabulary Change.docx

unit 6text ivocabulary changepre-reading questions1. give the meaning of the underlined words doublet and veal?2. give the main idea of paragraph 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10(9+10=the last two)3. what are the causes for borrowing words according to the text?4. how do people adapt to new borrowed words?5. what changes are made of the meaning of borrowed words according to the text?borrowing borrowing is a way of adding new vocabulary items to a language. speakers of a language often have contact with speakers of other language. if a speaker of one of these languages does not have a readily available word for something in the world and a speaker of the other language does, the first speaker often borrows the word from the second speaker. the first settlers in north america had contact with the indians who had already developed names for places and things peculiar to the north american continent. consequently, the settlers borrowed such words as massachusetts, wisconsin, michigan, illinois, chicago, and mississippi, to mention a few place-names only. another large group of words came into english as a result of contact through invasion, in this case the norman conquest of england in 1066. various kinds of words were borrowed into english: for matters of government like crown, country, duke, court, and prince; for matters of law like judge, jury, crime, accuse, marry, and prove; for matters of war like battle, arms, soldier, siege, danger, and march; and for matters of religion like angel, saint, pray, save, blame, virtue, and vice. then, too, today we find interesting pairs of words such as cow and beef, sheep and mutton, calf and veal, and pig and pork in which the first item, the name of the animal, is germanic in origin and the second item, the meat of the animal, is a borrowing from french. perhaps the occurrence of such pairs reflects a society in which the conquered englishman raised the animals for the table of the conquering norman.several points can be made about the norman conquest. first, the borrowings from french do not show much, if any, cultural superiority in the invaders. secondly, although the normans were conquerors, they eventually gave up their french to become speakers of english, just as their ancestors had eventually given up their germanic language when they invaded france. thirdly, the borrowings do not show the same intimate relationships between conquered and conqueror as the borrowings that resulted from the earlier danish invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries, when everyday words such as egg, sky, gate, skin, skirt, skill, skull, scatter, sister, law, weak, give, take, call, and hit, and particularly the pronouns they, them, and their, and the verb are were borrowed from the danish invaders.the kinds of contact speakers have with each other may often be judged from the particular items that are borrowed. for example, english has borrowed numerous words from french having to do with clothing, cosmetics, and luxury goods, like ensemble, lingerie, suede, perfume, rouge, champagne, and deluxe. from german have come words associated with food like hamburger and delicatessen. from italian have come musical words like piano, opera, solo, sonata, soprano, trombone, and serenade. from various indian languages have come words for once exotic dress items like bandanna, sari, bangle, and pajamas. and from arabic have come some interesting words beginning with al- (the arabic determiner): alcohol, alchemy, almanac, and algebra. of course, latin and greek have provided english with the richest resource for borrowing more formal learned items. large numbers of words have been borrowed into english from both languages, particularly learned polysyllabic words. numerous doublets also exist in english, that is, words that have been borrowed twice, once directly from latin, and the second time through another language, most often french:latinenglishfrenchenglishmagistermagistrate maitremastersecurus secure sur sure north american english shows a wide contact with other languages in its borrowings: french (levee, prairie); spanish (mesa, patio); german (fatcakes, smearcase); dutch (coleslaw, cooky, stoop); american indian (squash, moccasin, squaw, wigwam); and various african languages (banjo, gumbo, voodoo). at different times speakers of certain languages have shown (show) noticeable resistance to borrowing words, and they have preferred either to exploit native resources or to resort to loan translations instead. such an english word as superman is a loan translation of the ubermensch just as marriage of convenience is a loan translation of the french mariage de convenance and it goes without saying of the french ca va sans dire. borrowings are also assimilated to different degrees. sometimes a borrowing is pronounced in a decidedly foreign way for a while, but it is usually soon treated according to native sound patterns if it occurs frequently. in english, words such as garage, salon, masseur, ghoul, and hickory, borrowed from a variety of foreign languages, are pronounced according to the sound system of english and not according to the phonological rules of the source language.narrowing and widening one process involves narrowing the meaning of a word so that the word achieves a more restricted meaning over the course of time. meat now means a particular kind of food, not food in general, as it does in the following quotation from the king james version of genesis: and god said, behold, i have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” likewise, deer now refers to a particular kind of animal, not animal in general, as it did in shakespeares words but mice and rats and such small deer have been toms food for seven long year. worm now refers to a particular kind of crawling creature, not any crawling creature, although some of the original more general meaning is contained still in slowworm, blindworm, and glowworm. fowl and hound refer to particular kinds of bird and dog and wife, to a particular kind of woman. however, in the case of the last word we can note a more general meaning in midwife, wife of bath, and perhaps housewife. finally, north americans use the word corn in a narrow meaning to refer to maize, whereas the british use it to refer to grain in general. keats ruth standing amid the alien corn is not standing in a field of maize. the opposite process is widening of meaning. in this process a word achieves a more general meaning. the words bird and dog once referred to specific types of birds and dogs, not to the species in general. the word virtue described a characteristic associated with men, but not with women, just as only women could be said to be hysterical, since men were not possessed of wombs (hystera being the greek word for uterus. the word sensible once meant sensitive, as it still does in french, and alibi referred to the fact that a person was elsewhere when something happened, not that he had some kind of excuse for something. notes to words and background knowledge 1. peculiar to: particular to, special to2. luxury: very comfortable situation surrounded by the best and most expensive things; sth expensive and enjoyable but unnecessary; lavishness, sumptuousness, extravagance; luxurious; (luxuriant)3. originate: initiate, start, begin4. exotic: foreign, alien, unusual5. resort to: adopt, use6. exploit: develop; make use of, make the most of; take advantage of; abuse, misuse, ill-use7. assimilate: absorb, take in, help someone feel that they are part of a community and rather than culture feeling foreign8. hysterical: n. hysteria; behaving in an uncontrolled way because one is extremely excited, afraid, or upset9. for matters of: things related with; speaking of, with regard to10. vice: sin, crime11. ensemble: set of clothes worn together, as a whole, all together, 12. lingerie: night gown; pajama13. suede: leather with a soft brushed surface14. rouge: blusher, make up, lipstick15. deluxe: luxurious16. delicatessen: a store that sells good quality cooked meat, cheese, and food from other countries17. sonata奏鸣曲18. soprano：女高音19. trombone：长号，拉管20. serenade:小夜曲21. bandanna:大头巾22. sari：莎丽23. bangle：bracelet; armlet; wristlet24. alchemy：炼金术，魔法25. almanac：日历，年鉴，历书26. algebra：代数27. polysyllabic:多音节的28. doublet: 同源异形或义的同源词29. levee: dock, 30. prairie: plain31. mesa: plateau, highland32. patio: terrace, yard, veranda,天井，院子33. fatcakes34. smearcase: cottage cheese35. coleslaw:凉拌卷心菜36. stoop：游廊37. squash: 西葫芦, 2.英国果汁汽水38. moccasin: a soft leather shoe with a flat heel, (北美印地安人等穿的)鹿皮靴；硬底软(拖)鞋；(南美)有毒水蛇；噬鱼蛇39. squaw: 北美印地安女人，印第安人的妻子40. wigwam: tall tent used in the past by some native americans as their home(印第安人的)棚屋41. banjo: 班卓琴42. gumbo：浓汤，秋葵荚43. voodoo：伏都教徒，黑人巫师44. marriage of convenience: a marriage in which the partners have married, not because they love each other, but in order to obtain some benefit, such as the right to live in the other partners country.45. decidedly: definitely, absolutely46. salon: hair salon; beauty salon; rendezvous, get-together47. masseur :男按摩师48. ghoul: 1: a legendary evil being that robs graves and feeds on corpses2: one suggestive of a ghoul;especially: one who shows morbid interest in things considered shocking or repulsive ghoulishadjective; ghoulishlyadverb; ghoulishnessnounsynonym: ghost, phantom49. hickory: a north american tree that produces nutsnarrowing and widening50. behold: look on51. likewise: similarly52. slowworm: 蛇蜥53. blindworm: 蛇蜥54. glowworm: 萤火虫55. uterus: womb56. wife of bath: 见the wife of baths tale专页57. the norman conquest: see also国概norman conquest of englandfrom wikipedia, the free encyclopediathenorman conquest of englandwas the 11th-century invasion and occupation ofenglandby an army of norman,breton, andfrenchsoldiers led by duke william ii ofnormandy, laterwilliam the conqueror.williams claim to the english throne derived from his familial relationship with the (childless) anglo-saxonkingedward the confessor, who may have encouraged williams hopes for the throne. edward died in january 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-lawharold godwinson. the norwegian king harald hardradainvaded northern england in september 1066, was victorious at thebattle of fulford, but harold defeated and killed him at thebattle of stamford bridgeon 25 september 1066. within days, william landed in southern england. harold marched south to confront him, leaving a significant portion of his army in the north. harolds army confronted williams invaders on 14 october at thebattle of hastings; williams force defeated harold, who was killed in the engagement.although williams main rivals were gone, he still faced rebellions over the following years and was not secure on his throne until after 1072. the lands of the resisting english elite were confiscated; some of the elite fled into exile. to control his new kingdom, william gave lands to his followers and builtcastlescommanding military strongpoints throughout the land. other effects of the conquest included thecourtand government, the introduction ofnorman frenchas the language of the elites, and changes in the composition of the upper classes, as williamenfeoffedlands to be held directly from the king. more gradual changes affected the agricultural classes and village life: the main change appears to have been the formal elimination of slavery, which may or may not have been linked to the invasion. there was little alteration in the structure of government, as the new norman administrators took over many of the forms of anglo-saxon government.consequenceselite replacementenglish emigrationgovernmental systemslanguageone of the most obvious effects of the conquest was the introduction ofanglo-norman, a northern dialect ofold french, as the language of the ruling classes in england, displacing old english. french words entered the english language, and a further sign of the shift was the usage of names common in france instead ofanglo-saxon names. male names such aswilliam,robertandrichardsoon became common; female names changed more slowly. the norman invasion had little impact on placenames, which had changed significantly after earlier scandinavian invasions. it is not known precisely how much english the norman invaders learned, nor how much the knowledge of french spread among the lower classes, but the demands of trade and basic communication probably meant that at least some of the normans and native english were bilingual.115nevertheless it is known thatwilliam the conquerorhimself never developed a working knowledge of english and for centuries afterward english was not well understood by the nobility.116immigration and intermarriagesocietythe norman conquest of england began on 28 september 1066 with the invasion of england by william, duke of normandy. william became known as william the conqueror after his victory at the battle of hastings on 14 october 1066, defeating king harold ii of england. harolds army had been badly depleted in the english victory at the battle of stamford bridge in northern england on 25 september 1066 over the army of king harald iii of norway. by early 1071, william had secured control of most of england, although rebellions and resistance continued until approximately 1088.the norman conquest was a pivotal event in english history. it largely removed the native ruling class, replacing it with a foreign, french-speaking monarchy, aristocracy, and clerical hierarchy. this, in turn, brought about a transformation of the english language and the culture of england in a new era often referred to as norman england.by bringing england under the control of rulers originating in france, the norman conquest linked the country more closely with continental europe, lessened scandinavian influence, and also set the stage for a rivalry with france that would continue intermittently for many centuries. it also had important consequences for the rest of