英语词汇学论文Meaning_changes_in_English.doc

Meaning changes in EnglishAbstract: As other languages in the world, English changes as times goes by. English formed and developed over many centuries into the form today. Studying the changing principles of words of English would help us acquire further awareness of English lexicon and do good to our language acquirement.Key words: meaning changes types causes 1. IntroductionVocabulary is the most unstable element of language as it is undergoing constant changes both in content and form. Of course, some meanings remain much the same for a long time because the referents to which they direct us do not change. Frequently, an old form or words are pressed into new service when a new linguistic need is felt. When a word loses its old meaning and comes to refer to something different, the result is a change in word meaning. Change of meaning refers to the alternation of the meaning of existing words, as well as the addition of new meaning to a particular word.2. Types of meaning changes2.1 Extension of Meaning /Generalization of MeaningIt is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized or has extended to cover a broader and often less definite concept. For example，Manuscript originally means handwriting (writing by hand only) while its present meaning is any authors writing whether written by hand or typed with a type-writer or a word-processor. Salary was (Original) a sum of money given to Roman soldiers to enable them to buy salt; and is (present) fixed payment made by employer at regular intervals to employees.A large proportion of polysemous words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the course of development. Some words are generalized to such a degree that they can mean almost everything.(1) She is such a pretty little thing.(2) I have to pack my things for the journey.(3)There is another thing I want to ask you about.(4)That only makes things worse.(5)The thing is, can we finish the job in time?In the above sentences, “Thing” which used to mean “a public assembly” or “a council” in Anglo-Saxon times, now has become an all-purpose word. Its meaning is so general, and we sometimes call this noun a light noun.2.2 Narrowing of MeaningIt is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrow or specialized sense. In other words, a word which used to have a more general sense becomes restricted in its application and conveys a special concept in present-day English. The following chart provides us definite demonstration.ExampleOriginal MeaningMeaning after Narrowingmeatfood flesh of animals diseasediscomfort illness wifewoman married woman accidentevent unfortunate event In a word, both extension and narrowing of meaning are talking about the changes in conceptual meaning. Next we will talk about the changes in associative meaning.2.3 Elevation of Meaning It is the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance. Some words early in their history signify something quite low or humble, but change as time goes by to designate something agreeable or pleasant. Nice: ignorant - foolish - delightful, pleasantMarshal: a keeper of horses - a high ranking army officerConstable: a keeper of horses - a policeman2.4 Degradation of Meaning It is a process whereby words of good origin or affective neutrality fall into ill reputation or come to be used in a derogatory sense. For instance, Silly: blessed and happy- innocent-simple or simple-minded -foolishSad: full, satisfied, contented - calm - serious -sorrowful2.5Transference of MeaningSome words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced the process of semantic transfer, known as transference or transfer of meaning. The types of transference include Associated Transfer, Transfer between Abstract and Concrete Meanings, Transfer between Subjective and Objective Meanings and Synesthesia. Examples for Associated Transfer: the lip of a wound; the tongues of fire; the foot of a mountain. Examples for Transfer between Abstract and Concrete Meanings: Room formerly meant “space” as in “There is no room in the car”. Now it has developed a concrete meaning as in “This flat has three rooms”. In addition, grasp was (original) a firm hold with the hands and arms; and is (present) the power or ability to understand.2.6 EuphemismWhen people use euphemisms there is a semantic change involved as the expressions used often have little to do with the referents. Foe example, restroom, bathroom, lounge, John, convenience, comforts room and powder room are all euphemistic terms for “toilet” which itself is a euphemistic term. Actually, euphemistic terms are found used in every aspect of society.3. Causes of the changesThose are mainly divided into two aspects: Extra-linguistic factors and Linguistic factors. Extra-linguistic factors include historical reason, class reason and psychological reason. Historical reason can be illustrated by the following examples:A word is retained for a name though the meaning has changed because the referent has changed. (e.g. pen )Increased scientific knowledge and discovery is also an important factor that underlies the change of word meaning. (e.g. atom) As for class reason, language records the speech and attitude of different social classes, so different social varieties of language have come into being. The attitude of classes has made inroads into lexical meaning, particularly in the case of elevation and degradation. Quite a number of words that denote different sorts of working people or their occupations have deteriorated and now have taken on a pejorative sense. E.g. Churl, villain, hussy, wench which were originally neutral in color have been down-graded as “ill-manned or bad people”. Besides, the associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc. is often due to psychological factors. People change word meaning owing to various psychological motives: love, respect, courtesy, suspicious, pessimism, sarcasm, irony, contempt, hatred, etc. The fact that some low, humble and despised occupations often take on more appealing names is all due to psychological reasons. Religious influence is another kind of psychological need. The internal factors within the language system consist of: One type of such change occurs when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of the whole.（English=the English Language）The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. (deer, animal, beast)The competition of native words eventually yields the semantic division.The change of meaning is brought about by analogy.4. Conclusion: So by reading these parts, we of course reach the conclusion that the words in English is incessantly developing and changing. The changes in meaning are gradual, and words are not changed in a day. “Changing word meaning has never ceased since the beginning of the language and will continue in the future.” It is important for the language learners to be acquainted with the changing principles and update their vocabulary. References:1.张维友.英语词汇学M，北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1997:135，137，138.1392. James F. Shepherd. College Vocabulary Skills Forth Edition M Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991; 54, 513.万芳数据 /Periodical_nthyzyjsxyxb200802031.aspx 4.大耳朵英语：/news-26-39731.htmlAbstract构词法词汇是我们在英语学习过程中最大的障碍。然而，英语构词法能够帮助我们很好的辨别并正确理解英语，同时也可以在短时间内增加我们的词汇量，英语构词法是学习英语的有效途径和强有力的“武器”，在所有的英语构词法中，词缀法能够生成的新单词是最多的也是最广泛，它被认为英语学习的最佳途径之一。除了词缀发以外，复合法、转类法、混成法、截短法、首字母拼音法、逆向构词法也都是英语学习的有效途径Vocabulary is one of the main obstacles of English study. However English word formation can help us recognize English words, understand them correctly, and enlarge our vocabulary quickly. It is an efficient way and powerful weapon for English study. Among them，affixation is the strongest one to form a great range of vocabulary, and it is claimed to be one of the best ways of learning English. Besides, compounding, conversion, blending, clipping, acronyms, back-formation are also efficient ways of learning English. In the paper the ways and characteristics of word formation is analyzed form these aspects: affixation, compounding, conversion, blending.Key words: English, lexicology, word formation, affixation（关键字：英语、词汇学，构词法，词缀法）IntroductionThe expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word formation. There is a variety of means being at work now. The most productive are affixation, compounding and conversion. Talking about word formation patterns means dealing with rules. But not all words which are produced by applying the rule are acceptable. The acceptability is gained only when the word have gained an institutional currency in the language. Therefore rules only provide a constant set of models from which new word are created from day to day. Rules themselves are not fixed but undergo changes to a certain extent. For instance, affixes and compounding processes may become productive at one time or lose their productivity. By word formation processes, we concentrate on productive or on productive rules. While applying the rules, we should keep in mind that there are always exceptions. In my opinion, the most important principle for all these rules of word formation is economy.Chapter 1 the function of English word formation1.1 Word formation is an effective way to enlarge our English vocabulary. Nowadays, more and more people have taken notice of learning English. The number of the people who begin to learn English has increased at a high speed. How can we improve our English effectively is undoubtedly the focus of our attention. Generally speaking, vocabulary and grammatical rules are keys to learning English well. Among the two aspects, vocabulary apparently plays a more important role.Vocabulary is the foundation of language. If a language learner doesnt have enough vocabulary to express his or her opinions and understand other people, even if his or her grammatical rules and pronunciations are excellent, but he can not communicate with others well, he shouldnt be a good language learner. Under the influence of traditional teaching mode, teachers often emphasis more on grammatical rules and pronunciations than vocabulary. As a result, students spend a lot of time on remembering new words, but the results are not so efficient. However if we have a knowledge of English word formation, the results will be not that bad. Word formation is really an effective way to enlarge our English vocabulary.1.2 Word formation can help us have a better comprehension of an article. When we are reading a new article, we often encounter with some new words that we have never seen before. In this case, most of us will leave out the new word and go on with the following sections. However, this is not a good habit. If we want to improve our English, we have to take every new word seriously either look them up in the dictionary or search for the internet. But dont you think that these methods are inefficient? If we know something about English word formation, maybe the article would not be so difficult for us to understand. In this way, we can guess the meaning of the new word according to what we have learned about English word formation. It has been proved that our guess is correct in most cases. So we say word formation can help us have a better comprehension of a new article.1.3 Many new words can be derived based on the rules of word formationRecent years, the use of computers as a medium of communication has given birth to a new language phenomenon-cyber language. A large amount of cyber language has sprung up. Not all the new vocabulary can be recognized by human society. Some new words only emerged in a very short time and then disappeared, however, there are still a lot of words are shared by many people. Finally, these words are recognized by the whole human society. Some are even added to the reversed dictionary. Can we say that these words are unreasonable and irrational? The answer is absolutely “No”.Most of the new words that have been recognized are derived based on certain rules of word formation. For example, the sentence “3QU” is widely used in the chatting room on the internet by foreigners. This is also known as one important characteristics of English word-productivity. So it is necessary for us to learn English word formation.Chapter 2 Affixation Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to bases. This process is also known as derivation, by which new words derived from old or base forms. The words that are created in this way are called derivatives. According to the position affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into three subcategories: pre-fixation, in-fixation and suffixation.Pre-fixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to bases, which do not generally change the word-class of the base. That is to say, prefixes do not change the part of speech of a word. Their chief function is to modify its meaning, although there are exceptions. In my opinion, prefixes can be divided into: negative prefixes, pejorative prefixes, prefixes of degree or size, prefixes of time and order, and so on.Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to bases. Their primary function is to change the grammatical function of the base, such as the change of the word class with a slight modification of meaning, though there are a few exceptions. Suffixes can be divided into noun suffixes, adjective suffixes, adverb suffixes, and verb suffixes. I can give you an example. The word “countless”, “-less” change the part of form and show the negative meaning of the stem. Infixes are not so common and they usually show a kind attitude of the speaker and will not change the part of form and meaning of words. Chapter 3 Compounding Compounding is the formation of new words by joining two or more bases. Words formed in this way are called compounds. So a compound is a lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word (Quirk).Compounds can be written solid, hyphenated and open. Compounds have remarkable characteristics which are different from noun phrases. It comes down to three major ones: 1) Phonological features. In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first constituent whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally accented if there is only one stress. In cases where there are two stresses, the compound has the primary stress on the first element and the second stress, if any, on the second, whereas the opposite is true of free phrase.2) Semantic features. Compounds differ from free phrases semantically. Every compound should express a single idea just as one word. The meaning of a free phrase can not be inferred from the two components of itself. Nevertheless, a lot of compound are transparent, that is to say, the meaning can be obtained from the separate elements of compounds. But the two elements are inseparable and the change of the element would result in the loss of the original identity.3) Grammatical features. Two elements of a compound each plays a separate grammatical role, which can be seen in the way the expressions are handled morphological. For example, compound nouns often show their plural forms by taking inflectional s at the end. Though there are exceptions, their one-wordness identity is apparent.Chapter 4 Conversion In English learning, students will often confused with words which have two or more part of form. Many of such conditions are caused by conversion. Conversion is the formation of mew words by converting words of one part of speech to those of another part of speech, without changes in morphological structures but in function. Words created in this way are new only in a grammatical sense. Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives and verbs. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs. It deserves nothing that conversion is not only a change of grammatical fun