英语词汇学复习提纲 lexicology.doc

Chapter 1 Lexicology and Words What is lexicology?Lexicology = study of words / the lexiconIt is closely related to morphology, semantics, etymology and lexicography.Morphology: the study of the forms of words and their components.Semantics: the study of meaning. Etymology: the study of the whole history of words.Lexicography: the writing and compilation of dictionaries What is a word? A Word is an uninterruptible unit of structure consisting of one or more morphemes; a unit of sound and meaning.The total stock of English words is structured and organized in a systematic way. word class; semantic field.n Word class: closed class (grammatical or function words):preposition, pronoun, determiner（限定词: the, every.）, conjunction, auxiliary verb(助动词)；open class(lexical words): noun, adjective, verb, adverb.n Lexical words and grammatical wordsn Semantic (or lexical) field: semantic field of color terms, kinship terms, military ranks and vehicles; semantic field analysis used in the descriptions of vocabulary in dictionaries like Rogets Thesaurus & Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English(McArthur) & Longman dictionary of Scientific Usage & Longman Language Activator . Componential analysis: a method for establishing semantic field(e.g. the meaning of woman: +human,+adult,+femaleChapter 2Some basic concepts and Word Meanings Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit in a language;(e.g. moralizers is composed of 4 morphemes: moral+lize+er+s.)A morpheme may be: A complete word; a word form such as an affix(eable); a combining form(bio-, geo-)n Free morpheme: lexical morpheme: ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs, the words which carry the “content” of messages we convey, e.g. boy, house, tiger, sad, long, sincere, open, look, follow, bread.functional morpheme: consists largely of the functional words in the language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns, e.g. and, but, when, because, on, near, in, the, that, it.n Bound morpheme(prefix or suffix): Derivational morpheme: used to make new words in the language. e.g. (-ness, -ly, -ish, ment, re-, pre-, ex-, pre-, dis-, co-, un-); goodgoodness, foolfoolish, badbadly, paypayment Inflectional morpheme: indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. e.g. ed, -s, -ing, -er, -est, -s. In English, all inflectional morphemes are suffixes. Morph/allomorph Lexeme(lexical item): The base form of a word; A unit of lexical meaning (Crystal, 1995); An abstract vocabulary item; The headwords in a dictionary; May consist of one word or more than one word; Stem: the word to which inflectional affixes are added and which carries the basic meaning of the resulting complex word; e.g. work, worker. A stem may consist of one or more morphemes; Root: A stem consisting of a single morpheme is labeled as root; e.g. work.n Roots which are capable of standing independently are called free morphemes/roots;n Roots which are incapable of occurring independently are called bound morphemes/roots. 7 types of Word Meaningn Conceptual meaning概念义(or denotative meaning, cognitive meaning) meanings in dictionariesn Connotative meaning隐含义: the communicative value of an expression by virtue of what is refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. Politician&statesman, colors, kitty&cat.n Social meaning: Information about the speaker, such as their background or their relationship to the hearer. E.g., if Jo says wee instead of little, it may communicate to you that shes Scottish; AmE / BrE differences and other dialectal or accent differences; terms of address etc; Mummy, dogiechild.n Affective meaning: Information about the speakers attitude toward the subject thats communicated by the words s/hes chosen or the way s/he says theme.g. strong-willed vs. pig-headed; slim vs. skinny; Bob vs. Bobby n Reflective meaning: the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. E.g. words which have a taboo meaning(intercourse)n Collocative meaning: consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment.Pretty+woman, flower, garden, village vs handsome+man, car, vessel, overcoat, typewriter; cow+wander vs man+stroll; tremble with fear vs quiver with excitement;highly: important, intelligent, profitable, recommended, sensitive;a bit, a little: drunk, jealous, unkind;wide awake, fully awake, sound asleep, far apartn Thematic meaning: mainly a matter of choice btw alternative grammatical constructionsMrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize.The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith. Polysemy一词多义: One lexical item that has more than one sense. Bank, eat, court, watch, dart, stuff. Homonymy同形异义: More than one lexical item that just coincidentally sound/look the same. n Complete homonymy (bat, pupil, , firm, bear, grave, stick, jam, steep, fleet, pad, stem)n Homophone = same sound (to/ two, right/rite/write, root/route, knows/nose )n Homograph = same spelling (wind, lead,)u How to distinguish polysemy and homonymy?Whether the senses are related;Whether they come from the same source;Whether under one headword in a dictionary; Ambiguity & VaguenessChapter 3 The origin of English Words English belongs to West Germanic branch of Indo-European family. Historical development of English vocabulary and characteristics of each period.n The Old English period (450 -1066) OE: the speech of the earliest Germanic inhabitants of Britain; The first OE manuscripts (around 700): glossaries of Latin words translated into OE, and a few early inscriptions and poems;Most important literary work: the heroic poem Beowulf (written around 1000); 1.A frequent use of coinages known as kennings古英语中的隐喻语 (vivid figurative descriptions often involving compounds); 2. Preference for expressions that are synonymous;3. The absence of a wide-ranging vocabulary of loanwords force people to rely more on word-formation process based on native elements4. The introduction of a number of loan translation;5. Grammatical relationships in OE were expressed mainly by the use of inflectional endings;6. OE is believed to contain about 24,000 different lexical items.n The Middle English period (1066 -1500) Norman Conquest; Extensive changes: In grammar, Eng. changed from a highly inflected language to an analytical one.In vocabulary, Eng. was characterized by the loss of a large part of the OE word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin.n The Early Modern English period (1500 -1800) Transitional period from Middle Eng. to Modern English; Printing revolution marked its beginning; Eng. vocabulary grew very fast through extensive borrowing and expansion of word-formation patterns; A great many semantic changes, as old words acquire new meanings.u Two most important influencesWilliam Shakespeare; James Bible of 1611u Two dictionaries Dictionary of Hard Words (1604), Dictionary of the English Language (1775)n The Modern English period (1800-present) The unprecedented growth of scientific vocabulary;The assertion of American Eng. as a dominant variety of the lang.;The emergence of other varieties known as New Englishes. Types of meaning change(7)n Metaphor隐喻: using a word to refer to sthng it doesnt literally denote, but that has some kind of similarity to the literal meaningHead- body part above the neck a person in charge baby -infant loved onen Metonymy转喻: using a word to refer to something that is associated with its literal denotation.Downing Street place where the PM lives the PMcrown an item of headwear worn by a monarch the monarch, the sovereignty of the monarchn Synecdoche提喻: using a part to refer to the whole (or vice versa):All hands on deck! - man, sailorI got a new motor - carn Broadening (/generalisation)扩大: a word refers to a more inclusive category:manage to handle a horse to handle anythingbullish causing or associated with a rise in prices optimisticn Narrowing (/specialisation)缩小: a word refers to a less inclusive category:accident an event unintended/injurious eventundertaker someone who undertakes morticiann Amelioration (/elevation)升格: the mng of a word becomes more positive nice ignorant, stupid pleasantfond foolish appreciativen Pejoration (/degradation)降格: the mng of a word becomes more negativesinister left(-handed)mistress a woman in a position of power- an adulterous womanChapter 4 Word Formation Inflection and derivation Inflection refers to a general grammatical process which combines words and affixes to produce alternative grammatical forms of words. Derivation refers to the creation of a new word by means of the addition of an affix to a stem. lexical process. Inflectional affixes and derivational affixes p58Inflectional affixes: (only suffixes: plural marker s, possessive marker s, comparative and superlative markers er and est, tense markers s and ed, present participle ing) (regular and irregular)Derivational affixes: (class-changing slow-ly and class-maintaining child-hood)prefix: re-, de-, in-, im-, un-, pre-, dis-suffix: -ish, -ous, -ary, -ful, -er, -ence, -y, -ly, -ate, -able, -ation, -ure, -dom, -ful, -ment, -en, I doesnt change the word class and grammatical category while d changes.Prefixes and suffixes Types of Word Formation (6)n Derivation派生法: using derivational affixes: final+ize, teach+er, sex+ism, eco+tourism, trans+atlanticn Compounding复合法: putting existing wds together:couch+potato, lap+topCompounds: stems consisting of more than one rootOrthographic treatment of compounds: bedside, black market, car-wash Three features of compound:l Phonological feature: (nominal compounds) A single primary stress; lack of juncture; e.g. blackbird vs black bird; hardcover vs hard cover; greenhouse vs green house; redcoat vs red coat stonewall vs stone walll Syntactic feature: Single lexical unit, specific syntactic featuresl Semantic feature: specialized meaningse.g. blackboard, dustbin, redcoat, stonewall, cathouse, turncoat, mother wit, Indian paper, dog days 4 types of compound: An endocentric compound: consists of a head and its modifier (doghouse); A exocentric compound: does not have a head (white-collar, must-have)A copulative compound: two semantic heads(bittersweet, sleepwalk)An appositional compound: two attributes which classify the compound.(actor-director, maidservant)n Conversion（词类）转化法: a change in word class without the addition of an affix. A change within the same class; e.g. some beer/sugar/teatwo beers/sugars/teas; vi vt A change from one class to another: nv; vn; adj.n; adj.v p67n Blending拼缀法: combining parts of two words to form a third word which contains some of the meaning of each part.smog (smoke + fog), motel (motor + hotel), Eurovision (European + television)brunch, chunnel, dawk, slanguage, bit, psywar, paratroops, guestimatel Four types 69n Back formation逆生法: removal of perceived affixes (related to notion of folk etymology):to edit accelerat-or)；to automate automation；to beg beggar；to lase laser (n.)；to drowse drowsy (adj.)；to housekeep housekeepern Shortening缩略法 Clipping截短 the process by which a word is shortened without a change in meaning or function. lab (laboratory); plane (aeroplane); flu (influenza)Three major types of clippings: fore clipping, hind clipping, midclipping71 Initialisms:l Alphabetism首字母缩略词/abbreviations- spelt out as letters : o OTT over the topo DIY do it yourselfl Acronyms首字母拼音词 using initial letters of a phrase to form a word, pronounced as words: o scuba Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatuso NATO North Atlantic Treaty OrganisationChapter 5 Sense Relations Synonymy同义关系：samenessn Strict (or absolute) synonymy: gorse=furzen Loose synonymy (Distinguishing synonyms): E.g. mislay lose; foggy misty; mob crowd, find/discover; forest/woods. Antonymy反义关系：oppositenessn Complementary antonyms (also called contradictory antonyms, binary antonyms) 互补词: In an either/or relation of oppositenessE.g. asleep/awake; dead/alive (of e.g. animal); remember/forget; win/lose; open/shut; hit/miss (a target); pass/fail (a test)n Gradable antonyms可分级反义词: a more/less relation, 多为形容词E.g. cheap/expensive, rich/poor, fast/slow, sweet/sour, young/old, beautiful/ugly, tall/short, wide/narrow, clever/stupid, near/far, interesting/boring, love/haten Converse antonyms (also called reciprocal antonyms, relational opposites) 对立词：two-way contrasts that are interdependente.g. precede/follow, buy/sell, lend/borrow, give/receive, speak/listen, rent/let, employer /employee, husband/wife, parent/child, debtor/creditor, teacher/pupil, above/below, before/after Hyponymy下义关系：subtype relationn Hyponym（下义词） = type ofRobin is a hyponym of bird.n Hypernym / superordinate（上义词） = refers to the larger categoryBird is the hypernym of robin, penguin, and pigeon. Meronymy局部整体关系：part/whole relationn Meronym = part of：Arm is a meronym of chair.n Holonym = whole of：Chair is a holonym of arm, back, and seat. Collocation搭配关系components are not freely interchangeable; certain restrictions; (differ from free combinations); e.g. decide on a boatn Grammatical collocation: e.g. rely of, afraid of, good at, angry with, approve of, adhere to, admiration for, allegiance to, amazement atn Lexical collocation: e.g. run a business/ a company/ a school/ a gym, make a decision, put forward a strong argumentMajor relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymyparadigmatic sense relations纵聚合关系的Collocationsyntagmatic meaning relation横组合关系的Chapter 6 Idioms, Multiword Verbs and Proverbs Idiom: a group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate word put together. Characteristics of English idiomsn Semantic featuresMany idioms have dual meanings: literal and idiomatic meaning; Some literal meanings go against the logic of thinking and life; A great number of idiomatic meanings come from figurativeness. (simile and metaphor)let the cat out of the bag/spill the beans说漏了嘴，泄漏秘密; under the weather身体不适; take in欺骗; have an axe to grind另有企图；know the ropes 懂行；了解情况；as blind as a bat; n Structural features: structural stability / syntactic frozenness;to smell a rat 觉得可疑; to see red 突然大怒; to kick the bucket Classification of English idiomsn Idioms verbal in nature: v. + particleface the music; spill the beans; beat about the bush; bark up the wrong tree攻击错了目标; burn the candle at both ends过分地耗费精力; have a head on ones shoulder有见识; poke ones nose into; get wind of风闻; go easy从容不迫; come clean全盘招出; sit pretty处于极为有利的条件；过舒服的生活；成功n Idioms nominal in natureblue chip优值股票; narrow escape九死一生; white elephant无用而累赘apple of的东西; an discord争端，祸根; a snake in the grass; the lions share; Achilles heel致使弱点; Penelopes web永远完不成的任务; wear and tear磨损; flesh and blood; brain trust智囊团; sheet anchor最后的/主要的靠山;n Idioms adjectival in naturehigh and mighty趾高气扬; cut and dried呆板的; on edge; on the go忙个不停; up in the air十分激动；气愤; wet behind the ears缺乏经验的; as cool as a cucumber; as slippery as an eel;n Idioms adverbial in natureheart and soul; tooth and nail竭尽全力地; in a breeze轻而易举地; behind the scenes秘密地; between the devil and the deep blue sea进退维谷; through thick and thin不顾艰难险阻 Multiword verb：Units in which the main verb occurs with one or two particles(not, to, up, out);n Classification of multiword verbs; Prepositional verbs介词动词: v.+prep+(n). Call for, look for, ask for, refer to, go into, come by, attend to, burn for, bump into, depend on, enter upon, work under. Phrasal verbs短语动词: v.+adv. Bring up, look up, give in, sit down, blow up, boil over, drop in, end up, play around, stand up, take off Phrasal-prepositional verbs短语介词动词: v.+adv.+prep. Check up on, get away with, stand up for, walk away with, put up with, keep out of, look down on, look up to Proverb: short well-known statements that give practical advice about life; they capture the shared beliefs or collective wisdom of a society. Chapter 7 English Dictionaries Prescriptive dictionary and descriptive dictionary; historical dictionary;n Prescriptive = saying how the lg should be used. n Descriptive = recording the language exactly as it is used. E.g. W3 Three important dictionariesn The Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson; (prescriptivism)n OED; (historical principle)The greatest of all unabridged Eng. Ds.;The only Eng. D compiled totally from its own citation files;n Websters New International Dictionary; (descriptive principle) English corpora; Collins General-purpose dictionary and specialized dictionary; learners dictionaryn General-purpose dictionary Desk size (=college Ds in the USA),e.g. Collins English Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of the English Language, the New Oxford Dictionary of English;中型词典，案头词典 Concise size, e.g. the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Collins Concise English Dictionary, Longman Concise English Dictionary; 简明词典 Pocket size, e.g. the Pocket Oxford Dictionary, etc. 袖珍词典n specialized dictionary: restricted to one variety(e.g. a dialect, technical jargon, slang) or type of entry word(e.g. verbs, adjectives)Etymological Dictionary of English Language; Websters Dictionary of Synonyms; Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English; An English Pronouncing Dictionary (Daniel Jones); A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English (Joh