现代大学词汇学概论总结.doc

1. Morpheme (词素)The morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit oflanguage ,not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms .2. Allomorphs(词素变体)An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds .3. Compounding (复合词)Composition or compounding is a word-formation process consisting of joining two or more bases to form a new unit, a compound word. It is a common device which has been productive at every period of the English language. Today the largest number of new words are formed by compounding. 4Derivation (词源)A.The definition of prefixation(前缀)Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems. Features: Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. The majority of prefixes are characterized by their non-class-changing nature. Their chief function is to change meanings of the stems. B. The definition of suffixation(后缀)Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Unlike prefixes which primarily change the meaning of the stem, 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. However, they may also add attached meaning to the stem.5. Conversion （转换） Conversion is a word-formation whereby a word of a certain word-class is shifted into a word of another without the addition of an affix. It is also called zero derivation(零位派生). This is a method of turning words of one part of speech to those of a different part of speech. These words are new only in a grammatical sense. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this process is also known as functional shift. 6. Acronymy A. The definition of initialisms Initialisms（首字母连写法）: a type of shortening, using the first letters of words to form a proper name, a technical term, or a phrase; an initialism is pronounced letter by letter.B. The definition of acronymsAcronyms（首字母拼音法）: words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as words.Acronyms differ from initialisms in that they are pronounced as words rather than as sequences of letters.7. Blending Blending（拼缀法）is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining parts of two words. The result of such a process is called a blend word. Blending is thus a process of both compounding and abbreviation. 8. Clipping Clipping （截短语）is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead. For example, plane and exam are often used in place of aeroplane, and examination respectively. 9. Back-formation Back-formation（逆成法） is a process of word-formation by which a word is created by the deletion of a supposed suffix. It is also known as a reverse derivation. Look at the following words, think about what suffixes can be added to it: care: careful, careless, carefully, carelessly, carelessnessfriend: friendly, friendshipquick: quickly, quicken, quickish,quicky10. Reduplication Reduplication（重叠法） is a minor type of word-formation by which a compound word is created by the repetition (1) of one word like so-so; (2) of two almost identical words with a change in the vowels such as pingpong; (3) of two almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants as in teenyweeny.11. Motivation （理据）Types of Word Meaning11.1 Grammatical Meaning 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).11.2 Lexical meaning Lexical meaning(词汇意义) is the meaning of an isolated word in a dictionary. This component of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word.E.g. go, goes, went, gone, going possess different grammatical meaning. But they have the same lexical meaning expressing the process of movement.Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.11.3 Conceptual meaning 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 communication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language. Sun: a heavenly body which gives off light, heat,and energyMother: a female parent 11.4 Associative meaning Associative 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 comprises four types: Aconnotative meaning Connotative meaning (内涵意义)In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations which a word suggests or implies.Mother (a female parent) is often associated with love, care, tenderness, forgiving, etc.Home (a dwelling place) may suggest family, warmth, safety, love, convenience, etc. East or west, home is best.Statesman implies loyalty, devotion to public welfare; politician implies deceit, power-drunk, bragging, villainy.Bstylistic meaning Stylistic meaning(文体意义)Words may have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts.This stylistic difference is especially true of synonyms. It is observed that there are few words which have both the same conceptual meaning and stylistic meaning.Caffective meaning Affective meaning(情感意义)Affective meaning indicates the speakers attitude towards the person or thing in question.Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories:Appreciative or commendatory(褒义): words of positive overtones used to show appreciation or approval.Pejorative or derogatory(贬义): words of negative connotations imply disapproval, contempt or criticism.Dcollocative meaning Collocative meaning(搭配意义)Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquires in its collocation. In other words, it is that part of the word meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion.12.Polysemy Polysemy (一词多义)can be defined as a term used in semantic analysis to refer to a lexical item which has a range of different meanings.Polysemic words are signs of an advanced culture. It is also an essential feature of a languages economy and efficiency.Three ways for a language to express new ideas, new processes and new products, etc.: Form a new word; Borrow a word from other languages; Add new meanings to established words.13.Homonymy Homonyms（同形异义）： Words, which, though different in meaning, are pronounced alike, or spelled alike, or both.Types of homonyms:Perfect homonyms同音异义：Words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning. date/date; bear/bear; bank/bankHomophones同音：Words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning. write/right; dear/deer; son/sunHomographs 同形异义：Words identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning. lead/lead; bow/bow; tear/tear14. Synonymy (同义关系)-semantic similarityA.Absolute or perfect synonyms（完全同义词）: a. words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects, I.e. both in grammatical and lexical meaning, including conceptual and associative meaning. Such synonyms are rare in natural languages.b. compounding and composition;c. word building and word-formation; d. malnutrition and undernourishmentB.Relative or partial synonyms（部分同义词）: words which are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degree of a given quality. It is this type of synonyms we shall deal with here.15.Antonymy(反义关系)-semantic oppositionA.Contraries Contraries(相对反义词/两极反义词)Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. The two opposites are gradable（可分级的）.hot, warm, cool, coldbeautiful, pretty, good-looking, plain, uglyold-young, big-small, poor-richB.Complementaries Complementaries(绝对反义词/互补反义词)These antonyms truly represent oppositeness. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them (non-gradable).dead-alive, present-absent, male-female, true-false, approval-disapproval, capable-incapablePrefixes: dis-, in-, il-, ir-, im-, un-C.Conversives Conversives(换位反义词/关系反义词)This third type consists of relational opposites.Husband-wife, employer-employee, debtor-creditorAbove-below, in front of-behind, up-downBuy-sell, give-receive, go-come, gain-loseD.Semantic incompatibles Semantic incompatibles(多项不相容词)North, south, east, west Spring, summer, autumn, winterJanuary, February, March,December Sunday, Monday, .Saturday16.Hyponymy(上下义关系)-semantic inclusionHyponymy deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. It refers to the relationship which obtains between the genus (general lexical item)and the species(specific lexical items).The general lexical item is called the superordinate(上义词).The specific words are known as hyponyms(下义词).17. The semantic field theory(语义场理论)The vocabulary of a language is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organized into areas or fields, the members of which are joined together by some common semantic component. The whole vocabulary can be divided up into fields. Words in each field are semantically related and define one another. Vocabulary is seen as an integrated system of lexemes interrelated in sense. -Jost Trier (a German linguist)The semantic field of the same concept may not have the same members in different languages, thus lexical gaps(词汇空缺) occur.The semantic field of kinshipMembers in English: 13-father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin, husband, wife.Members in Chinese: The semantic field of food hot dog, sandwich, hamburger 豆腐, 馒头18.Changes in Meaning18.1 Four tendencies in semantic change1）Extension(扩大)The meaning changes from specific to generalized one or cover a broader conceptthing-审判大会、政治会议any thing2) Specialization/narrowing (缩小）garage-安全的地方 poison-饮料 hospital-休息娱乐场所3) Elevation （升格）贬义/中性义-褒义（或高级别）Marshall-马夫-元帅 Executive一般执行者-行政官员4) Degradation （降格）中性/褒义 贬义Cunning有学问的-狡猾的 Sly- 熟练的-偷偷摸摸的；狡猾的18.2 Causes of changes in word meaningHistorical cause: a word retains its original form, its meaning changes because the object which it denotes has changed.Social cause: change in word meaning resulting from a constant verbal traffic between common words and various technical words.Foreign influence:deer/animal (Latin)/beast (French) pig/pork, sheep/mutton, cattle/beefLinguistic cause:a.Ellipsis（省略）: In noun phrases, the noun is deleted and only the first element is left, but retaining the sense of the whole phrase. Sometimes it is the second or “headword” of the phrase that remains.b.Analogy(类比): fortuitous: happening by chance; accidental fortunatefruition: a pleasure obtained from using or possessing something the bearing of fruitPsychological cause:a.Euphemism（委婉语）: use mild, agreeable language when speaking of an unpleasant or embarrassing fact and of taboo subjects.deathto pass away, to breathe ones last, to cease to think, to fall asleep, to go west, to be no morepoor peoplelower income brackets, underprivileged, disadvantagedb.Grandiloquence（夸张）: the use of long, important-sounding w