英语词汇学教程课件第2章English-Lexicology-2上

1、English LexicologyLecture TwoEnglish LexicologyLecture TwoMorphemeWords are not the most fundamental sound-meaning units. The most elemental grammatical units in a language are morphemes. Morphemes are the ultimate grammatical constituents, the smallest meaningful units of language. MorphemeWords ar

2、e not the mostA morpheme is the minimal linguistic sign, a grammatical unit, which is an arbitrary union of a sound and a meaning and cannot be further analyzed. For example, moralizers is an English word composed of four morphemes: moral + lize + er +s. A morpheme is the minimal lingA morpheme may

3、be a complete word. For example, the, fierce, desk, eat, boot, at, fee, mosquito cannot be divided up into smaller units that are meaningful themselves. A morpheme may also be a word form such as an affix (e.g. -able, in-, -hood); or it may be a combining form (e.g. bio-, geo-, pre-). A morpheme may

4、 be a complete wA word may be composed of one or more morphemes. One morpheme: boy, desire, sayTwo morphemes: boy+ish, desire+ableThree morphemes: boy+ish+ness, desire+able+ityFour morphemes: gentle+man+li+ness, un+desire+able+ityMore than four morphemes: un+gentle+man+li+nessA word may be composed

5、of one Phonemes, which are the smallest working units of sound per se, build up into morphemes. A morpheme is composed of one or more phonemes. Phonemes, which are the smalleHowever, it is not always obvious whether or not a given sound sequence should be considered a morpheme. For instance, we have

6、 to consider whether window and woman can be said to consist of wind+ow; and wo+man respectively. This would allow us to isolate wind and man as identifiable morphemes, but leave -ow and wo-, which are no longer morphemes in English. However, it is not always obviThe morpheme may have ceased to be r

7、ecognizable because of linguistic change, as in the case of ow in window (related to eye) or the -fer in refer (from Latin ferre, carry). In these cases, we shall say that unless a word can be completely analyzed into morphemes, it should be regarded as unanalysable. The morpheme may have ceased tIt

8、 must also be noted that a sound sequence that is a morpheme in some words does not necessarily constitute a morpheme in all its occurrences. For example, the suffix er is a morpheme in gardener and speaker, but it is not a morpheme in never or consider.It must also be noted that a sSimple words suc

9、h as door, knob, wild, animal are morphologically unanalysable. Complex (or derived) words such as spoonful, wildish, reanimate, mentally, farmer are formed from simpler words by the addition of affixes or some other kind of morphological modification. The limiting case for complex words is that of

10、zero modification or conversion as in answer, call and question, which may be either nouns or verbs. Simple words such as door, knoCompound words are formed by combining two or more words with or without morphological modification, e.g. door-knob, cheeseburger, pound saver, wild-animal-tamer. Compou

11、nd words are formed by cLexemeA lexeme or lexical item is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. Lexeme is an abstract vocabulary item. The headwords in a dictionary are lexemes. A lexeme may consist of one wo

12、rd, such as big, boy, break down, quick but it may also contain more than one word, e.g. away from, cut down on, hurry up, in front of, switch on, steam iron. LexemeA lexeme or lexical itemFor some words, such as adverbs or prepositions, which have no grammatical variants, the headword in the dictio

13、nary consists of only one form. But in most cases, the headword is considered as the base form of the word, from which all the other related word forms may be derived. For some words, such as adverbFor example, speak is the lexeme, the base form; while speaks, spoke, speaking and spoken are all deri

14、ved forms. The forms speaking, speak, speaks, spoke and spoken are different realizations of the lexeme speak. They all share a core meaning although they are spelled and pronounced differently. Thus, lexeme is considered an abstract linguistic unit with different variants (e.g. sing as against sang

15、, sung). For example, speak is the lexeMorphAny concrete realization of a morpheme in a given utterance is called a morph. It is a physical form representing some morphemes in a language. Hence, the forms cat, chair, farm, -ing, -s and er are all morphs.MorphAny concrete realization Two or more morp

16、hs may vary slightly and still have the same meaning. For example, the indefinite article may be realized either as a or as an, depending on the sound (not the letter) at the beginning of the following word. Two or more morphs may vary slMorphs which are different representations of the same morphem

17、e are referred to as allomorphs of that morpheme. For example: a context vs. an index, a battle vs. an apple This shows that where the allomorph an occurs, its counterpart a cannot occur and vice versa. The use of the indefinite article described above may be defined as: a before consonant sounds (e

18、.g. a battle) and an before vowel sounds (e.g. an apple).Morphs which are different repA morpheme can be regarded as a sound-meaning unit. It can be represented by a single sound, such as the morpheme a- in atypical. It can also be represented by a syllable, such as cat, or by more than one syllable

19、, such as water, crocodile. Moreover, two different morphemes may have the same phonological representation, such as er in singer and er in bigger. A morpheme can be regarded as A morpheme may have different pronunciations in different contexts. An example of a morpheme in English with different pho

20、netic forms is the plural morpheme. A morpheme may have different cab, love, call, can, boy, spacap, cat, cuff, faithbuss, buzz, badge, garage, matchNouns ending in voiced nonsibilant sounds are added with the voiced z to form the plural. The voiceless s is added to words ending in voiceless nonsibi

21、lant sounds. Words ending in both voiced and voiceless sibilants form their plurals with insertion of a schwa followed by z. cab, love, call, can, boy, spaTypes of MorphemesMorphemes can be divided into bound morphemes and free morphemes. Bound morphemes must be joined to other morphemes. They are a

22、lways parts of words and can occur only with another morpheme. Free morphemes need not be attached to other morphemes and can occur by themselves as individual words. Cat, chair, farm and bug are free morphemes. Types of MorphemesMorphemes caBound morphemes may be prefixes or suffixes. The suffix do

23、m, as in freedom, kingdom, serfdom and boredom, is a bound morpheme. Bound morphemes may be prefixeMorphemes may also be classified into derivational and inflectional morphemes. Derivational rules are lexical rules of word formation. Inflectional morphemes are closely related to the rules of syntax.

24、 Unlike derivational morphemes, they are added only to complete words and never change they syntactic category of the word.Morphemes may also be classifiWhen words consist of more than one morpheme, they may be either complex or compound. Complex words may be broken down into one free form and one o

25、r more bound forms: e.g. dog-s, happi-ly, quick-er, work-ing whereas compound words consist of more than one free form: e.g. birth+day, black+bird, candle+stich coat+hanger. When words consist of more thaWe also need to mention cases which incorporate the characteristics of both complex and compound

26、 words: e.g. gentle-man-ly consists of the compound word gentle+man and the suffix -ly; wind+shield+wip-er consists of the compound word wind + shield and the complex word wip-er. We also need to mention cases Denotation and ReferenceThe relation of denotation holds between a lexeme and a whole clas

27、s of extra-linguistic objects. Lyons (1977) defines the denotation of a lexeme as the relationship that holds between that lexeme and persons, things, places, properties, processes and activities external to the language system. Denotation and ReferenceThe reAs opposed to denotation, the relationshi

28、p of reference holds between an expression and what that expression stands for on particular occasions of its utterance. Reference depends on concrete utterances, not on abstract sentences. It is a property only of expressions. It cannot relate single lexemes to extra-linguistic objects, since it is

29、 an utterance-dependent notion. As opposed to denotation, the Reference is not generally applicable to single word forms and it is never applicable to single lexemes. Expressions such as the computer, Johns computer, or the two portable computers on the table may be used to establish a relationship

30、of reference with specific items as referents. In this case, the reference of these expressions containing computer is partly determined by the denotation of the lexeme computer in the overall system of the English language.Reference is not generally appDenotation and SenseSense is a relationship between the words or expressions of a single language, independently of the relationship, if any, which hold