Lecture 3 Word.ppt

1、,Chapter 3 Word,Introduction,English is an international language. Nations that use English as the first language: England, America, Australia,New Zealand, Canada. Nations that use English as the second language: India, Pakstin, Nepal, Singopore, Nigeria, Malasia, etc.,An orthographic definition of

2、a word （正字法）,A word is “any sequence of letters printed or written horizontally across a piece of paper, bounded on either side by a space or punctuation mark”,In terms of spoken language,A sound or combination of sounds, which are made voluntarily with human vocal equipment,In terms of grammar,A fr

3、ee form that can function in a sentence,According to semanticists,A word is a unit of meaning,From the lexicological point of view,a word is a combination of form (phonological ) and meaning (lexical and grammatical),According to Leonard Bloomfields point of view,A word is a minimum free form That i

4、s to say the smallest form that may appear in isolation. E.g. Shoot! Yes. There. Up. Taxi!,By these definitions, a word will cover the following points,One or more letters combined together. A minimal free form of a language that can function alone in a sentence. A unity of sound and meaning.,The De

5、finition,An English word is a minimal form of a language with one or more letters put together that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.,Word- simple/complex,Words can be simple and complex, but they must comply with these criteria. Simple- book, pen. They have sound, meaning and synta

6、ctic function and each can be used alone in a sentence. So they are words.,Word- simple/complex,Complex - mis-fortune, manage-ment, they can not be divided. Complex - blackleg can be divided, but the meaning is different. Meaning someone who works when his colleagues are on strike.,Sound and Meaning

7、,A word is a symbol that stands for something else in the world. Each of the worlds cultures has come to agree that certain sound will represent certain person, things, places, properties, processes and activities outside the language system There is no logical relationship between the sound which s

8、tands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself.,Sound and Meaning,A dog is called dog not because the sound and the three letters that make up the word just automatically suggest the animal in question. It is only symbolic. The relationship between them is conventional because peo

9、ple of the same speech community have agreed to refer to the animal with this cluster of sounds.,Sound and Meaning,In different languages the same concept can be represented by different sounds. Woman-Frau-Femme-funv Meet, meat, mete Knight, night,Sound and Form,The written form of a natural languag

10、e is the written record of the oral form. The written form should agree with the oral form.- the sound should be similar to the form. In old English-very true Now, with the development of the language, more and more differences occur.,Reasons for the differences,The first reason is that there are mo

11、re phonemes than letters in English. The English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, which does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the language, so some letters must do double duty or work together in combination,Reasons for the differences,Another reason is that the pronunciati

12、on has changed more rapidly than spelling over the years.,Reasons for the differences,A third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes. Before printing- articles were handwritten, mistakes were made, i, u, v, m, w and n look alike, word spelling is free. To solve the

13、problem, they change u into o Sum, cum, wuman, wunder, munk-some, come, woman, wonder, monk They decided that no word should end with m, n or v, so they add e at the end-live, have, due, true,Reasons for the differences,The fourth reason is the borrowing. English borrowed words as well as the spelli

14、ng. The early ones were assimilated, but the later ones do not conform to the rules of English pronunciation and spelling. Stimulus (L)-kimono (J)-blitzkrieg (G),Reasons for the Differences,Two things helped to standardize the spelling of words. Printing-in the late 1500 Dictionaries But sounds cont

15、inue to change, thus bringing more differences.,Reasons for the Differences,The written form-imperfect representation of the spoken form. Scholars have made efforts to reform the English spelling, but with little success. In spite of the differences, at least eighty percent of the English words fit

16、consistent spelling patterns. Irregular spellings have more regularity. Hymn, condemn, bomb-hymnal, condemnation and bombard,Lexemes, words and vocabulary,A lexeme is the abstract unit which underlies some of the variants we have observed in connection with words成为派生语的语根. Bring is the lexeme which u

17、nderlies （构成的基础）different grammatical variants: bring, brings, bringing. We refer these to word forms. When we look up in the dictionaries, we are looking up lexemes rather words.,Lexemes, words and vocabulary,All the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary. The term vo

18、cabulary is used in different senses. It can refer to the total number of the words in a language.,Lexemes, words and vocabulary,It can also stand for all the words used in a particular historical period. E.g. Old English vocabulary, Middle English vocabulary We can use it to all the words of a give

19、n dialect, a given book and the words possessed by an individual person.,Classification of Words,Full words and form words Popular words and learned words Abstract words and concrete words Transparent words and opaque words Polysemic words and monosemic words Native words and loan words,Full words a

20、nd form words,Can be classified according to their lexical meaning and grammatical function of words. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, numerals, adverbs are full words or notional words（表意词）. (with independent meaning) Articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, are form words or functional words. (wit

21、hout independent meaning),Popular words and learned words,Popular words are usually used in ordinary conversation which concerned with common things of life. Learned words are usually used in books. Though the learned words are known to educated people, there is little opportunity to use them at hom

22、e. They are often of foreign origin. E.g. French, Latin, and Greek.,Abstract words and concrete words,Divided according to the character of words. Abstract words refer to states, events, feelings, etc. Concrete words are concerned with objects, things, etc.,Transparent words and opaque words,Divided

23、 according to motivation. Transparent(易懂的） or motivated words are words whose meaning is determined from the meaning of their components. (small in number) The majority of words whose meanings and formations cannot be explained are called opaque or non-motivated words.,Polysemic words and monosemic

24、words,A polysemic word has a range of different meanings. A monosemic word has only a single meaning.,Native words and loan words,Divided according to origin. Native words-Anglo-Saxon words. Loan words -borrowed words from foreign languages.,Word Structure,Aristotle defined a word as the smallest si

25、gnificant unit of speech Modern methods of analysis have discovered semantic units below the word level -an element smaller than the word. Write-writer Pens, desks,Morpheme,The smallest meaningful unit in a language, consisting of a word or part of a word that cannot be divided without losing its me

26、aning. Inexpensive- contains two morphemes in and expensive. Each morpheme has its own meaning. A morpheme is also the smallest unit of grammatical analysis and can have or show a grammatical function. E.g. s, -ed, -ing, -ment, -or, -er, -ly, -un,Words are composed of morphemes,Some words are formed

27、 by single morpheme. Some words are formed by two or more morphemes.,Types of Morphemes,Bound morphemes Affixes like: s, -ed, -ing, -ment, -or, -er, -ly, -un Free morphemes book, pen, distinguish, laugh,Root & Stem,A root is the basic morpheme which provides the central meaning in a word. When a roo

28、t morpheme is combined with an affix, it forms a stem. So a stem is a root plus affixes.,Differences Between Root & Stem,A root is that part of a word form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed. A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in “cat” or of tw

29、o root morphemes as in a compound like “doorman”. It can be a root morpheme plus one or more affixational morphemes as in “foolish”, “unacceptable”.,Bound Root,A free root is the part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning. Unlike a free one, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words. -dict- meaning say or speak, but it is not a word in its own right. With affixes it can form a number of other words.