Words, meaning and vocabulary1.ppt

1、Words, meaning and vocabulary: An introduction to modern English lexicology 1,Introduction,What to cover?,? ? ? ? ,Main contents,What is lexicology? Where do English words come from? The word Word formation Meaning relations Words in use Investigating vocabulary Words in dictionaries,1. What is lexi

2、cology?,This chapter covers: definition of the term lexicology lexicology as a level of language analysis the structure of English vocabulary,1.1 Lexicology defined,Lexicology: the study of lexis, understood as the stock of words in a given language, i.e. its vocabulary or lexicon (from Greek lexis,

3、 word) Vocabulary, lexis, lexicon: synonymous the first more colloquial, the third more learned and technical,Lexicology deals not only with simple words in all their aspects, but also with complex and compound words, the meaning units of language. Related fields: Morphology: the form of words Seman

4、tics: the meaning of words Etymology: the origin of words,Exercise 1/1,Examine the following definitions of “lexicology”. What do they agree on as the scope of lexicology? And where do they disagree? 1. An area of language study concerned with the nature, meaning, history and use of words and word e

5、lements and often also with the critical description of lexicography. (McArthur (ed.) 1992),2. The study of the overall structure and history of the vocabulary of a language. (Collins English Dictionary 1998) 3. A branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning and use of words. (Longman Dictionary

6、 of the English Language 1991) 4. The study of the form, meaning, and behaviour of words. (New Oxford Dictionary of English 2998),1.1.1 Morphology,Morphology: the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words. Morpheme: the smallest meaningful units which may be words or parts of words

7、e.g. cat, child, with cat+s, sleep+ing, arm+chair+s,free morpheme: those that can occur alone as individual words (e.g. cat) bound morpheme: those that occur only with another morpheme (e.g. -ing) morphs: concrete realization of a morpheme in a given utterance (e.g. -s, -er),1.1.2 Semantics,Semantic

8、s: the study of meaning. Its aim is to explain and describe meaning in natural language. Philosophical semantics: is concerned with the logical properties of language, the nature of formal theories, and the language of logic. Linguistic semantics: involves all aspects of meaning in natural language,

9、 from the meaning of complex utterances in specific contexts to that of individual sounds in syllables.,Semantics covers all aspects of human language, so it is considered not only as a division of lexicology, but also as part of phonology, syntax, discourse analysis, textulinguistics, and pragmatic

10、s.,1.1.3 Etymology,Etymology: the study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin. etyma: roots,1.1.4 Lexicography,Lexicography: as a special technique, the writing and compilation of dictionaries as applied lexicology,1.2 Lexicology as a level of language analysis,Lexicology and phono

11、logy Lexicology and syntax,1.2.1 Lexicology and phonology,Segmental: e.g. pill and bill, sheep and ship suprasegmental (such as stress): e.g. Compound Noun Phrase blackboard black board blackbird black bird greyhound(灰狗，跑得很快) grey hound White House white house,1.2.2 Lexicology and syntax,Syntax: con

12、cerned with the relationship between words in constructions and the way these words are put together to form sentences. The essential difference -syntax deals with the general facts of language and lexicology with special aspects. Syntax is general because it deals with rules and regularities that a

13、pply to classes of words as a whole; -lexicology is particular because it is concerned with the way individual words operate and affect other words in the same context.,Necessary to be kept as distinct levels: A given sentence may be syntactic but unacceptable from the lexical point of view. e.g. Co

14、loless green ideas sleep furiously. The problem of the distinction between lexicology and syntax may be reduced to the distinction between sentences that are unacceptable on syntactic grounds and those that are deviant from the lexical point of view.,In syntax as well as in lexicology, there are cas

15、es of deviation which may be answered by yes/no, and others that can be answered only by more/less, though a yes/no answer is more likely in syntax than in lexicology. e.g. a. Did it he and I. vs. He and I did it b. Give it to whomever wants it. vs. Give it to whoever wants it.,1.3 The structure of

16、English vocabulary,The word and its associative field Lexical fields Word families Word classes,1.3.1 The word and its associative field,According to this approach, every word is involved in a network of associative associations which connect it with other terms in the language. Some of these associ

17、ations are based on similarity of meaning, other are purely formal (i.e. based on forms), while others involved both form and meaning.,etc. etc lecturing tutor lectured teacher LECTURER gardener clever labourer quicker etc. etc.,Paradigmatic misstate, restate, understate (derivations) (b) skill (nou

18、n) skills, skills, skills (inflections) skillful, skillfully, skillfulness, skilled (derivations) Word families can be further divided into different levels.,1.3.4 Word classes,Word class: to account for the structure of the vocabulary as a whole. closed classes (grammatical): proposition, pronoun, determiner, conjunction, auxiliary verbs; open classes (content): noun, adjective, verb, adverb; lesser categories: numeral, interjection; a small number of w