词汇学知识点总结

1、 词汇学期末复习1.In brief, a word may be defined as a fundamental unit of speech and minimum free form; with a unity of sound and meaning (both lexical and grammatical meaning), capable of performing a given syntactic function.2.The morpheme (词素) is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not

2、divisible or analyzable into smaller forms.Example:One morpheme: nationTwo morphemes: nation-alThree morphemes: nation-al-izeFour morphemes: de-nation-al-ize3. An allomorph (词素变体) is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds. For example:go: went, gone-ion

3、/-tion/-sion/-ation are the positional variants of the same suffix.4.Inflectional affixes (曲折词缀) Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. For example: cats, walked, walking, Johns book5.Derivational affixes (派生

4、词缀) Affixes added to other morphemes to create new words. They can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes. For example:rewrite, minicar,worker6.Connotative meaning (内涵意义) In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations which a word suggests or im

5、plies. Mother (a female parent) is often associated with love, care, tenderness, forgiving, etc. Home (a dwelling place) may suggest family, warmth, safety, love, convenience, etc7.Stylistic meaning (文体意义) Words may have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts. Example

6、s: male parent, father, daddy ； residence, home, pad8.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 t

7、o show appreciation or approval. eg: love, cherish, prize, admire, worship, charm . Pejorative or derogatory (贬义): words of negative connotations imply disapproval, contempt or criticism. eg : hate, vicious .9.Collocative meaning (搭配意义) Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquire

8、s 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. eg:pretty: girl, woman, flower, etc. handsome: boy, man, car, etc.10.a) Radiation辐射型： It is the semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the centre

9、and the secondary meaning radiates out of it. Though all the secondary meanings are independent of one another, they can all be traced back to the primary meaning. face head11.b) Concatenation 连锁型: It is the semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its primary meanin

10、g in succession so that the present meaning seems to have no connection to the primary meaning.E.g.candidate： 1) white-roped2) office seeker in white gowns3) a person who seeks an office4) a person proposed for a place, award, etc. 12.Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical context and gra

11、mmatical context. a) lexical context: refers to the lexemes that co-occur with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring lexemes. E.g“paper” : a term paper ，todays paper ；do : do ones teeth: brush ，do fish: cook. 13.b) grammatical context: In som

12、e cases, the meanings of a polysemant may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. E.g.“become” become + adj./n. , meansbegin to be become + pron./n. , means suit, befit become + of, means happen to, often in a bad way1.Causes of changes in word meaning1)historical cause :It often happens

13、that though a word retain its original form, its meaning has changed because the object it denotes has changed, this is the historical cause of semantic change. eg.pencil (from Latin word meaning)a little tail or a fine brush, like our Chinese pen when it was made of wood and graphite石墨， it was stil

14、l called a “pencil”2)Social cause : Change in word meaning results from a constant verbal traffic between common words and various technical words . eg. hot and cold have changed their meaning in the field of politics, as in “cold war”,” hot war” and “hot line”3) Foreign influences : The influence o

15、f foreign words is a particularly important cause. eg. stool: any kind of seat for one person including a kings seat The French word chair was adopted to denote a more comfortable piece of furniture. 4) Linguistic cause Towards ellipsis 省略 a general-a general officer ; uniformuniform dress Towards a

16、nalogy 类推 Energetic(精力旺盛)formerly meant “to operate, effect” as in “the most energetic chemicals”, now energetic means “of , having or showing energy, vigorous, forceful” as if it had been derived from energy5)Psychological cause1）Euphemism（委婉词）： It refers that the word changed after people use mild

17、, agreeable language when speaking of an unpleasant or embarrassing fact and of taboo subjects as sex and the excretive processes of the body such as death can be used as go west. 2）Grandiloquence（夸张）： It refers to the use of long, important-sounding words for effect. The desire to upgrade or raise

18、the social status of a position, occupation, or institution by changing its common name to one felt to confer greater dignity or importance is another psychological factor in the change of word meaning. In a sense, it is a form of euphemism. e.g. hair stylist was upgraded as hairologist for barbers.

19、 3）Cynicism（挖苦语）： It refers that the desire to sneer (冷笑) and to be sarcastic (讽刺) cause the semantic change. e.g. sanctimonious (假装神圣 ) means devoted, holy or scared and now means pretending to be very holy or pious.2.The difference between suffixation and conversion The difference between suffixat

20、ion and conversion is whether the addition of an affix is needed. Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems , and mainly change the word class. They may also add attached meaning to the stem. eg: hard harden,attract attractive. Conversion is a word-formation whereby a wor

21、d 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). eg:Verb-noun conversion : a three-year wait. It is a good buy.3.The fundamental features / the character of the basic word stock基本词汇 All national character 全民性:The b

22、asic word stock denote the most common things and phenomena of the world around us , which are indispensable to all the people who speak the language.eg: rain, head,brother. Stability稳定性: They are likely to remain relatively unchanged. Productivity 能产性:They are mostly root words, means they can form new words with other roots and affixes. eg. postman, chairman, workman. Polysemy : They often possess more th