英语词汇学教程期末总结

1、 what is lexicology?
Lexicology is the study of the vocabulary or lexicon of a given language. It deals
not only with simple words, but also with complex and compound words.
2、 morphology is the study of the forms of words and their components. In
morphology, morpheme is a basic concept. Morphemes are considered as the
smallest meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of words.
Semantics is often defined as the study of meaning. Semantics is usually
approached from one of two perspectives: philosophical or linguistic. Etymology
is the study of the whole history of words. First…second…third P2
3、 lexicography is closely related to the words in a given language. It involves the
writing and compilation of dictionaries, especially dealing with the principles that
underlie the process of compiling and editing dictionaries.
4、 Major features of words:
1). a word is a sound or combination of sounds which we make voluntarily with
our vocal equipment.
2). a word is symbolic and is used to stand for something else.
3). the word is an uninterruptible unit.
4). a word has to do with its social function.
5). a word may consist of one or more morphemes.
6). Words are part of the large communication system we call language.
7). A word occurs typically in the structure of phrases.
5、 Lexical words: are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Grammatical words are
words like pronouns, prepositions, demonstrative, determiners, conjunctions,
auxiliary verbs, and so on.
6、 The morphemes are the ultimate grammatical constituents, the smallest
meaningful units of language.
One morpheme: boy, desire, say
Two morphemes: boy+ish, desire+able
Three morphemes: boy+ish+ness, desire+able+ity
Four morphemes: gentle+men+li+ness, un+desire+able+ity
7、 Phonemes, which are the smallest working units of sound per se, build up into
morphemes, a morpheme is composed of one or more phonemes.
8、 Lexical item as 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
considered an abstract linguistic unit with different variants.
9、 Types of morphemes:
1). Bound morphemes and free morphemes
2). Derivational and inflectional morphemes
10、seven types of meaning:
conceptual meaning,
connotative meaning,
social meaning,
affective meaning,
reflected meaning,

collocative meaning,
thematic meaning.
11、conceptual meaning, which is sometimes called denotative or cognitive meaning,
refers to meanings as presented in a dictionary.
12、connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression by virtue of
what it refers to , over and above its purely conceptual content. Connotations vary
from age or age, from society to society, and from individual to individual within the
same speech community.
13、roots tend to have a core meaning which is in some way modified by the affix, but
determining meaning is sometimes tricky.
14、polysemy refers to the situation in which a word has two or more different
meanings.
15、homonymy refers to a situation in which there are two or more words with the
same shape.
16、Old English period(450-1066): features: the vocabulary of Old English is almost
purely Germanic, a large part of this vocabulary has disappeared from the language.
The Middle English period (1066-1500): features: some of the changes were the
results of the Norman Conquest and the conditions which followed that event; others
were a continuation of tendencies that had begun to appear in Old English; in
grammar， English changed from a highly inflected language to an analytical one. The
English vocabulary was characterized by the loss of a large part of the Old English
word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin.
Early Modern English period (1500-1800): the advent of the printing revolution
marked its beginning. Printing played a major role in fostering the norms of spelling
and pronunciation. Throughout the modern period, written English has been quite
uniform. It is the transitional period from Middle English to Modern English period.
The Modern English period (1800-present): unprecedented growth of scientific
vocabulary; the assertion of American English as a dominant variety of the language;
the emergence of other varieties known as ‘New Englishes’.
17、major influences on English:
The Scandinavian influence
The Norman Conquest
The Latin influence
18、borrowing is the process of imitating a word from a foreign language and, at least
partly, adapting it in sound or grammar to the native language. The word thus
borrowed is called a loanword or borrowing.
19、three ways of extending the word stock: borrowing words that already exist in
other languages; creating entirely new words; forming new words from existing
resources within the word stock.
20、English has some built-in processes of creating words: the addition of prefixes
and suffixes; blending; compounding; conversion; back formation.
21、inflection refers to a general grammatical process which combines words and
affixes to produce alternative grammatical forms of words. P55看表格的例子
22、affixation is the process whereby an affix is attached to a base. Derivation refers

to the creation of a new word by means of the addition of an affix to a stem. Two
principal kinds of affixation: prefixing and suffixing. Prefixes like un-, pre-, and dis-
serve to change the meaning of words, though not usually their part of speech.
Suffixes and prefixes often change the grammatical class of words.
23、compounding refers to the method and device of language to form new words by
combining or putting together old words. Characteristics : phrases on phonological,
syntactic, and semantic grounds.
24、conversion is a process by which a word belonging to one word class is
transferred to another word class without any change in form.
P67看 Noun-verb:……… 看P68表格 看P74表格
25、backformation is the making of a new word from an older word which is
mistakenly assumed to be its derivative.
26、antonymy refers to the relationship of oppositeness of meaning between words.
26、there are many different sources of idioms: every-day life; food and cooking;
agricultural life; nautical life and military life; many idioms are related to parts of the
body, animals, and colors.
28、idioms can be divided into three groups:
The first group has irregular form but clear meaning.
The second group has a regular form but an unclear meaning.
The third group is irregular both in form and meaning.
Two features of idioms: ambiguity and syntactic peculiarities
29、types of dictionaries:
general and specialized dictionaries
monolingual and bilingual dictionaries
electronic and print dictionaries
30、Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
All the definitions are written using the Longman defining vocabulary of just
2000 common words.
The top 3000 most frequent words in spoken and written English are highlighted
to show which are the most important to know.
Whether In print, on DVD- ROM, online, via a PDA or mobile phone, the user can
access language support whenever and wherever heshe wants.
31、a euphemism is a word or phrase that replaces a taboo word or serves to avoid
frightening or unpleasant subjects.
32、classification of euphemisms P122
1). Terms of foreign andor technical origin (e.g. copulation, perspire…)
2).abbreviations (e.g. SOB for son of a bitch…)
3).abstractions and ambiguities (e.g. it for excrement…)
4).indirections (e.g. unmentionables, privates…)
5).mispronunciation (e.g. goldarnit, dadgummit…)
6).litotes or reserved understatement (e.g. not exactly thin for fat…)
7).changing nouns to modifiers (e.g. makes her look slutty for is a slut…)
8). Slang (e.g. pot for marijuana, laid for sex…)
33、slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered

standard in the speaker’s dialect or language. A slang word is often an informal and
transient lexical item used by a specific social group.
34、ameliorations refer to the development of more favorable meaning for words. A
development of the meaning in the opposite direction, which is perhaps more
frequent, is called pejoration. P129 第一个表格
35、metaphor is very common in English. It is often considered as a variation in the
expression of meanings.