bruce-
2012
词汇学复习资料
The development of the English Vocabulary
1.
Indo- European Language Family
The
Indo- European
Language
Family
is
considered
as
one
of
the
most
important
language
families.
It
includes most languages of Europe, the Near East, and India. Those languages, which are believed to have
originated from this language family and developed alone different lines, show various degrees of similarity
to one another. They fall into eight principal groups, which can be grouped into an
Eastern Set
东部诸语族
:
Balto-Slavic
波罗的
-
斯拉夫语
, Indo- Iranian
印度伊朗语族
, Armenian
亚美尼亚语族
and Albanian
阿尔
巴尼亚语族
;
a
Western
Set
:
西部诸语族
Celtic
凯尔特语族
,
Italic
意大利语族
,
Hellenic
希腊语族
,
Germanic
日尔曼语族
. All the languages in both sets shed some influence on English to a greater or lesser
extent because each has lent words into the English vocabulary.
Prussian
普鲁士语
Lithuanian
立陶宛语
Polish
波兰语
Balto- Slavic
波罗的
-
斯拉夫语
Czech
捷克斯洛伐克语
Bulgarian
保加利亚语
Slovenian
斯洛文尼亚语
Russian
Albanian
阿尔巴尼亚
Persian
波斯语
Hindi
北印度语
Indo-Iranian
印度伊朗语系
Bengali
孟加拉语
Romany
，吉卜赛语
Armenian
亚美尼亚语
Portuguese
Spanish
Italic
意大利语族
Italian
Roumanian
罗马尼亚语
French
Indo-European
Language Family
Irish
Celtic
凯尔特语
Breton
Scottish
Norwegian
挪威语
Icelandic
，冰岛语
Danish
丹麦语
Germanic
Swedish
瑞典语
日尔曼语言
English
Dutch
Flemish
German
Hellenic
，古希腊语
- Greek
Chapter 1
A General Survey of A Word
The Definition of Word
?
A word is
(1)
A minimal free form of a language;
(2)
a sound unity;
(3)
a unity of meaning;
(4)
a form that can function alone in a sentence.
A word is a minimal free form that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function.
A word is a smallest unit of a language.
1. The development of English vocabulary
The history of English language can be divided into 3 periods:
a/ Old English period (449
—
1100)
The former inhabitants,
the Celtic
,
the Germanic tribes
called Angles, Saxons and Jutes Anglo-Saxon
as Old English, Old English contains 50-60 thousand words, which consists of the basic word stock.
b/ Middle English period (1100-1500)
characterized
by
the
strong
influence
of
French
following
the Norman
Conquest
in
French
loan words were found in law and governmental administration (judge, justice)
c/ Modern English period (1500--)
the early stage of this period ( including the years between 1500-1700), the Renaissance brought great
changes
to
the
vocabulary.
borrowing
from
Latin,
Latin
were
now
mostly
connected
with
science
and
abstract ideas. Greek borrowings were mostly literary, technical and scientific words
fication of English Words According to Different Criteria
A. By Origin: native words and loan (borrowed ) words
In
English
language,
most
native
words
in
Modern
English
are
monosyllabic.
They
form
the
great
majority of
the basic word stock of English language.
The fundamental features of the basic word stock are:
1. National character;
2. Stability;
3. Word- forming ability;
4. Ability to form collocations
Since the great majority of the basic word stock are native words, they are naturally the ones used most
frequently in everyday speech and writing.
B. By level of usage
1. Common words
( P11 words connected with ordinary things or activities necessary to everyday life:
“The repeated telephone calls only annoyed me but made my sister very angry.”)
2. Literary words
(P12 words are chiefly used in writing, formal speeches, e.g. Feeling fatigued, Tom
retired early.):
a. Archaic words;
b. Poetical words
See P13
3.
Colloquial
words:
Words
used
mainly
in
spoken
English,
in
conversation
among
friends
and
colleagues,e.g. “John was fired for petty thieving”
4. Slang words
C. By notion: function words and content
( P 17)
?
function words
are short words such as determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliaries, and
so on, they serve grammatical meaning
1
?
Content words
have lexical meaning, such as nouns, main verbs, adj and adv.e.g. The passerby
was hit
by
the truck.
Chapter 2
Word-Structure and Word-Formation(1)
1. The definition of morpheme
1.1 What is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language?
- morpheme
What are words composed of?
- Words are formed by morphemes. A
word
is the smallest unit that
stands alone to communicate meaning.
1.2 What are the Chinese equivalents of morpheme?
语素
词素
-
形位
2.1 Morphemes may be classified into free and bound.
Free
morphemes,
also
called
content
morphemes,
may
constitute
words
by
themselves.
These
morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences.
So we may say that free morphemes are free roots.
Bound morphemes
= Bound root + affixes
,
known as
grammatical morphemes, must appear with at least
one
other
morpheme,
either
free
or
bound.
Bound
morphemes
are
chiefly
found
in
derived
words,
e.g.
recollection, idealistic, ex-prisoner
2.2
Morphemes
may
also
be
classified
into
roots
(or
root
morphemes)
and
affixes
(or
affixational
morphemes).
Task:
(1) Read the following words and find the root in each word.
heart, hearten, dishearten, heartless, hearty, heartiness,
sweetheart, heartbroken, kind-hearted, whole-heartedly.
(2) What is your definition of root?
A root is the part of the word-form which remains when all the affixes have been removed.
(3) Is a root necessarily a free morpheme? Why?
2.2.1 Two types of roots
- Free root
In English, many roots are free morphemes, such as black in black, blackboard, blacksmith.
- Bound root
However, there are quite a number of roots which cannot exist on their own and thus belong to the class
of bound
morphemes. For example,
ceive
in receive, conceive, perceive, deceive; mit in permit, commit,
submit; tain in retain, contain, maintain; cur in recur, occur, incur, etc.
these roots cannot be used to form new words.
2.2.2 Two types of affixes
Affix
is
a
collective
term
for
the
type
of
formative
(
构词成分
)
that
can
be
used
only
when
added
to
another morpheme.
-
Inflectional affixes
(or
inflectional morphemes
) serve to express
the following meanings:
(1) plurality: e.g. -s in chairs, pens; -es in boxes, tomatoes;
en in oxen.
(2) the genitive case: e.g. ’s in boy’s, children’s.
(3) the verbal endings: for example,
a.
-(e)s in words like eats, teaches shows the third person
singular present tense.
b.
-ing in words like eating, teaching shows the present
participle or gerund.
c.
-(e)d in words like worked, saved shows the past tense or past
participle.
(4) the comparative and superlative degrees:
e.g. -er in words like smaller, harder; -est in words like smallest,
hardest.
- Derivational affixes (or derivational morphemes)
can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.
2
?
(1) Prefixes are affixes before the root, e.g: unjust, rewrite.
As a rule, most prefixes modify the meaning of roots, but not their parts of speech.
task: list some prefixes that can modify the parts of speech.
-
en-(em-) as in words like embody,
enrich
-
be-
as in words like befriend, belittle
-
a- as in words like asleep, aside
?
(2) Suffixes are affixes after the root, e.g.: darkness,
worker.
By the addition of the suffix,
the word is
usually changed from one part of
speech into another, e.g. liberation, modernize.
2.3 Relationship between the two classifications of morphemes
morpheme
free
morpheme
bound
morpheme
Bound root
inflectional affixes
derivational affixes
prefixes
suffixes
Morpheme
It is the minimal meaningful unit of language. Or it is the smallest functioning unit in the composition
of words.
a)
Bound morphemes are morphemes which alone can be used as words
.
What is an allomorph?
An allomorph is one of the variants of the same morpheme.
语素
/
形位变体是同一个语素的不同形式。
?
A morpheme may take various shapes or forms.
3.5 Morpheme and Word-formation
In word-formation, morphemes are labeled root, stem, base and affix.
在构词法中
,
语素被分为词根、词干、词基和词缀。
?
Two types of affixes:
Inflectional affixes and Derivational affixes
屈折词缀和派生词缀
?
Inflectional
affixes
function
as
grammatical
markers.
表示词的语法意义的是屈折词缀。
-s ,-es ,ing,-er ,or -(e)d,est
Derivational affixes or derivational morphemes
They can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.
(1) Prefixes are affixes before the root.
e.g.
，
unjust, rewrite.
As a rule, most prefixes modify
the meaning of roots, but not their parts of speech.
(2) Suffixes are affixes after the root
By the addition of the suffix, the word is
usually changed from one part of speech into another, e.g.
liberation, modernize.
Root, stem, base
词根、词干、词基
A root is that part of a word form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have
been removed.
词根是所有屈折词缀和派生词缀被去掉后所剩余的那部分。
?
A stem is that part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been
removed.
词干是所有屈折词缀被去掉后所剩余的那部分。
?
A base refers to a form to which affixes of any kind (both derivational and inflectional) can
be added. It can be a root or a stem.
3
?
词基是任何一种词缀都可加在上面的形式。
?
词根是所有屈折词缀和派生词缀被去掉后所剩余的那部分。
?
词干是所有屈折词缀被去掉后所剩余的那部分。
?
词基是任何一种词缀都可加在上面的形式。
它与词根有区别，
因为它是可以从派生角度进行分析的形式，
在上面可以加上派生词缀。< br>但是词
根则不容许做进一步的分析。
词基与词干也是不同的，
因为派生词缀和屈 折词缀都可以加在词基上，
而只有屈折词缀可以加在词干上。
Task: Analyse the word in terms of root, stem and base.
undesirable (n.):
不是词根
（可再分解）
；
是 词干
（可以加屈折词缀，
如名词复数
-s
）
，
也是词基。
free morpheme
(
自由形位
)
Morpheme:
bound root (
粘附词根
)
(
形位
)
bound morpheme
（
粘附形
位）
inflectional affix
（屈折词缀）
affix
prefix
（前缀）
（词缀）
derivational affix
（派生词缀）
suffix
（后缀）
1.
Affixation (derivation)
词缀法
Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes
to stems. This process is also known as derivation, for new words created in this way are derived from old
forms.
According
to
the
positions
that
affixes
occupy
in
words,
affixation
falls
into
two
subclasses;
prefixation and suffixation.
Prefixation:
Prefix
do
not
generally
change
the
word-class
of
the
stem
but
only
modify
its
meaning.
However, present-day English finds an increasing number of class-changing prefixes. e. g. asleep a (a- + v),
encourage V (en- + n), unearth V (un- + n), de-oil V (de- + n), postwar a (post- + n), intercollege a (inter- +
n)
and
others.
These
make
up
only
an
insignificant
number
in
the
huge
contemporary
vocabulary
The
majority
of
prefixes
are
characterized
by
their
non-class-changing
nature.
Their
chief
function
is
to
change the meaning of the stems
.
Suffixation:
Suffixes have only a small semantic role; their primary function is to change the grammatical
function of stems. They mainly change the word class. Therefore, we shall group suffixes on a grammatical
basis into four groups.
2.
compounding
Compounding,
also
called
composition,
is
the
formation
of
new
words
by
joining
two
or
more
stems.
Words formed in this way are called
compounds.
So a compound is a 'lexical unit consisting of more than
one
stem
and
functioning
both
grammatically
and
semantically
as
a
single
word'
(Quirk
et
al
1985).
Silkworm
蚕
and
hone-ybee
蜜蜂
are
compounds;
so
are
tear
gas
催泪
and
easy
chair
安乐椅
.
These
examples show that compounds can be written solid (silkworm), hyphenated(honey-bee) and open (tear gas
and
easy
chair)
As
open
compounds
are
the
same
in
form
as
free
phrases,
what
is
the
dividing
line
between them?
2.1
Characteristics of Compounds
Compounds differ from free phrases in the following three aspects.
1. Phonetic features In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first element whereas in
noun phrases the second element is generally stressed if there is only one stress
In cases of two stresses,
4
the compound has the primary stress on the first element and the secondary stress, if any, on the second
whereas the opposite is true of free phrases, e.g.
Compound
Free phrase
a 'hot
1
house
温房
,
暖房
,
干燥室
a hot 'house
a 'black horse
a black 'horse
a 'green room
a green 'room
But these stress patterns of compounds are not absolute. Sometimes, the primary stress may also fall on the
second
element
as
in
ash-'blonde
灰银
and
,
bottle-
'green
深绿色的
as
well
as
in
combining-form
compounds, socio-lin 'guistic, psycho-a 'nalysis. Therefore, this is not always reliable.
2. Semantic features Compounds are different from free phrases in semantic unity. Every compound
should express a single idea just as one word. For instance, a green hand is an 'inexperienced person', not a
hand that is green in colour; red meat refers to 'beef' or 'lamb' rather than any meat that is red in colour; hot
dog is by no means a dog that is hot, but a typical American sausage in between two pieces of bread. The
meanings of such examples cannot be easily inferred from the two components of the compounds.
Nevertheless,
a
lot
of
compounds
are
transparent,
that
is
the
meaning
can
be
inferred
from
the
separate
elements of compounds. Consider the following random examples: disaster- related, flower pot, washing
machine, dumb show
哑剧
, scarlet fever
猩红热
and many others. But the two elements are inseparable and
the change of the element would result in the loss of the original identity.
3. Grammatical
features
A
compound
tends
to
play
a
single
grammatical
role
in
a
sentence,
for
example, a verb, a noun, or an adjective. Bad-mouth used as a verb can take the third person singular -s and
the
past
tense
marker
-ed,
e.
g.
'He
bad-mouthed
me.
苛刻批评
'
(Bolinger
and
Sears
1981)
Compound
nouns show their plural forms by taking inflectional -s at the end, e.g. new-borns, three-year-olds, will-o '
-the-wisps, major generals.
少将
Of course, there are exceptions such as brothers-in-law, lookers-on . In
spite of this their single grammatical role is apparent.
In adjective-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes, for example:
Compound
Free phrase
fine art
美术
finer art
美艺术
red tape
官样文章
reddest tape
最红带子
hot line
hotter line
线路
,
航线
3.
Conversion
Conversion
is
the
formation
of
new
words
by
converting
words
of
one
class
to
another
class.
This
is
a
method of turning words of one part of speech to those of a different part of speech. These words are new
only in a grammatical sense. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this
process is also known as functional shift. Look at the word
round
in the following sentences:
[4a] He was knocked out in the first round.
[ 4b] Round the number off to the nearest tenth.
[4c] The neighbours gathered round our barbecue.
[4d] The moon was bright and round.
[4e] People came from all the country round.
(from Lodwig & Barrett 1973)
4.
Blending
拼缀法
4.1 What is blending?
5
Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed from two words, one of
which is not in its full form or both of which are not in their full forms. The result of such a process is
called a blend, which combines the sounds and the meaning of two others.
The
majority
of
blends
are
nouns,
very
few
are
verbs
and
adjectives
are
even
fewer.
According
to
structure, blends fall into four major groups.
4.2 Classification of blending
Structurally, blends can be subdivided into the following five groups:
(1)
The first part of the first word + the last part of the second one: head + tail
Chinglish, smog
(2)
First part of the first word + first part of the second word: head + head
sci-fi, telecon
(3)
Whole form of the first word + last part of the second one: word + tail
newscast, workfare
(4)
First part of the first word + whole form of the second one: head + word
heliport, telediagnosis
(5) Whole form of the first word + first part of the second one: word+
head
skylab
?
Many
blends
have
only
a
very
short
life
and
are
very
informal.
They
are
particularly
common in commercial and journalistic language.
5.
Clipping
Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part of the original and
using what remains instead. In modern times, people tend to be economical in writing and speech to keep
up with the tempo of new life style. To save time one is likely to clip words that are frequently used. There
are four common types of clipping:
(5)
Front Clipping
截前留后
Quake(earthquake)
copter (helicopter)
scope (telescope)
phone (telephone)
gym (gymnastics)
(6)
Back clipping
截后留前
Dorm(dormitory)
memo(memorandum)
stereo (stereophonic)
disco(discotheque)
(7)
Front and back clipping
截前后留中间
Flu(influenza)
fridge ()refrigerator
(8)
Phrase clipping
截词组
Pub (public house)
zoo(zoological garden)
pop(popular music) perm(permanent waves)
6.
Acronymy
首字母拼音法
Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political
organizations or special noun phrases and technical ing on the pronunciation, words formed
in this way are called
initialisms
词首字母缩略词
or acronyms
首字母拼音词
1)
Letters represent full words: VOA, BBC, c/o= care of
由
...
转交
, p.c.= post card
2)
Letters
represent
constituents
in
a
compound
or
just
parts
of
a
word:
TV.
ID=identity
card,
GHQ=
General Headquarters
.
Acronyms
A word formed from the initial letters but pronounced as a normal word, such as radar for ra dio
d etecting
a nd
r anging.
NATO, AIDS BASIC,TEFL
N-bomb, D-day, V-day
7.
Back-formation
逆构法
Words created through this way are mostly verbs. Stylistically, back-formed words are largely informal.
What is back-formation?
Back-formation
is
a
process
of
word
formation
by
which
a
word
is
created
by
the
deletion
of
the
supposed affix. For instance, the verb edit was formed
from editor by dropping the suffix
–
or. The verb
aggress was formed from the noun aggression by removing the suffix
–
ion.
6
7.1 Types of back-formation
(1) Verbs backformed from nouns ending in
-er, -or, -ar:
cobbler
修鞋匠
---
to
cobbleTo
make
or
mend
(boots
or
shoes).
修：制造或修理（长统靴或鞋）
rover-
wanderer.
流浪汉；漫游者
--- to rove
bulldozer
推土机
--- to bulldozeTo clear, dig up, or move with a bulldozer.
用推土机整地：用推土机消除、削平或挖出
sculptor
雕塑家
--- to sculptTo shape, mold, or fashion especially with artistry or precision:
雕塑
diāosù
orator
演说者
,
演讲者
--- to orate
liar--- to lie
beggar--- to beg
(2) Verbs backformed from nouns ending
in -tion, -sion:
automation--- to automate to control or operate by automation.
通过自动化控制或操作
destruction--- to destruct
negation--- to negate
donation--- to donate
television--- to televise
(3) Verbs backformed from abstract nouns:
diagnosis--- to diagnose
enthusiasm--- to enthuse
(4) Verbs backformed from adjectives:
drowsy- --to drowse
gloomy--- to gloom
lazy--- to laze
(5) Verbs backformed from compound words:
baby sitter---to baby-sit
house sitter--- to house sit
(6) Nouns backformed from adjectives:
gloomy--- gloom
greedy--- greed
(7) Adjectives backformed from noun/adverb/adjective:
difficulty--- difficult
utterly--- utter
unflappable
不易惊慌的；镇定的
--- flappable=Easily excited or upset.
易激动或不安的
Lecture 6
Word Meaning
1. The meanings of
“
meaning
”
(1)
Reference
所指
Reference is the relationship between language and the world
“
By means of reference, a speaker indicates
which things in the world (including persons) are being talked about.
”
Words have meaning only when they
have
acquired
reference.
In
other
words,
only
when
a
connection
has
been
established
between
the
linguistic
sign
and
a
referent,
i.e.
an
object,
a
phenomenon,
a
person,
etc.
does
the
sign
become
reference
of
a
word
to
a
thing
outside
the
language
is
arbitrary
and
conventional.
This
connection
is
the
result
of
generalization
and
abstraction,
but
with
the
help
of
context,
it
can
refer
to
something specific.
The word cat refers to a whole set of animal of the same species without the distinction
of size, colour, region, owner and other is the extension of all cats in the universe., but it can refers
to a particular cat in ‘Jean forgot to feed her cat yesterday.’
Therefore , meaning can be pinned down by the
user, time, place, cat can be referred to animal, my dear, Jassay, this, she and so on.
(2)
Sense
语义
Sense denotes the relationship inside the language. It is an abstraction. Every word that has meaning has
sense.(not
every
word
has
reference).
For
example,
probable,
nearly,
and,
if,
but,
yes
,
none
of
which
7
refers to anything in the word, all have some sense. Just as one can talk of the same concept in different
in
different
language,
one
can
talk
of
expressions
in
different
dialects
of
one
language
as
having
the
same sense: pavement in British English and sidewalk in American English have the same sense.
1
．
Four types of motivation
Motivation
refers to the connection between word-symbol and its meaning.
语言符号
,
In case of motivation, the great majority of English words are not motivated
没有根据的
, since they are
conventional, arbitrary symbols. Nevertheless, English does have words whose meaning can be explained
to a certain extent.
Motivation can arise in four major ways:
a)
Onomatopoetic Motivation
拟声理据
All the word based on the sounds made be birds, animals, insects and so on belong to this category. But
such echoic words are largely conventional, or the sounds we say in English may not be the same in other
language; baa-baa
does not mean
咩咩
- Primary Onomatopoeia
基本理据
It means the imitation of sound by sound. Here the sound is truly an “ echo to the meaning”.
e.g.
cats --
mew; miaow
dogs--
bow-wow; woof-woof
sheep--
baa-baa
pigeons-- coo
cow --
moo
ducks --
quark
- Secondary Onomatopoeia
次要理据
It
means
that
certain
sounds
and
sound-sequences
are
associated
with
certain
senses
in
an
expressive relationship.
e.g. ding-dong
tick-tock
giggle-gaggle
b)
Morphological Motivation
形态理据
Compounds and derived words are multimorphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of
the morphemes combined. So if one knows the meaning of each morpheme, namely affix or stem, one can
figure out the meaning of the word.
e.g.
anticancer ( anti + cancer), readable
( read + able): something
that can be read, toothache ( tooth + ache )
In a word, most of the compound words are morphologically motivated, some are not. e.g.
egghead (
书呆
子）
is a compound that we can not guess the meaning from the two free morphemes. It is not motivated
morphologically..
c)
Semantic Motivation
语义理据
Semantic Motivation refers to the mental association suggested by the conceptual meaning of a
word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word.
文字
意义和比喻意义
A. metaphor
Metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily
and primarily is used of one thing, now is applied to another.
e.g.
The curtain of night has fallen.
All the world is a stage.
The leg of the table is broken.
B. metonymy (
借代）
Metonymy
is the device in
which we name something
by one of its attributes (
特征
, as
crown for
king).
e.g. He succeeded to the crown.
The kettle boils.
( kettle for water)
C. synecdoche (
提喻）
It means using a part for a whole, an individual for a class, a material for a thing or the reverse of these.
8
e.g.
bread for food;
Beijing for China
Washington for the US
D. analogy (
类比）
Analogy is a process whereby words are created in imitation of other words.
e.g. marathon[
体
]
马拉松赛跑
–
telethon
长期连续电视节目
, talkathon
冗长的讨论
,
冗长的演说
More examples are :
black list
–
white list
白名单
(
如守法人士
,
合法机构
,
可雇佣人员
,
可上映的
电影、
节目、
可照顾的企业、工会满意的机构等等的名单
,
为
blacklist
黑名单之对
), gray
list(
灰
名单，指非明文查禁但仍属不合法的人和物
From
white-collar or blue-collar workers we have gray- collar workers (
服务行业的职工
).
数字类比
:ther examples are: First Mother to First Family, then to First Lady;
the First world
—
the second world
–
the third world
–
the Fourth World;
the three P’s ( peace, petroleum, Palestine)
and the three I’s ( inflation, interest rate, impeachment
弹
劾
) are from the three R’s
（
reading, writing, arithmetic
算）
地点空间类比
:arscape
火星
and moonscape are from landscape
earthrise is from sunrise
d)
Etymological Motivation
The history of the word explains the meaning of the word. All the words commonized from the
proper
nouns
can
be
interpreted
in
terms
of
their
word
Laconic
meaning
‘brief’
or
‘short’ is derived from Lacons, a tribe of people who were known for their ‘brevity of speech’ and
for their habit of never using more words than necessary.
2
．
Types of meaning
Word
meaning
is
made
up
of
various
components
which
are
interrelated
and
interdependent.
These
components are commonly described as types of meaning.
1)
Grammatical meaning
语法意义
Grammatical
meaning
refers
to
that
part
of
the
meaning
of
the
word
that
indicates
grammatical
concept
or
relationships.
They
become
important
only
when
they
are
used
in
actual
context.
Grammatical meaning consists of word- class
词类
and
inflectional paradigm(
词形变换表
).
a) word-class:
In the dictionary, words are often described by heir lexical meanings and also by what is traditionally
known as the part of speech, which modern linguists call the word-class. e.g.:
realize
will be marked
as a verb and
realization
as a noun.
When we use a word, we have to consider two essential factors:
its
lexical
meaning
and
its
part
of
speech.
Lexical
meaning
is
dominant
in
content
words,
whereas grammatical meaning is dominant in function words.
We can never use words correctly
without knowing their word- classes.
b.) Inflectional paradigm:
词形变换
The set of grammatical forms of a word( mainly nouns and verbs) is called
inflectional paradigm
paradigm.
e.g. :
to work, works, worked, working
;
to write, wrote, written,
etc. here are two sets of inflectional
paradigm
changes.
Nouns
are
declined(
词尾变化
),
verbs
are
conjugated(
词形变化
),
and
gradable
adjectives
have
degrees
of
comparison.
The
lexical
meaning
of
a
word
is
the
same
throughout
the
paradigm; that is to say, all the word-forms of one and the same word have the same lexical meaning,
yet the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another, e.g.:
cat
is grammatically singular
in meaning while
cats
is plural;
works
denotes third person, singular, present tense, whereas
worked
denotes past tense.
2)
Lexical meaning
词汇意义
Grammatical
meaning
surfaces
only
in
use,
but
lexical
meaning
is
constant
in
all
the
content
words
within
or
without
context
as
it
is
related
to
the
notion
that
the
word
conveys.
lexical
meaning has two components: Conceptual meaning
概念意义
& Associative meaning
关联意义
9
A
Conceptual
meaning,
is
the
meaning
given
in
the
dictionary
and
forms
the
core
of
word
meaning.
Being
constant
and
relatively
stable,
forms
the
basis
for
communication
as
the
same
word has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language. For exampl
e,’The
sun rises in the east’ The word
sun
here means a heavenly body which gives of light, heat, and
energy.
B Associative meaning
is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It is
open-ended and indeterminate
不确定的
and liable to the influence. It is liable to the influence of
such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education, etc.
Associative meaning comprises four types
A. Connotative meaning
Connotative meaning(
内涵意义
): Connotative meaning refers to the emotional association which
a
word
or
a
phrase
suggests
in
one’s
mind.
e.g.
the
denotative
meaning
of
the
word
mother
is
“ female parent”, but
it generally connotes love, care, tenderness.
, forgiving The word January
denotes “ the first
month of the
year”, but it connotes cold weather, a biting north
wind, snow,
central heating, skating or even the New Year.
‘
home
’
, the conceptional meaning is a dwelling
place
‘
different people may make out more sense than that. It may remind them of their
‘
family,
friends,
warmth,
safety,
love,
convenience.
These
connotations
are
implied
in
the
well-known
saying
‘
East
or
west,
home
is
best.
’
Connotative
meaning
is
unstable,
varying
considerably
according
to
culture,
historical
period,
and
the
experience
of
individual.
Suppose
a
child
is
prejudiced against, often jeered at , beaten or scolded at home, then home to him is nothing but
‘
a
hell
’
B. Stylistic meaning
Social
or
stylistic
meaning(
文体意义
):
words
used
in
different
contexts
or
situations
according to their social or stylistic meanings. According to the social or stylistic meaning, words
may be grouped into 3 levels:
formal
neutral
informal
e.g.: male parent
father
daddy
ally
friend
buddy
What
’
s the stylistic distinction in the following two sentence?
1. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
2. After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with money. Sentence 1 could be said by two
criminals, talking casually about the crime afterwards, so all the words used in italics are slangy,
whereas sentence 2 might be said by the chief inspector in making his official report, and thus the
words used are literary (cast, abscond) or neutral (police, money)
C.
Affective
meaning
(
情感意义
):
meaning
concerning
with
the
expression
of
feelings
and
attitudes
of
the
speaker
or
writer.
Affective
meaning
of
words
may
fall
into
two
categories:
appreciative or pejorative
a)
appreciative
(
褒义词
): words are
used to express the speaker’s
appreciation or approval of the person or thing
such as
famous, determined, slender. black
b)
pejorative
(
贬义词
):
words
used
to
show
disapproval
or
contempt
on
the
part
of
the
speaker.
such
as
notorious, pigheaded
固执的
,
顽固的
, skinny, nigger,
etc.
A
B
appreciatory words
derogatory words
slender
skinny
statesman
politician
confidence
complacency
bachelor girl
old maid
Note:
Affective
meaning
varies
from
individual
to
individual,
from
culture
to
culture,
from
generation to generation, from society to society.
In most Western countries, dog is associated with ‘loyalty’, ‘faithfulness’, ‘a close companion
whereas to Chinese, dog at its best is useful animal, it generally generates negative association. If
10
a
person
is
compared
to
a
dog,
the
speaker’s
attitude
towards
the
person
is
no
more
than
‘contemptuous’
D. Collocative meaning
搭配意义
it is the part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion.
Collocative
meaning
overlaps
with
stylistic
meaning
and
affective
meaning
because
in
a
sense
both
stylistic
and
affective
meanings
are
revealed
by
means
of
collocations.
e.g.
pretty
and
handsome
share the conceptual meaning of
‘good
-looking
’but are distinguished by
the range of
nouns
they
collocate
with
.
A
pretty
woman
stresses
the
attractiveness
of
facial
features
while
a
handsome woman
may not be facially beautiful yet is attractive in other respects
: a slender figure,
posture, behaviour.
Lecture 7
Sense Relations and Semantic Field
语义关系和语义场
1
．
Polysemy
多义关系
Polysemy means that one single word has two or more senses at the same time. The bulk of English
words
are
polysemantic;
one
–
meaning
words
are
rare
and
are
mainly
scientific
terms
such
as
hydrogen, molecule, and so on.
Two processes of development
词汇发展的两种模式
Radiation
辐射型：
Each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primary meaning.
Take head for example:
the
head
of
the
school,
six
pence
per
head,
a
head
of
cabbage.
一棵卷心菜
the
head
of
a
page,
to
come to a head
到了紧要关头
; (
事情
)
成熟
;
达到顶点
;
疮疖化脓
, to lose one’s head
被砍头
,
不知所
措
, six head of cattle. Though these senses have little in common, they all derive from special application
of the central idea of head as a part of the body.
Concatenation (
连锁型
):
It describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to
the preceding one like chains.
Take board for example:
notice board, chessboard
棋盘
, cardboard
纸板
, sideboard
餐具柜
, on board, board and lodging
提
供食宿
, board of directors
董事会
As
can
be
seen,
there
is
no
connection
between
the
sense
that
is
finally
developed
and
the
primary meaning.
Generally
radiation
precedes
concatenation.
In
many
cases,
the
two
processes
work
together
,
complementing each other.
?
Polysemy and context
：
Polysemy dose not create much confusion in daily use because the
context generally reveals which meaning out of all its possible meanings is to be attached to the
word, for example:
(1)
He tipped the chessboard
撞倒棋盘
, dumping the men to the floor.
棋子
(2)
The visitor sent his man for the luggage.
男仆
(3)
Man the language lab.
给…配备人员
2
．
Homonymy
：同形同音异义
Homonyms are words which have the same phonological
or spelling form but differ in meaning.
Types of Homonymy:
Perfect Homonyms homographs, homophones (which constitute the largest
number and most common)
?
perfect homonyms
Words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, e. g:
bark n / v To utter the harsh, abrupt sound of a dog.
树皮
,
吠声
date n . a kind of fruit/ a boy or girl friend
?
Homograph
同形异义词
words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and
sound.
11
Bow/bau/ n. bending the head as a greeting
Bow/bou/ device used for shooting arrows
Sow/sou/ v. to scatter seeds
sow [sau]
大母猪
?
homophone
同音异义词：
words
are
identical
only
in
sound
but
different
in
spelling
and
meaning:
Dear n. a love person
Deer n. a kind of animal
Right a. correct
Write v. put down on paper with a pen
Rite n. a ceremonial procedure
Origins of homonyms:
change in sound and spelling, borrowing,
Criteria to distinguish homonyms and polysemants:
the fundamental difference lies in the fact
that the former refers to different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the
one same word which has several distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see their
etymology.
The
second
one
is
semantic
relatedness.
Meanings
of
different
homonyms
have
nothing to do with one another.
3
．
Synonymy
Synonyms
are
words
different
in
sound
and
spelling
but
nearly
alike
or
exactly
the
same
in
meaning.
synonymous patterns
1
）
The double scale patterns
In English, there are countless pairs of synonyms in which a native term coexists with the
one borrowed from French, Latin or Greek.
2
）
the triple scale pattern
3
）
BrE. and AmE. Pattern In this pattern, the British words and American words co- exist.
In this pattern, native, French, and Latin or Greek words co-exist.
Types of Synonyms:
relative ones and absolute ones
Absolute synonyms are words whose meaning is fully identical in any context so that one can always be
substituted for the other without the slightest change in meaning. This kind of synonyms are rare and may
be
found
in
special
terminology
such
as
compounding
and
composition
in
lexicology,
malnutrition
and
undernourishment in medicine.
Relative synonyms
Synonyms which denote different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality are called
relative synonyms.
Take change/alter/vary for changea thing is to put another thing in its place; to alter a thing is to
make it different from which it was before;to vary a thing is to alter it in different manner and at different
times,e.g. ‘A man changes his habits, alters his conduct, and varies his manner of speaking.’
Sources of synonyms:
borrowing, dialects and regional English, figurative and euphemistic
Discrimination of synonyms:
Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity of meaning. Some words
have a wider range of meaning than others.
1)difference in denotation
For example,
extend, increase, expand
share a general sense but have different
implications.. Each of the three terms expresses a different kind of enlargement
This can be illustrated by the following graphs
12
[1] The company has decided to
increase
its sales by ten per cent next year.
[2]The owner of the restaurant is going to
extend
the kitchen by ten feet this year.
[3]The mental will
expand
if heated.
[4]a rich man and a wealthy lady are both rich, but the wealthy lady is felt to possess more money
and property than a rich man
2)Difference
in
connotation
,
By
connotation
we
mean
the
stylistics
and
emotive
colouring
of
words. Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic appropriateness.
a.
Borrowed
words
are
generally
more
formal
than
native
words:
answer/respond,
homely/domestic.
The
group
of
policemen,
constable,
bobby,
cop
serves
as
another
example.
Policeman
and
constable
are
stylistically
neutral,
yet
the
former
is
used
in
British
English
an
American English while the latter is only British Bobby is colloquial, used only in British English
and cop is slangy
b)archaic , poetic and standard
Ire/anger, bliss/happiness The second is standard in usage whereas the first is old- fashioned and
archaic, only found in poetry, earlier writings.
3)
Clear
affective
values
e.g.
Result
is
neutral
while
consequence
always
has
a
negative
implication. Compare the italicized words:
[1] Look at that lovely
little
boy.
[2 ] Look at that
small
boy.
[3] Look at that
tiny
boy.
The three adjectives all describe the smallness of the boy. But little suggests
‘
attractiveness and
‘
pleasantness
’
, tiny implies the abnormal growth of the child and small simply conveys the idea of
being not big. Therefore,little is appreciative, small is neutral and tiny is derogatory.
4)
difference
in
application
Many
words
are
synonymous
in
meaning
but
different
in
usage
in
simple terms. They form different collocations We can say
‘
The word has two senses/meanings
’
He
is
a
man
of
sense
’
is
acceptable,
but
‘
He
is
a
man
of
meaning
’
is
not
acceptable,
Empty
vacant are synonyms but their collocations are not the same. Empty(box, street, room, vacant (seat,
chair, apartment Empty implies that there is no one or nothing inside while vacant suggests that
something or some place is not occupied.
4
．
Antonym
：
opposite in meaning are generally called antonyms.
Types of antonyms:
1
）
Contradictory
terms
互相矛盾反义词
These
antonyms
truly
represent
oppositeness
of
meaning. They are in such a relationship that the assertion of one of the items implies the denial
of the other, e.g., alive and dead, single and married. Contradictory terms are nongradabe and
thus one cannot say “He is very alive/dead.”
2.
）
Contrary terms
相对的
Contraries display a type of semantic contrast, illustrated by such pairs as rich and poor; good
and bad. They are gradable adjectives, i.e. they can be modified by adverbs which convey the
degree of the intensity of the adjective, for example: very/so/extremely rich/poor
A middle ground belong to neither to one pole nor to the other
as beautiful, good- looking,
plain, ugly
3
）
Relative terms
13
This third type consists of relational opposites such as parent and child, lend and borrow,
husband and wife ,employer and employee
Relative
terms
are
different
from
contradictory
terms.
There
is
an
absolute
opposition
between contradictory terms. IF the adult is not a man, then the adult must be a woman.
Characteristics of antonyms
1
）
They are classified on the basis of semantic opposition.
Words denoting nature, quality or
state
of
things
have
many
antonyms.
Many
words,
though
having
synonyms,
do
not
find
their
semantic opposites, hit, book, house.
2
）
A
word
may
have
more
than
one
antonym.
Different
antonyms
in
different
contexts.
For
instance, when the word “fast” is used in the sense of “fixed firmly”, then the antonym will
be
“loose” or “insecure”. But when it means “rapid”, its antonym will be “slow”.
3
）
. Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion.
反义词在语义的包容上不同
In many pairs we can find that one member is more specific than the other and the meaning of the
specific is included in that of the general. e.g. man/woman, tall/short, old/young
There has been no
man
in the island.
Man
signifies ‘human being’ naturally including
woman
How tall is his brother?
How short is his brother?
4.
）
Contrary terms are gradable antonyms, differing in degree of intensity.
For example,
hot
and
warm
are synonyms. Their difference lies in intensity. The opposite of
hot
is
cold
and that of
warm
is
cool
.
5.
Hyponymy
Superordinate and subordinate terms
meat
beef
From
the
above
diagram,
we
can
see
the
word
food
is
a
general
term,
linguistically
called
a
superordinate term, i.e., it includes all the other terms listed underneath it. Meat, vegetable, and
fruit
are
specific
terms
and
they
are
all
hyponyms/subordinate
terms
of
food.
The
relationship
between specific words and general words are called hyponymy.
food
vegetable
fruit
peach
mutton
celery
spinach
Lecture 8
Meaning and Context
1.
Types of Context
1.1Extra- linguistic context/ Context of situation(
语言之外的环境
)
The extra- linguistic context may extend to embrace the entire cultural background., which may also affect
the meaning of words.
1. The actual speech situation in which a word occurs
There
are
cases
in
which
the
meaning
of
a
word
is
determined
not
by
linguistic
factors,
but
by
the
speech situation in which a word is used. e.g. “
Father’
s c
oming
”.
In everyday life, word meaning is more often dependent on the actual situation in which a word is used
rather than on verbal context.
2. The entire cultural background against which a word is used
The
extra-linguistic
context
may
lead
on
to
an
even
broader
view
of
context
embracing
the
entire
cultural background against which a word, or an utterance, or a speech event has been set. Because of
14
the
cultural
differences,
the
same
lexical
item
may
not
mean
the
same
thing
to
people
of
different
countries e.g.
“ dragon” in Chinese and English
“ landlord” in Chinese and English
“ liberalism” in Chinese and Engli sh
自由主义：
一种政治理论，
它以人性本善为基础，提倡个人自
治，
强调公民和政治的自由，
主张用被统治者所同意的方法进行统治，
提倡保护个人使其免受专< br>断权威的迫害
stic context
2.1 Lexical context(
词汇语境
):
This context refers to the words that occur together with the word in question.
The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighboring. e.g.
make
,
it also means the
following meanings:
My father
made
5000 yuan a month. ( earned)
The train was
making
140 kilometers an hour then. ( moving at a speed)
She
made
coffee for us. ( boiled)
The rules and regulations are mad
e to protect everybody’s right. ( enacted)
Paper
has a number of meanings in the dictionary, yet in each of the following context, it conveys only one
sense.
(1)A sheet of paper (thin flat sheets of substance for writing, printing, decorating walls, etc. )
(2) A white paper (government document)
(3) A term paper (essay written at the end of the term)
(4) today’s paper (newspaper)
(5) Examination paper (a set of questions used as examination)
tical context:
The meanings of a word in this context may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. Though
less common, it is by no means rare.
In grammatical context, the syntactic structure of the context determines various individual meanings of a
polysemous word. Take the verb
get
for example; its meaning varies in different syntactical structure:
?
get +
n. means “ to receive” , as in “ I got a gift from Mary”.
?
get + adj.
means “ to become”, as in “ Tom is getting taller and taller”.
?
get
+
n. + adj. means “ to bring something to a certain condition; cause to be or become”, as in
“ She soon got herself ready for the party”.
?
get
+ infinitive means “ to succeed in doing “, as in “ If I get to graduate this summer, I will take
the job as an accountant in that company”.
?
get
+ n. + infinitive means “ to cause somebody to do something”, as in “ I will get
the gardener
to water my plants when I am out”.
?
Role of Context
?
2.1 Eliminating ambiguities
Ambiguity
refers
to
a
word,
phrase,
sentence
or
group
of
sentences
with
more
than
one
possible
interpretation or meaning. Lexical ambiguity often arises due to polysemy
a) He is a
hard
businessman
b) John
ran
the egg and spoon race. “hardworking” “difficult”
“participated” “organized”
1.
Role of Context
1.1
Elimination of ambiguity
Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy. When a word with a multiple meanings is used
in inadequate context, it creates ambiguity.
Homonymy is another cause of ambiguity as two separate words share the same form.
Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity.
Ambiguity
refers
to
a
word,
phrase,
sentence
or
group
of
sentences
with
more
than
one
possible
interpretation or meaning. Lexical ambiguity often arises due to polysemy
a) He is a
hard
businessman
b) John
ran
the egg and spoon race. “hardworking”
“difficult”
“participated” “organized”
?
Structural ambiguity arises from the grammatical analysis of a sentence or a phrase.
15
?
?
e.g.
young
men and women ( both the men and women are young; or young men and all women)
I like my students more than Bill. (
This sentence can be understood as “ I like my students more
than Bill does.” or
“ I like my students more than I like Bill.”)
1.2
Indication of referents
限定所指
Without clear context, the reference can be very confusing.
In
conversation,
in
order
to
avoid
repetition,
pronouns(
like
I,
he,
you,
this,
or
that
)
are
often
used
instead of a noun or a noun phrase;
do, can, might, or should
can
be used in place of a verb phrase, and
then, or there
is used in place of an adverbial phrase of time or place. Context is of great importance in
understanding the referents of such word.
?
e.g.
“ –
Do you think he will?
?
--
I don’t know. He might.
?
--
I suppose he ought to, but perhaps he feels he can’t.
?
--
Well, his brothers have. They perhaps think he needn’t.
?
--
Perhaps eventually he may. I think he should, and I very much hope he will.”
3.3 Provision of clues for inferring word meaning
.
提供线索推断词义
In many cases, when a new word appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints
that might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea. Context clues vary a great deal but
can be summed up as follows:
A. Definition
The author gives formal definition immediately after a new term.
s
the
most
startling
theory
to
come
out
of
kinestics
,
the
study
of
body
movement,was
suggested by Professor Birdwhistell.
B. explanation
If the concept is complicated and must involved technical terms in the definition, the author might explain
the idea in simple words.
E.g. It
’
s just one more incredible result of the development of microprocessors
- those tiny parts of computer commonly known as
‘
silicon chips.
C.
Example
cite an example to throw light on the meaning of the term.
E.g. Many United Nations employees are polyglots. Ms. Mary, for example, speaks five languages
D. Synonymy
Their
greatest
fear
was
of
a
conflagration
大火
,
since
fire
would
destroy
their
flimsy
wooden
settlement
before help could arrive.
E. Antonymy
As the fighting on all fronts reached its peak, the economy neared its nadir.
F. Hyponymy e.g. The village had most of the useful amenities: a pub, a library, a post office, a village hall,
a medical center, and a school.
G
. Relevant details
e.g. In spite of the fact that the fishermen were wearing
sou’westers,
the storm was so heavy that they were
wet through.
H. Word structure
e.g. Copernicus
哥白尼
believed in a heliocentric universe, rather than in geocentric
theory.
If we know the form geo- as in geology or geography as well as the fact that it is used in contrast to helio-,
we can guess the meaning
，他提出地球及其它行星绕太阳运动的日心说，
4. Suggested ways for the correct comprehension of word meaning
A. the use of an up-to-date and adequate monolingual dictionary
B. A good knowledge of the culture of the English-speaking people
C. Development of the ability to determine the meaning of a word from its context
Question
Study this sentence. If you find anything wrong , please explain why and then improve it.
Flying plane is dangerous.
(1) It is ambiguous.
(2) Ambiguity caused by the grammatical structure
(3)This sentence can be understood as:
a. It is a dangerous to fly a plane.
b. A plane that is flying is dangerous.
(4)Improvement
a.
John told me that he didn’t want to be a pilot, because flying a plane is dangerous.
16
b.
A flying
plane is dangerous.
Lecture 9
Changes in Word Meaning
Types of Changes
Changing in word meaning has never ceased since the language came into being and will continue in the
future. Yet no one has been able to systemize the ways in which changes occur. However, there are a few
patterns that changes follow.
1.3
Extension
(generalization)
词义的扩大
A large proportion of polysemic words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the
course of development.
Extension of meaning, the opposite of restriction, means the widening of a word
’
s sense until it covers
much more than what it originally conveyed. Take the word
“
manuscript
”
for example, it originally meant
something hand written, but now it refers to an author
’
s copy
whether written by hand or typed. Another example is
“
fallout
”
.
1.4
Narrowing
词义缩小
It means that a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower, specialized sense which
is applicable to only one of the objects it had previously denoted. An example was the word
“meat”
which originally
meant “food; especially
solid food, as distinguished from drink.
”
In the course of
time,
the
range
of
meaning was
narrowed
to
mean
specifically
“
the
flesh
of
animals
used
as
food,
excluding fish and birds.
”
More examples:
disease
（
discomfort.
不安；烦恼；弊病；疾病
,
）
1.5
Elevation (amelioration)
词义升格
Elevation
of
meaning
is
the
opposite
of
degeneration.
Words
often
rise
from
humble
beginnings
to
positions of greater importance. The word
“
knight
爵士”
for example, once meant
“
boy
仆人”
, came
to alter its use as a title of rank through military and feudal associations. More examples
marshal
“
马夫
”
元帅
/shrewd
1.6
Degradation
When
the
meaning
of
a
word
narrows
toward
an
unfavorable
meaning
it
is
called
degeneration
or
pejorative
change.
A
villain,
for
example,
originally
referring
to
a
man
who
worked
on
a
farm
and
implying
nothing
unfavorable,
came
to
be
a
term
of
reproach.
Similarly,
boor,
which
once
meant
a
farmer, now implies
“
a rough, ill mannered man
”
.
A peasant regarded as vile and brutish.
【废语】
乡巴佬，粗汉：被认为低鄙和粗野的农民
A wicked or evil person; a scoundrel.
恶棍；流氓
2.
Causes of Changes
2.1
Extra-linguistic factors
词义演变的语言外部原因
Historical reason
历史
---it often happens that a word is retained for a name though the meaning has
changed because the referent has changed.
Class reason
阶级
---language records the speech and attitude of different social classes. So different
social varieties of language have come into being.
Churl
农业工人
,
乡下人
,
粗野的人
,
吝啬鬼
,
hussy
、
放荡的女子
,
wench
指农村女孩
,
妓女嫖妓
villain
as
we
already
know
were
originally
neutral
in
color but have all down-graded as
‘
ill-mannered or bad people
’
.
Psychological reason
--- the associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words are often due
to psychological factors. People change word meaning owing to various psychological motives. Many
low,
humble
and
despised
occupation
often
take
more
appealing
names
is
all
due
to
psychological
reasons. For example, in the Second World War, prevalent in the Australian forces were
peasant
for
‘
soldier
of
ordinary
rank
’
,
squeak
for
sergeant,
comedian
喜剧演员
for
commando
突击队员
(pejorative),
stew
keeper
：炖制而成的菜
for
‘
cook
’
Besides,
religious
influence
is
another
kind
of
psychological need.
Angel, martyr and paradise
have their meanings elevated because of the influence
of Christianity
2.2
Linguistic reasons
17
Shortening
One type of such change occurs when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of
the whole, e.g. gold is used for
‘
gold medal
’
gas for
‘
cold gas
’
Borrowing
The
influx
of
borrowings
has
caused
some
change
in
meaning.
For
instance,
deer
formerly
meant
animal, and later animal from Latin and beast from French found their way into English. As three terms
were synonymous, animal retained the original meaning, the meaning of deer was narrowed.
Analogy
Fortuitous
偶然的
,
幸运的
formerly denoted
‘
happening by chance
’
,
‘
accidental
’
and later took
on the meaning
‘
fortunate
’
probably by analogy because two words look similar.
Lecture 10
English Idioms
Objectives
This chapter discusses idioms, their major characteristics, the way of classification in terms of grammatical
functions and their variations in the actual use.
Teaching emphasis and difficulties
To understand idioms correctly in actual context and use them properly in production.
1.
Sphere of idioms
The
English
language
abounds
in
idioms
like
any
other
highly
developed
tongues.
English
idioms
are
colourful,
forcible
and
thought-provoking.
Strictly
speaking,
idioms
are
expressions
that
are
not
readily
understandable
from
their
literal
meanings
of
individual
elements.
In
a
broad
sense,
idioms
may
include
colloquialisms
俗语
,
catchphrases
醒目的广告用语
,
(
政治宣传中的
)
标语
,
slang
expressions
俚语
,
proverbs
谚语
, etc.
2.
Characteristics of idioms
2.1
Semantic unity
语义的整体性
Idioms each consist of more than one word, but each is a semantic unity. Though the various words that
make
up
the
idioms
have
their
respective
literal
meanings,
in
the
idiom,
they
have
lost
their
individual
identity.
The
semantic
unity
of
idioms
is
also
reflected
in
the
illogical
relationship
between
the
literal
meaning of each word and the meaning of the idiom. Many idioms are semantically inexplicable(
无法说明
的
).
e.g.
till the cows come home means
‘
forever
’
as a adverb; Rains cats and dogs means
‘
rain heavily
’
literally makes nonsense
2.2
Structural stability
结构稳定性
The structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable. Firstly, the constituents of idioms cannot be
replaced.
Eg.
Lip
service
*mouth
service
Secondly,
the
word
order
cannot
be
inverted
or
changed.
by
twos and threes
*by threes and twos Thirdly, the constituents of an idiom cannot be deleted or added to,
not
even
an
article
eg.
out
of
the
.
不可能
Finally,
many
idioms
are
grammatically
unanalysable. It should be pointed out that the idiomaticity of idioms is gradable and may best be thought in
terms of a scale, with the true idioms established at the upper end and regular combinations at the bottom.
In between are the semi-idioms. The fixity of idioms depends on the idimaticity. The more idiomatic the
idioms,
the more fixed the structure.
习语性越强的习语，结构越固定
Many of the idioms of the lower
scale do allow some changes.;
Lecture 11
English Dictionaries
Objectives
This
chapter
attempts
to
introduce
and
expound
four
types
of
dictionaries,
their
contents,
scope
and
characteristics,
and
discusses
how
to
choose
and
use
dictionaries,
and
finally
introduces
three
popular
dictionaries.
Teaching emphasis and difficulties
How to choose and use dictionaries.
Key Points:
1.
Types of dictionaries
18
1.1
Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries
1.2
Linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries
1.3
Unabridged, desk and pocket dictionaries
1.4
Specialized dictionaries
2.
Use of dictionaries
2.1
Choice of dictionaries: monolingual or bilingual; general or specialized; British or American;
early or late
2.2
Content of the dictionary: spelling; pronunciation; definition; usage; grammar; usage notes
and language notes; etymological information; supplementary matter
2.3
Use
of
the
dictionaries:
read
the
contents
page
to
find
out
quickly
what
information
is
included in the dictionary; read the guide to the use of the dictionary, where the compilers explain
in detail how to use the dictionary.
3.
Three Good General Dictionaries
3.1
Longman
Dictionary
of
Contemporary
Englsih
(new
edition
1987):
clear
grammar
notes,
usage notes, language notes, revised and updated definitions
3.2
Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary
(CCELD, 1987): definition, extra column
另辟专栏
, usage examples
3.3
A
Chinese-English
Dictionary
(revised
Edition,
1995):
the
new
edition
has
an
addition
of
800 single character entries and of 18
’
000 multi-character entries in adding catchphrases, sayings,
and
proverbs;
the
new
edition
revised
some
old
entries;
the
new
edition
keeps
the
previous
alphabetical order of entries, which makes it easy to use.
1. As far as the origins of the words are concerned, English words can be classified into ___B__.
A. content words and functional words
B. native words and borrowed words
C. basic words and borrowed words
D. loan words and dialectal words
2. A word is __A___ of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function.
A. a minimal free form
B. a basic part
C. a minimal element
D. a free element
3. English lexicology embraces ___A__, semantics, etymology, stylistics, and lexicography.
A. morphology B. phonology C. syntax D. pragmatics
4. The internal reason for the difference between sound and form is _D____.
A. innovations made by linguists
B. influence of the work of scribes
C. stabilization of spelling by printing
D. the fact of more phonemes than letters in English
5. The relationship between sound and meaning is ___C__
and conventional.
A. logical B. objective C. arbitrary D. consistent
6. Pronouns and __C___ are semantically monosemous and have limited productivity and collocability.
A.
adverbs
B. adjectives
C. numerals
D. prepositions
7. Which of the following is not a functional word? D
A.
through
B. But
C. they
D. four
8. Listed in the course book are _C____ features of native words.
A.
Five
B. Six
C. seven
D. eight
9._A____ are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling.
A. Aliens
B. Denizens
C. Semantic-loans
D. Neologisms
10. The words borrowed from French or Latin are mostly _B____.
A. neutral
B. formal
C. colloquial
D. informal
11. There was _A___ agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English.
A.
more
B. little
C. less
D. a bit more
12. Nonbasic vocabulary includes all of the following except __B___.
A. neologisms
B. Anglo-Saxon words
C. archaisms
D. technical terms
II. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions given in the course book.
1. Etymology is traditionally used for the study of the _____
and history of the form and meaning of
19
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
bruce-
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