《英语词汇学》笔记1-10章

Chapter 1 Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary

重点知识锦集:

1. According to semanticists(意义学家), a word is a unit of meaning.

2. This symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary, and there is ?no logical relationships between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself?. 3. Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency. 4. Words may fall into content words and functional words by notion. 5. Words may fall into native words and borrowed words by origin.

6. The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and forms the common core of the language. 7. ‘all national character’(全民性)is the most important of all features that may differentiate words of common use from all others.

8. Content words denote clear notions and thus are known as notional words. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals.

9. Functional words do not have notions of their own. Therefore, they are also called empty words.

9. The English language is noted for the remarkable complexity and heterogeneity of its vocabulary because of its extensive borrowings.

10. According to the degree of assimilation and manner of borrowing, we can bring the loan-words under four classes: Denizens, Aliens, Translation-loans, Semantic-loans.

11. The differences between sound and form are due to innovations made by linguists.

12. Of all the five characteristics listed for the basic word stock, the most important is all national character.(全民性)

13. Content words are changing all the time whereas functional words are stable. 14. In Old English there was more agreement between sound and form. 15. A word is a symbol that represents something else in the world.

16. Some words in the basic words stock are said to be stable because they refer to the commonest things in life.

17. In different language, the same concept can be represented by different sounds and the same sound can show different meanings.

18. The internal reason for the difference between sound and form is the fact of more phonemes than letters in English.

19. Native words are neutral in style and frequent in use.

20. The expression of “long time no see”is translation-loan among the four classes of borrowings. 名词解释:

1. word(词): A word is a minimal free form of a Language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function. 2. vocabulary(词汇): The term ‘vocabulary’is used in different senses. Not only can it refer to the total number of the words in a language, but it can stand for all the words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given disicipline and the words possessed by an individual person. 3. Jargon(专门术语): It refers to the specialized vocabularies by which members of particular

arts, sciences, trades, and professions, communicate among themselves.

4.Archaisms(古语词): Archaisms are words or forms that were once in common use but are now restricted only to specialized or limited use.

5. Neologisms(新词语): Neologisms are newly created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings.

6. borrowed words(外来词): Words taken over from foreign languages are known as borrowed words or loan words or borrowings in simple terms. 7. Deizens(同化词): Deizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are all assimilated into the English Language.

8. Aliens(非同化词): Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognisable as foreign in origin.

9. Translation-loans(译借词): Translation-loans are words and expressions formed from the existing material in the English language but modelled on the patterns taken from another language.

10.Semantic-loans(借义词): Words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the form. But their meanings are borrowed. In other words, English has borrowed a new meaning for an existing word in the language

11. argot(黑话): It generally refers to the jargon of criminals.

12. content words(实词): Content words denote clear notions including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals.

13. terminology(术语): Terminology consists of technical terms used in particular disciplines and academic areas.

14. native words(本族语): Native words, also known as Anglo-Saxon words, are words brought to Britain in the 5th century by the German tribes. 论述问答题:

1. With the development of the Language, why do more and more differences occur between the Sound and Form?

答:It is generally agreed that the written form of a natural Language is the written record of the oral form. But with the development of the Language, more and more differences occur between them, the reasons are as follows:

①. The internal reason for this is that the English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, which does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the Language so that some letters must do double duty or work together in combination.

②. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling over the years, and in some cases the two have drawn far apart.

③. A third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes.

④. Finally comes the borrowing, which is an important channel of enriching the English vocabulary. When English borrowed words from other Languages , it borrowed spelling as well. 2. What are the obvious characteristics of the words of the basic word stock(基本词汇)? ①. All national character.(全民性) ②. Stability(稳定性) ③. Productivity(多产性) ④. Polysemy(多义性) ⑤. Collocability(搭配性)

Of course, not all the words of the basic word stock have these characteristics. Pronouns and numerals enjoy nation-wide use and stability, but are semantically monosemous and have limited productivity and collocability. Therefore, ?all national character?is the most important of all features that may differentiate words of common use from all others.

3. Apart from the characteristics mentioned of the basic word stock, in contrast to borrowed words, native words have two other features, what are they?

答:①. Neutral in style(文体上中性). Since native words denote the commonest things in human society, they are used by all people, in all places, on all occasions, and at all times. Therefore, they are not stylistically specific.

②. Frequent in use(使用频繁). Native words are most frequently used in everyday speech and writing. The proportion of its use in relation to borrowings is perhaps just the opposite of its number.

4. Illustrate the relationship between sound and meaning with examples.

答:A word is phonetic symbol that stands for something in the world. This symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary, and there is ‘no logical relationships between the sound which stands for a things or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself’. For example, woman is represented by the sound Frau in German, femme in French, and funv in Chinese. 5. Explain neologisms(新词语) with examples.

答:Neologisms are newly created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings. For example, “emil”(electronic mail, the sending of messages via computer systems) is a word newly coined against the background of rapid development in information technology. The word “mouse” might examplify the words taking on new meanings : now a mouse is indispensable for computer users.

6. How are English words generally classified? Elaborate on it.

答:Vocabulary can be classified by different criteria into different types.

① By use frequency(使用频率), words may fall into the basic word stock(基本词汇) and nonbasic vocabulary(非基本词汇). Basic vocabulary is small in number but forms the core of the language and enjoys the high frequency of use. Nonbasic vocabulary contains such words as terminology, jargon, which have a relatively limited use;

② By notion(实义), words can be divided into content words(实义词) and functional words(功能词即虚词), content words have clear notions such as nouns, verbs. Functional words cover prepositions, articles, conjunctions, etc, whose major functions are to help make sentences; ③ By origin(起源), words can be grouped into native words(本族语词) and borrowed words(外来语词). Native words refer to the words of Anglo-Saxon origin, which are small in number but form the main stream of basic word stock. Borrowed words are words taken over from other languages and make up 80%of the whole English vocabulary. These three criteria are the most widespread and popular. There are other ways too, for example, by morphological structure, formality, emotionality, and so on.

Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary

重点知识锦集:

1. Indo-European Language is made up of most of the Languages of Europe, the Near East, and India.

2. The Germanic family consists of the four Northern European Languages:Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Swedish, which are generally known as Scandinavian Languages. 3. In the Western set, Greek is the modern language derived from Hellenic.

4. The surviving Languages show various of degrees of similarity to one another. The similarity bears a more or less direct relationship to their geographical distribution. 5. Now people generally refer to Anglo-Saxon as Old English(古英语).

6. The introduction of Christianity(基督教)at the end of the 6th century had a great impact on the English vocabulary.

7. Old English (古英语)has a vocabulary of about 50,000 to 60,000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like modren German.

8. Until 1066, although there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly Germanic.

9. The Norman Conquest started a continual flow of French words into English.

10. During the Middle English period, Britain had trade relations with the low countries, especially Holland.

11. Middle English retained much fewer inflections. If we say that Old English was a language of full endings, Middle English was one of leveled endings.

12. As a result, Celtic made only a small contribution to the English vocabulary with such words as crag and bin and a number of place names like Avon, Kent, London, and Thames.

13. After the invading Germanic tribes settled down in Britain, their Language almost totally blotted out Celtic .

14. Old English is considered to be a highly-inflected Language.

15. During the Middle English period three languages—English, French and Latin(英语,法语和拉丁语)---- existed simultaneously for over a century. 16. Modern English(当代英语) began with the establishment of printing(印刷术) in England. 17. Since the beginning of this century, word-formation has become even more important for the expansion of English vocabulary.

18. Early Modern English refers to the language spoken from 1500 to 1700 .

19. The major factors that promote the growth of modern English are the growth of science and technology, economic and political changes, the influence of other cultures and Languages .

20. The four major foreign contributors to the English vocabulary in earlier times were French, Latin, Greek and Scandinavian .

21. Though still at work today , borrowing can hardly compare with what it was in the past.

22. It can be concluded that English has evolved from a synthetic Language(Old English) to the present analytic Language.

23. Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic change, borrowing.

24. The word of “recollection” is formed by creation.

25. The first people known to inhabit the British isles were Celts. Their languages were Celtic. 26. Besides French words, English also absorbed as many as 2,500 words of Dutch origin in the

Middle English period. 名词解释:

1. creation(创造新词): Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. In Modern times, creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.

2. semantic change(旧词新意): Semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new need.

3. borrowing(借用外来词语): Borrowing has played a vital role in the development of vocabulary, particularly in earlier times.

4. Old English(古英语): It refers to the Language used from 450 to 1150.

5. Middle English(中世纪英语): It refers to the Language used from 1150 to 1500.

6. Modern English(现代英语): It refers to the Language used from 1500 up to the present. 论述问答题:

1. What are eight principal language in the Indo-European Language family(印欧语系)?

答:They are Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian, Celtic, Italic, Hellenic and Germanic.

2. What are the causes of more new words appearing today?

答:the rapid development of modern science and technology.; Social, economic and political changes.;

The influences of other cultures and languages.; 3. What are three main modes of vocabulary developments? 答:Creation creates new words by using existing materials.

Semantic change. An old form takes on a new meaning to meet the new need. Borrow words from other Languages.

Chapter 3 Word Formation I

重点知识锦集:

1. It seems to be generally agreed that a word is the smallest unit of a Language that stands alone to communicate meaning.

2. In other words, the morpheme is ?the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words?. 3. Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. 4. The morpheme to the morph what a phoneme is to a phone.

5. Allomorphs as such do not occur at random, but are phonetically conditioned and thus predictable.

6. Morphemes can be divided into free morphemes and bound morphemes. 7. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words. 8. Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix.

9. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups: inflectional affixes and derivational affixes.(内部曲折词缀和派生词缀)

10. A monomorphemic word is a word that consists of a single free morpheme.

11. Chiefly found in derived words, bound morphemes(黏着语素) include bound roots, inflectional affixes, derivational affixes.

联系客服:779662525#qq.com(#替换为@) 苏ICP备20003344号-4