1、Chapter 1,The Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary,Language, linguistics & lexicology,Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a specific social action and a carrier of information.Language is a system of human communication which consists of the structur
2、ed arrangement of sounds (or their written representation) into larger units, e.g., morphemes, words, sentences, utterances.,Language,Generally speaking, linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of language. To be more exact, linguistics studies the general principles upon which languages
3、are constructed and operate as systems of human communication.,Linguistics,Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, structure, formation, meaning and usage. In short, it is the study of the s
4、ignification and application of words.,What is lexicology?,The significance of the course:,Develop your personal vocabulary and consciously increase your word power (active vocabulary). Understand word-meaning and organize, classify and store words more effectively. Raise your awareness of meaning a
5、nd usages, use words more accurately and appropriately. Develop your skills and habits of analyzing and generalizing linguistic phenomena in your learning experiences. Ultimately improve your receptive and productive skills in language processing as well as language production.,Aims of the course:,G
6、ive a systematic description of the English vocabulary. Offer an insight into the origin and development of the English vocabulary. Discuss the problems of word-structure and word-formation Study the use of English words , their meanings and changes in meaning, their sense relations.,The total numbe
7、r of the words in a language. All the words used in a particular historical period. All the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an individual person.,What is vocabulary?,speaking vocabulary-active vocabulary writing vocabulary-active vocabulary readi
8、ng vocabulary-passive vocabulary guess vocabulary-passive vocabulary,Ones personal vocabulary can be divided into:,What Is a Word?,A word is a minimal free form; A word has a sound; A word is meaningful; A word is syntactically functional.,A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given
9、 sound, meaning and syntactic function.,Definition in Chinese:词，今指语言组织中的基础单位，能独立运用，具有声音，意义和语法功能。（辞海，1984，375页，上海辞书出版社）,Sound and meaning,As for the relationship between sound and meaning, there has been no agreement. One is called the Naturalists(自然派)， the other is called the Conventionalists(规约派).T
10、he former thinks there exists an intrinsic correspondence between sound and sense, while the latter thinks “there is no logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself” . The relationship between them is conventional., ArbitraryA word i
11、s a symbol that stands for something else in the world. The symbolic connection is always arbitrary, and there is no logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and the idea itself. e.g. dog, book,Whats in a name? That which we call a rose. By any
12、other name would smell as sweet. -Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)In Shakespeares opinion, if we use another word instead of the word “rose”. This kind of 玫瑰花 smells sweet, too., ConventionalThe relationship between sound and meaning is conventional. In different languages, on the one han
13、d, the same concept can be represented by different sounds. e.g. woman, frau(Ger), femme(F), fn (妇女) on the other hand, the same sound can be used to denote different things in one language. e.g. mi:t meet, meat, mete,Sound and form,It is generally agreed that the sound should be consistent with the
14、 form. But in English, there are more differences between the two. The reasons for the differences are: The English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, and it does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the language so that some letters must work together in combination. The pronunc
15、iation has changed more rapidly than spelling over years. E.g. sum, cum, wuman, wunder, munk some, come, woman, wonder, monk, The borrowing has come. Early borrowings were assimilated, later ones do not conform to the roles of English pronunciation and spelling. E.g. stimulus, denouement, fiesta, eu
16、reka, kimono.fish ghoti gh like the f in laugh, o like the i in women, ti like the sh in nation.Hymn, condemn, bomb hymnal, condemnation, bombard,Classification of English words,English words may fall into: In terms of use frequency : the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary In terms of notion:
17、content words and functional words In terms of origin: native words and borrowed words In terms of morphology: simple words, compounds and derived words.,The characteristics of the basic word stock,(1) all national character Words of the basic word stock denote the most common things and phenomena o
18、f the world around us, which are indispensable to all the people who speak the language.,(1) All National CharacterNatural phenomena: rain, snow, fire, water, sun, moon, spring, wind, hill;Human body and relations: head, foot, hand, face, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter;Names of plant
19、s and animals: oak, pine, grass, pear, apple, tree, horse, cow, sheep, cat, dog, chickenAction, size, domain, state: come, go, eat, hear, beat, carry, good, evil, old, young, hot, cold, heavy, white, black Numerals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions: one, ten, hundred, I, you, your, who, in ,out,
20、 under, and, but, till, as,(2) Stability Words of the basic stock have been in use for centuries. As they denote the commonest things necessary to life, they are likely to remain unchanged. e.g. man, fire, mountain, water, sun, moon; However, stability is only relative, e.g. arrow, bow, chariot, kni
21、ght move out, electricity, machine, car, plane, computer, radio, television, internet entered.,(3) Productivity Most root words or monosyllabic words can be used alone or to form new words with other roots and affixes.e.g. foot: footage, football, footpath, footfall, footed, footloose, footling, foo
22、tman, footing, footprint,(4) Polysemy: Plurality of meanings.e.g. take:a. to move or carry from one place to another,b. to remove or use without permission or by mistake,c. to seize or capture,d. to get for oneself,e. to get hold of sth. with the hands,f. to be willing to accept,g. to bear or endure
23、,h. to need (a stated amount of time),i. to perform the action connected with, j. to test or measure,k. to write down,l. to have the intended effort or to work successfully,(5) Collocability Words enter a number of set expressions, idiomatic usages, proverbial sayings and the like.e.g. heart: a chan
24、ge of heart; after ones heart; a heart of gold; at heart; cross ones heart; cry ones heart out; eat ones heart out; have ones heart in ones mouth; heart and hand; heart and soul; take something to heart; wear ones heart upon ones sleeve; with all ones heart etc.,Terminology (术语): technical terms use
25、d in particular disciplines and academic areas.medicine: hepatitis肝炎, indigestion, penicilin; mathematics: algebra, trigonometry, calculus ; music: symphony, orchestra, sonata, concerto; education: audiovisual, megauniversity, microteaching;,Nonbasic vocabulary includes,Jargons(行话)： the specialized
26、vocabularies by which members of particular arts, sciences, trades and professions communicate among themselves.a bear market 熊市 a bull market 牛市 CAPI （Communication Application Program Interface）通信应用程序接口 CPI (Consumer Price Index) PPI ( Producer Price Index),Slangs(俚语)： the sub-standard languages,
27、which are used by specific groups of the population.cancer stick: cigarette feel no pain: be drunk in the soup: in serious trouble bring down: disappoint kick the bucket: die egghead,p.14 Ex. 7,Argots(黑话)：a secret language used by various groupsincluding, but not limited to, thieves and other crimin
28、alsto prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. can-opener =all-purpose key dip=pick-pocket 雷子/扳子=警察 上天窗，下平台，掏底兜，插马后（南京小偷暗语） 找光阴=掏包 皮子=钱包,Dialectal words( 方言词)：words which are used only by speakers of the dialect.beauty （AuE =excellent, great) auld (Scot=old) 瘪三 =Beg Sir 乞丐,Archaisms
29、(古词/古语/古语词): words which were once in common use, but now are restricted only to specialized or limited use. They are found mainly in older poems, legal documents and religious writing or speech.thou / thee =you wilt=will,p. 14 Ex. 8,Neologisms(新词语/新词/旧词新义)： newly created words and expressions, or w
30、ords that have taken on new meanings.glocalization=globalization+localization Microelectronics; futurology; data bank; memory; the Pill, AIDS; internet 最新现代汉语词典第六版收录近3000新词： 黄金周 雷人 宅男 宅女 劈腿 给力 低碳 搞掂 八卦 达人 北漂 碰瓷 蚁族 香蕉人 MBA,Besides the characteristics (all national character, stability, productivity,
31、polysemy and Collocability), native words have two other features: 1) Neutral in style 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. So they are not stylistically specific. 2) Frequent in use Native wo
32、rds are most frequently used in everyday speech and writing. Although native words are small in number, their percentage in use runs usually as high as 70% to 90 %.,Characteristics of native words,According to the degree of assimilation and manner of borrowing, borrowed words can be divided into fou
33、r classes,a. Denizens (同化词) Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now assimilated into the English language. In other words they have come to conform to the English way of pronunciation and spelling.port from portus (L) cup from cuppa (L) change from changier (F) pork from porc (F),b. Al
34、iens (非同化词) Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling.dcor (F) blitzkrieg (G) kowtow (CH) bazaar (Per),c. Translation Loans (译借词) Translation loans are words and expressions formed from the existing material in the English language but modeled on the pat
35、terns taken from another language. Subdivided into: Words translated according to the meaning: mother tongue from lingua materna (L) a slip of the tongue from lapsus linguae (L)masterpiece from Meisterstuck (G)black humour from humour noir (F) long time no see (CH)Words translated according to the s
36、ound: ketchup from fanchiejiang (CH dial.) lama from lama (Tib) tea from te (CH dial.),d. Semantic Loans (借意词) Words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the form but to the meaning. In other words, English has borrowed a new meaning from an existing word in the language.dream : origi
37、nally meant joy, music ; pioneer : once signified explorer, person doing pioneering work, now has taken on new meaning “a member of the Young Pioneer ” from Russian.,p. 15 Ex. 12,Give a term for each of the following definitions:1. sub- standard words often used on informal occasions(slangs) 2. spec
38、ialized vocabulary common in certain professions (jargons) 3. words used by sub-cultural groups particularly byunderground society (argots) 4. words that have clear notions (content words) 5. words of Anglo-Saxon origin(native words) 6. words borrowed by way of translation(translation-loans) 7. old
39、words with new meanings(neologisms),Recommended Readings:,汪榕培、卢晓娟，1997，英语词汇学教程。上海：上海外语教育出版社。 林承璋, 2005, 英语语言学引论。武汉：武汉大学出版社。 林福美，1985，现代英语词汇学。合肥：安徽教育出版社。 张维友，1999英语词汇学。北京：外语教学与研究出版社。 张韵斐、周锡卿，1986，现代英语词汇学概论（An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology）。北京：北京师范大学出版社。 Nation, I. S. P. 1990. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Nation, I. S. P. 2001. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: CUP.,
