1、A Course in English Lexicology,主讲：楚向群,English Lexicology,A General Survey of English Vocabulary The Development of the English Vocabulary Word Structure and Word Formation Word Meaning Regional Differences in English Words English Idioms English Dictionaries The Learning and Using of English Words,1
2、.1The definition of a word some aspects of the definition on different criteria:,In visual terms: a meaningful group of letters printed or written horizontally across a piece of paper Spoken language: a sound or combination of sounds which are made voluntarily with human vocal equipment Semanticists
3、: a unit of meaning Grammarians: a free form that can function in a sentence,e.g. man / fine; misfortune management; blackmail,Word: a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.,1.2 Vocabulary: All the words in a language make up what is general
4、ly known as its vocabulary.,1. the total number of the words in a language; 2. all the words used in a particular historical period:Old;Middle;Modern 3. all the words of a dialect, a given book, a given discipline 4. words possessed by an individual person,WordVocabulary,1.3 sound and meaning,*The n
5、aturalists: an intrinsic correspondence between sound and sense. *The conventionalists:a kind of linguisticsocial contract,Whats a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweetShakespeare: Romeo and Juliet,Tis not enough no harshness given offence The sound must be an echo t
6、o the sense.Pope: Essay on Criticism,Eg. Woman-FrauG-FemmeF-Fu n site, sight, cite sait; vain, vein, vane,conclusion,No logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself. In different languages the same concept can be represented by diffe
7、rent sounds. On the other hand, the same sound, though denoting entirely different things, yet have the same sound.,1.4 sound and Form,It is generally agreed that the written form of a natural language is the orthographical record of the oral form. The sound should be consistent with the form, As wa
8、s the case of English in its earlier stage, i.e. Old English.,Reasons why modern English differs in sound and form:,I. English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, so that some letters must do double duty together in combination.,II. The pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling.,No one
9、was quite sure how some English word should be spelled.,Everything was written by hand before the printing press was brought to England,Scribes changed some similar vertical strokes.,In the 1500, printing became well established, which helped to freeze and standardize the spelling. While, sounds con
10、tinued to change.,Finally comes the borrowings.,Scribes (who made a living by writing for other people) changed the letter “u” to “o” when it came before “m”, “n”, “v” in order to solve the problem of misunderstanding of similar vertical strokes such as “i”, “u”, “v”, “m”, “w”, “n”.,e.g. sum some;cu
11、m come;wuman woman;wunder wonder;munk monk,Shaw,ghoti,?,fish,“The written form of English is, therefore,an imperfect representation of the phonetic elements of the spoken language.” Quirk, (1978),1.5 classification of words,By use frequency: the basic word stock and non-basic word stock by notion: c
12、ontent and functional (word) by origin: native and borrowed (word) by morphology: simple words, compound words and derived words,1.5.1. Basic word stock and non basic word stock,all national character stability productivity polysemy collocability,Basic word,Non-basic word,Basic word,Non-basic word,F
13、eatures of English Basic Word Stock:,A contrast of frequently used words between B.E, A.E. and Chinese,英语： the of and to a in that is was it for he as with be on I his at by had this not but from have are which her she or you they an were there been one all we their has would when if so no will him
14、more said our about what up some only my them can into time than could me two then other its these now do may any Mr. made first should over very our like new must such after man much years before most well even well even also being those people,美语： the be of and a in be to have to it for I they wit
15、h not that on she as at by this we you from do but or an which would say all one will who that when make there if can man what time go no into could up other that year out new some take these come see get know state two only then any now may than give about as day also find first way must use more l
16、ike even many more think such where so through should people each those mister over would seem just,汉语： 的，了，是，一，不，我，在，有，他，个，这，着，就，你，和，说，上，人，地，也，里，我们，来，到，都，还，大，去，把，又，看，要，她，那，好，小，主义，能，国，很，年，十，得，他们，什么，没，两，三，中，用，走，从，天，种，二，出，自己，几，人民，到，它，起来，对，呢，一，会，多，而，吧，家，革命，时候，叫，工作，这样，四，没有，社会，给，王，同志，想，做，可以，水，第，话，头，像，手，们
17、，才，使，知道，您，成，次，时,National character denoting the most common things and phenomena of the world around us,1. Natural Phenomena: wind, frost, snow, sun, rain, water, fire, hill 2. Human Body and Relations: head, foot, face, handfather, mother, brother, son, sister, daughter 3. Plants and Animals: oak,
18、pine, grass, pear, tree, apple, dog, cat, horse, cow, sheep, chicken 4. Action, Size, Domain: come, go, eat, hear, carry, big, small, old, young 5. Color and Quality: black, blue, white, good, evil, cold, hot, bad 6. Numerals, Pron, Prep. and Conj.: one, ten, hundred, I, you, who, hein, out, and, bu
19、t, as, so,These words and the like cannot be avoided by any speakers of English, irrespective of class origin, education, profession, religion, cultures and so on.,conclusion,stability,As they denote the commonest things necessary to life, they are likely to remain unchanged. Stability, however, is
20、not absolute. Words in the B. W. S also undergo changes.,eg. arrow, bow, chariot, knightelectricity, car, plane, radiotelevision, computer , phone,Productivity:,They are mostly root words or monosyllabic words, hence, productive.,eg.:,foot: footage, football, footbath,footbridge, footer dog: doglike
21、, dogcart, dog-eared, doggeddog-eat-dog, dogfight, doghouse,return,1.5.2. Non-basic vocabulary,terminology technical terms in particular discipline and academic areas. jargon of particular arts, sciences, trades, professions slang substandard language argot jargons of criminals eg.: can-openerall-pu
22、rpose key dippick-pocket persuaderdagger,dialect words used only of the dialect in question archaisms once in common use but now restricted to specialized or limited useneologisms newly created words or expressions or words that have taken on new meanings,Example for terminology,In medicine: photo-s
23、canning（摄影扫描）, hepatitis（肝炎） indigestion（消化不良）, penicillin（盘尼西林）In mathematics: algebra（代数）, trigonometry（三角）, calculus（算术）In music: symphony（交响乐）, orchestra（管弦乐队）, sonata（奏鸣曲）, concerto（协奏曲）, solo（独奏）,Terminology:,Slang wordsa category that seems to stand between the standard general words and info
24、rmal ones available to everyone and the in-group words,dough and bread money grass and pot marijuana beaver girl smoky, bear police holler call,slang enjoys popular use slang is colorful, blunt, expressive and impressive much of the slang is created by changing or extending the meaning of existing w
25、ords,Some people say “ slang avoids pretensions.” Slang is “language that rolls up its sleeves and get to the work.”,Examples:,Features:,drunk elevated, merry, jolly, comfortable, boiled, blue-eyed, paralyzed,Examples for other non-basic vocabulary,beauty (Aus.E= excellent, great) station (Aus. E= r
26、anch) auld (Scot. E= old) bluid (Scot. E= blood) coo (Scot. E=cow) hame (Scot. E=home) lough (Irish.E=lake),thou (you) ye (you pl.) thee (you) wilt (will) wherein ( in what) quoth (said) troth (pledge),neologisms: microelectronics the Pill futurology AIDS data bank internet Memory,Dialectal Words:,A
27、rchaisms in old poems, legal documents, religious writing or speech:,Content words and functional words,Words denote clear notions, objects, phenomena, action, state, degree, quantity and quality such as:nouns, verbs, adverbs, numerals eg: earth, run, bright, never, fire, frequently,Words do not hav
28、e notions of their own used to express the relations between notions, words as well as sentences. Conjunctions, auxiliaries and articles eg: on, of, but, do, a other, be,Content words:,Empty words:,The most frequently used functional words are: and, be, have, it, of, the, to, will, you,Native words
29、and borrowed words,Nature of native words: words brought to Britain in the 5th century by the German tribes Features of native words: Neutral in style (not stylistically specific) Frequent in use,Denizens : port potus (L); cup duppa (L); pork porc (F); change changier (F) Aliens: decor F; blitzkrieg G;kowtow Ch;bazaar Per; emir Arab; intermezzo IT; stimulus L Translation loans: lamaTib;Jiaozi Ch; masterpiece G meisterstuck; surplus value Gmehrwet; a slip of the tongue LLapsus linguae; semantic loans: dumb; freshsassy, cheeky,Borrowings or loan words:,
