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English Lexicology PowerPoint by Prof. Dun Zuchun E-mail: Aims and significance of the course I . The aims of the course 1. Give a systematic description of the English vocabulary. 2. Offer an insight into the origin and development of the English vocabulary. 3. Discuss the problems of word-structure and word- formation 4. Study the use of English words, their meanings and changes in meaning and their sense relations. . The significance of the course 1. Develop your personal vocabulary and consciously increase your word power (active vocabulary). 2. Understand word-meaning and organize, classify and store words more effectively. 3. Raise your awareness of meaning and usages, use words more accurately and appropriately. 4. Develop your skills and habits of analyzing and generalizing linguistic phenomena in your learning experiences. 5. Ultimately improve your receptive and productive skills in language processing as well as language production. Key points of this course morphological structure of English words word formation word meaning and componential analysis sense relations changes in word meaning The Requirements for this course Class attendance No Mobile phone Classroom discussion Fulfillment of the assignment Examination Chapter I The basic concepts of words and vocabulary Objectives: Introduce a definition of a word; Put forward the three main principles of lexical classification; Elaborate on the features of basic word stock and non- basic vocabulary. Teaching focuses: Definition of a word Definition of vocabulary Classification of words Basic word stock and non-basic vocabulary Content words and functional words Native words and borrowed words 1. What is a word? 1. What is a word? A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function. 词是具有一定的声音、意义和语法功能，能独立 运用的最小的语言单位 （ P. 2） Lexicology: a branch of linguistics concerned with the signification and application of words. (1) a minimal free form of a language; （ Linguisticians） (2) a sound unity; （ Phoneticians） (3) a unit of meaning; （ Semanticists） (4) a form that can function along in a sentence. (Grammarians) 1. What is a word? (P.2) 2. What is vocabulary? The total number 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. 2. What is vocabulary? All the words of a language or all the words used in a period of time, in a certain field, by a typically group of people， or a person, etc. e.g. English vocabulary, Old English vocabulary, the students vocabulary, Shakespeares vocabulary, Biblical vocabulary, etc. (further explanation) Chinese 3. Sound and meaning English French Japanese Korean 1. What does this tell us about the relationship between the sound which stands for this animal and the animal itself? 2. There is a logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself. Questi on s: 3. Sound and meaning Whats the relationship between sound and meaning? Arbitrary “no logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself” (Lodwig and Barrett 1973). Conventional The relationship between the thing and the symbol (name) is conventional because people of the same speech community have agreed to refer to name the same things. (symbolic connection) 4. Sound and form (or Sound form and written form) cough tough thought thorough through though Question What do you think about the relationship between the sound and the form? 4. Sound and form 2. What causes the differences between sound and form? More morphemes than letters, Stabilization of spelling, Deliberate change of spelling by early, scribes for easier recognition, Borrowing of foreign words. (or Sound form and written form) 4. Sound and form 1. English alphabet adopted from Latin is not the same in number with the English sounds. 2. Oral form develops faster than the written form over the years. 3. It is easier for being recognized in hand-writing. 4. Printing technique widens the gap. 5. Borrowings make the gap wider. (further discussion： ) 5. Classification of words Criterion: by use frequency Basic word stock Non-basic vocabulary Criterion: by function Content words Functional words Criterion: by sources Native words Borrowed words 5.1 Basic word stock and non-basic vocabulary Definition： Basic word stock refers to the words that form the foundation of the vocabulary over centuries and the core of the language. Basic word stock 5 basic features of the basic word stock All national character 全民性 (Used by all the people) Stability 稳定性 (The pronunciation and spelling are stable except that occasionally new meanings are added to them. ) Productivity 能产性 (Most compounds, derivations, idioms, phrasal verb, verb phrase etc. are concerned with the words from the basic word stock.) Polysemy 多义性 (In all the languages in the word, the more frequent a word is used, the more meanings it will have. ) Collocability 搭配能力强 (The words in basic word stock, especially verbs and nouns, have acquired ability to form fix usage by being used with other words as prepositions, adverbs, nouns, etc. e. g. look after, take care of, give in, etc. ) Definition： Nonbasic vocabulary refers to the words that are used in some occasion and by certain groups of people. Nonbasic vocabulary Non-basic vocabulary 1） Terminology 专业术语 2） Jargon 行话 3） Slang 俚语 4） Argot 隐语 5） Dialectal words 方言词 6） Archaisms 古语词 7） Neologisms 新词语 5.2 Content words and functional words According to the lexical and grammatical function of words, all the words in the English Grammar can be classified into two kinds: content (or notional or full) words functional (or form or empty) words Content words are the words which auto- semantically (语义上独立地 ) convey ideas of things or actions and have full lexical meanings. -They have both grammatical and lexical meanings, and lexical meaning in particular. -They include: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and numerals. Functional words are the words which tell the relationship among words in the sentence or among sentences. -They are articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliaries and interjections. -They are called empty words or form words, because they have little lexical meaning and possess strong grammatical meanings. 5.3 Native words and borrowed words Native words / Angle-Saxon words The features of native words： 1. Neutral in style (neither formal nor informal) 2. Frequent in use Borrowed words / loan words / borrowings Denizens 同化词 Aliens 非同化词 Translation-loans 译借词 Semantic loans 语义借词 Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated into the English language. 同化词指早期借入 , 其 拼写和读音完全符 合本族语词规范的借词 。 Words of this group are early borrowings from Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavians. e. g. get, give, egg, take, sky, skin, skill, etc. Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling. 非同化词指 拼写和读音保持原样的借词 。 These words are easy to be recognized to be foreign in origin. They are words like: automobile; coup dedat; caf; fiance; (more examples in the textbook) Translation loans are words and expressions formed from the existing material in the English language but modeled on the patterns taken from another language. 翻译借词是利用英语中 现有的语言材料 但 模仿另一种语言的模式而构成的词 。 Semantic loans are words borrowed a new meaning for an existing word in the language. 语义借词指 受另一种语言中相关词语的影 响而借进新义的词 。 Assignment Answer the following questions: 1. What is a word? 2. What are the characteristics of the basic word stock? 3. What is the fundamental difference between content and functional words? 8. Give the modern equivalents for the following archaic words： haply = perhaps methinks = it seems to me sooth = truth troth = faith quoth = said billow = wave/the sea albeit = although eke = also morn = morning ere = before hallowed = holy bade = bid Questions and Tasks 9. Explain neologisms with examples: Neologisms are newly-created words or old words with new meanings. For example, in the fast-developing information era, a large number of new terms are created in computer science， such as internet, E-mail, data bank which are brand-new words. There are also old words which have acquired new meaning, such as mouse, monitor, etc. 12. Categorize the following words into denizens, aliens, translation loans, and semantic loans. denizens aliens translation-loans semantic loans kettle confrere chopstick dream die pro patria silk gift wall Wunderkind black humor bloom skirt mikado long time no see husband parvenu typhoon (There is overlapping between these classes, e.g. typhoon can go to aliens, and silk to denizens).
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