自考论文论英语词义的变化Word格式文档下载.docx

自考论文论英语词义的变化Word格式文档下载.docx

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指导老师：

武汉大学外语学院制

OntheMeaningChangeofEnglishWords

论文摘要

语义学是关于意义的学问，它旨在研究语言单位，特别是单词和句子的意义。

词是语言中具有意义的，最小的能够独立运用的单位，所以关于词的意义（即词汇语义学）在语言学中占用重要的位置。

单词一直处在不断的变化过程当中，形式上的或是内容上的，常常是后者发生变化。

正像Quirk在1963年指出的那样，“…几乎我们现在使用的每一个词与其在一个世纪以前的意义稍有不同,而一个世纪以前的单词又和它在一个世纪之前的意义稍有差别”。

宽泛的讲，意义的变化指的是现行词义的变化，或是对现行词语添加新的义项。

这种变化随着时间的流逝而产生。

本论文探究了英语词义变化的方式、类型及原因。

希望本论文可以帮助英语专业的学生更好地学习英语词义。

关键词：

词义;

变化;

方式;

类型;

原因

Abstract

Thesubjectconcerningthestudyofmeaningiscalledsemantics,whichtargetsatthestudyofthemeaningsoflinguisticsunits,suchaswordsandsentences.Awordistheminimumfreeformwithcertainmeaning,thusthestudyofwordmeaning（lexicalsemantics）occupiesanimportantpositioninlinguisticsstudy.Wordhasbeenconstantlyundergoingtheprocessofchanges，eitherinformsorinmeanings,withthelatterbeingmorefrequent.JustasQuirksaidin1963,“…almosteverywordweusetodayhasadifferentmeaningfromtheoneithadacenturyago,andacenturyagoithadaslightdifferentmeaningfromtheoneithadacenturybeforethat”.Broadlyspeaking,meaningchangereferstothealternationofthemeaningofexistingwords,aswellastheadditionofnewmeaningtoestablishedwords.Thischangeoccursalongwithtime.Thisthesisexplorestheapproaches,modes,causesofwordmeaningchange.Hopefully,itmayhelpusEnglishmajorsstudyEnglishwordmeaningbetter.

Keywords:

meaning；

change；

approach;

mode;

cause

Contents

I.Introduction1

II.ApproachestomeaningchangeofEnglishwords2

2.1extensionapproach2

2.2figurativeapproach3

2.3mergerapproach3

III.ModesofmeaningchangeofEnglishwords4

3.1generalization5

3.2specialization6

3.3elevation7

3.4degradation7

IV.CausesofmeaningchangeofEnglishwords8

4.1extra–linguisticsfactors8

4.2linguisticsfactors10

V.Conclusion11

Bibliography12

I.Introduction

Asabranchofsemanticstudy,thelexicalsemanticshasbeenlongregardedasthefocalpoint.Andthequestionastowhatisthemeaningofwordbecomesthefirstinquiryforlanguageleaners.Theobjectivematters,whichexcludehumanmind,includingallthelivingcreatures,unanimatedobjects,eventsandtheirbehavior,stateandcharacteristics,etc.arereflected,thussensation,perception,representationareproducedfirst.Humanmindthenwillgeneratetheabstractpreliminaryproductsintoconcepts.Thenmanfixestheconceptsinthevehicleoflanguage,enablingushumanbeingstoexchangeourthoughtsthroughthesesignswithcertainmeaningindividually.Thus,wordscomeintobeing.Inotherwords,themeaningofwordsisendowedbymen.AsBritishlinguistEricPartridgeoncepointedout,“wordshavenomeanings,peoplehavemeaningforthem”.Thisprocessisgenerallyagreeduponbyalllinguists.However,differentpeoplemayholddifferentopinionsonthesub-structureofwordmeaning.

Onedifficultyinthestudyofmeaningisthattheword“meaning”itselfhasdifferentmeanings.IntheirbookThemeaningofmeaningwrittenin1923,C.KOdgenandI.ARichardspresented“arepresentativelistofthemaindefinitionwhichreputablestudentsofmeaninghavefavored”（Odgen&

Richards,2003:

186）.Thereare16majorcategoriesofthem,withsub-categoriestotalingupto22.

Theedificeofanylanguagecouldbeobservedasagrandprojectcomposedofthreeelements:

sound,lexicon,andgrammar,amongwhichsoundisthephysicalshellofalanguage;

lexiconservesasthe“brick”and“concrete”;

whilegrammarfunctionsasthewaysandprinciplesbywhichlinguisticelementsareorganizedandoprate.Sowordmeaningaboveallcanbedividedintotwobigcategories:

grammaticalmeaningandlexicalmeaning.

Grammaticalmeaningcorrespondingwithgrammarsignifiesthegrammaticalaspectofaword.Forexample,“girl”isasingleform,while“girls”representsthepluralforminmeaning.

Lexicalmeaning,ontheotherhand,isthestudyofwordmeaningatitscontentlevel.Forexample,inthegroupofwords“go,goes,gone,went,going”,eachwordhasdifferentgrammaticalmeaningobviously,buttheirlexicalmeaningisthesame,namely“tomoveortravelfromoneplacetoanother”（LongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglish,1998:

746）.Foreignlinguistshavedifferentclassificationsonwordmeaning.GeoffreyLeech,aworldfamousBritishlinguist,categorizesseventypesofmeaning,asfollows:

conceptualmeaning,connotativemeaning,socialmeaning,affectivemeaning,reflectedmeaning,collocativemeaning,thematicmeaning,withconceptualmeaningbeingthecenterofwordmeaning.Andconnotativemeaning,socialmeaning,affectivemeaning,reflectedmeaning,andcollocativemeaningandthematicmeaningcanbebroughttogetherundertheheadingassociativemeaning（Leech.,1981）.

Inthefollowing