英语词汇学第六章.docx
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英语词汇学第六章
第六章
词汇:
Polysemy n.一词多义
peculiarn.特权;特有财产adj.特殊的
Diachronic 历时性
Synchronic 共时性
Radiation放射法
garments n.[服装]服装,衣着
Concatenationn.串联,连结
tern三个一组的
candidate n.候选人
preceding v.在...之前
Homonyms n.[语]同形同音异义词
identical adj.同一的;完全相同的
Homographs同形异义词
Homophones同音异形异义
Rhetoric 修辞
puns n.双关语
sarcasm n.讽刺
ridicule n.嘲笑
embrace vt.拥抱;信奉,皈依;包含
connotation n.内涵
Antonymy反义词
predecessor前任
vice versa反之亦然
Hyponymy上下位关系
要点
一.1.Polysemy—polysemyisacommonfeaturepeculiartoallnaturallanguages. Whenawordsisfirstcoined, it always monosemic, butin the course of development , the same word may have two or more different
meanings.
e.g. The word "flight" may mean "passing through the air", "power of flying", "air of
journey", etc.
2.Two approaches
1).(Diachronic approach–
Diachronically, polysemy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of
the semantic structure of one and same word.
This first meaning is the primary meaning. With the advance of time
and the development of language, it took on more and more meanings. These latter
meanings are called derived meanings.
E.g. face
The primary meaning gave birth to new meaning.
The primary meaning become either absolute or disappeared altogether
E.g.harvest
time of cutting reaping and gathering the crops
a season‘s yield of grain or fruit
Pain penalty or punishment pains and penalty
upon/under pain of suffering
2).Synchronicapproach–synchronically,polysemyisviewedasthe coexistent ofvariousmeaningofthesameword in a certain historical period of time.
The basic meaning of a word is the core of word meaning.
The core ofword meaning called the central meaning (secondary meaning).
The central meaning has gradually dimished in currency with the changes and one of
the derived meanings hasbecome dominant.
E.g. gay
3.Two process of development
1).Radiation-asemanticprocesswhichshowsthatthe primarymeaningstandsatthecenter andeachofthe derived meanings proceed out of in every direction like rays.
The meanings are independent of one another, but can all be tracked back to the
central meaning.
e.g. Neck
1) That part of a man or animal jointing the head to the body
2) That part of the garments
3) The neck of an animal used as food
4) A narrow part between the head and body or base of any object
5) The part of anything
Of the 5 meanings 1) is the primary and all the rest are derived but each of the other
four is directly related to 1).
Therefore, we say neck has developed through the process of radiation.
2).Concatenation–meaning―linkingtogether,isthesemanticprocessinwhichthemeaningofawordmovesgradually away from its first sense by successive shifts until,
in many cases, there is not a sign of connectionbetween the sense that is finally developed and that which the termhad
at the begining.
e.g. candidate
1) White-robed adj.穿白色长袍的
2) Office seeker in white gouns
3) A person who seeks an office
4) A person proposed for a place, award, etc.
Of the 4 meanings, 1) is the primary meaning and the other three are derived, but each of the derived meaning is
only directly related to the preceding one and there is no direct connection between 1) and 4). Therefore, we say
candidate has developed through the process of concatenation.
3).Difference
Radiationand concatenation is closely related, being different stages of the
development leading to polysemy.
Radiation, each of the derived meaning is directly connected to the primary meaning.
Concatenation, each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like
chains. Though the latest sense
can be tracked to the original, there‘s nodirect connection in between.
The two processes work together, complementing each other.
Radiation precedes concatenation.
二.
1.Homonyms--are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling
or identical only in sound or spelling.
2.
1).Perfect Homonyms--are words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning.
e.g.bank/bank,bear/bear,date/date
2).Homographs--are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.
e.g. Bow/bow,Sow/sow
3).Homophones (most common)--are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.
e.g.Dear/dear,Right/rite,Son/sun
3.Origins of Homonyms
1). Changeinsoundandspelling
(homonymsarenativebyorigin,derivedfromdifferentearlierformsinOldEnglish. The change in sound and spelling gradually made themidentical in modern
English.)
e.g. ear/ear,long/long
2). Borrowing (many words of foreign origin coincide in sound and/or spelling with
those of native origin withthose of other foreign origin.)
e.g. fair/fair,ball/ball
3). Shortening (many shortened forms of words happen to be identical with other
words in spelling or sound)
e.g. ad/add,rock/rock,NOW/now
4.Differentiation of Homonyms and polysemants
(Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical regard to spelling andpronunciation. )
Homonyms refer to different word, which happen to share the same forms.
Polysemant is the one and some word,which has several meanings.
1).One important criterion is to see their etymology. Homonyms are from different
sources. A polysemant is fromthe same source,
which has acquired different meaning in the course of development.
2).Thesecondprincipleis semanticrelatedness.
Thevariousmeaningsofapolysemantare correlated and
connected to some central meaning to a greater or less degree. Meanings of different homonyms have nothing todo with one another.
5.Rhetoric feature
They create puns for desired effect of, say, humour, sarcasm or ridicule.
三.
1.Synonyms—
are words different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning.
Synonyms share a likeness in denotation and in part of speech.
2.Types of Synonyms
1).Absolute(Complete)Synonyms--arewords,whichare identical inmeaningin
allits aspects,bothin grammatical meaning and lexical meaning,
including conceptual and associative meanings.
Absolute (Complete)Synonyms are restricted to high-specialized vocabulary.
For instance, composition / compounding. They have the perfect same meaning
in Lexicology.
2).Relative(Near)synonyms--are similarornearly thesameindenotationbutembracedifferentshadesofmeaning or different degrees of a given quality.
e.g. Change/alter/vary
Take stagger/reel/totter for example.
Stagger implies unsteady movement characterized by a loss of balance and failure to maintain a fixed course.
E.g.stagger under a heavy load;
Reel suggests a swaying or lurching so as to appear on the verge of falling.
E.g. The drunken man reeled downthe hall;
Totter indicates the uncertain, faltering steps of a feeble old person or of an infant learning to walk.
3.Sources of Synonyms
1).Borrowing:
(the most important source)
2).Dialects and regional English:
eg.Railway (BrE) railroad (AmE)
Mother (BrE)minny (ScotE)
Charm (BrE) glamour (ScotE)
Ranch (AmE) run (AusE)
Job (StandE) gig (BlackE)
Jim (BlachE) mal person (StandE)
3).Figurativea.比喻的,象征的and euphemistica.委婉的use of words:
Occupation walk of life (fig.)
Dreamer star-gazer (fig.)
Drunk elevated (euph.)
Lie distort the fact (euph.)
4).Coincidence with idiomatic expressions:
Win gain the upper hand
Decide make up one‘s mind
Finish get through
Hesitate be in two minds
Help lend one a hand
4.Discrimination of Synonyms
1) Difference in denotation:
differ in the range and intensity of meaning.
Range (some words have a wider range of meaning than others)
e.g. timid--timorous
Timid is applied to the state of minds in which a person may happen to be at the
moment, ant to the habitualdisposition.
Timorous is only to the disposition.
Comprehend/ understand
extend—increase—expand
The owner of the restaurant is going to extend the kitchen by ten feet this year.
The company has decided to increase its sales by ten percent next year.
The metal will expand if heated.
Extent increase expandDiffer in degree of intensity
e.g. wealth—rich
The wealth person is to posses more money and property than a rich man.
work–toil
Work is a general term having no special implications as ‗light‘ or ‗heavy‘, and
‗mental‘ or ‗ physical‘.
Toil suggests ‗heavy and tiring work‘, associated with more with manual than
mental labor.
want—wish—desire
Want is the most general and has the widest range of meaning.
Wish and desire are much narrow in sense
2) Difference in connotation:
differ in the stylistic and emotive coloring.
Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic appropriateness.
E.g. The words borrowed from French and Latin are more formal than native words.
These borrowings are more appropriate formal and technical writing.
policeman–constable–bobby–cop
policeman(neutral)–constable(neutral) –bobby(colloquial)–cop(slangy)
ask -- beg -- request
ask (neutral); beg (colloquial); request (formal)
archaic and poetic, which are self-suggestive.
e.g.ire/anger,bliss/happiness,forlorn/distressed,dire/dreadful,list/listen,enow/enough,save/expect,mere/lakeand
such like are all synonyms, but in each the second is standard in usage whereas the first one is old-fashioned andarchaic, only found in poetry, earlier writing, etc.
Many synonyms have clear affective values
result–consequenceresult(neutral )–consequence(negative implication)
big–great
big(the bigness of size, volume and so on, without any emotive coloring)-
great(suggest