Lexicology and My English Study英语词汇学论文.docx

Lexicology and My English Study英语词汇学论文.docx

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LexicologyandMyEnglishStudy英语词汇学论文

LexicologyandMyEnglishStudy

I.WhatIsLexicology?

ThetermlexicologywasborrowedfromtheFrenchwordlexicology,whichcontainstwomorphemes:

oneisGreeklexicology,meaning‘workbook’or‘vocabulary;’theotherisFrenchlogie,meaning‘thestudyorscienceof.’Sotheliteralmeaningofthetermis‘thescienceofwords.’

Thetermfirstappearedinthe1820s,thoughtherewerelexicologistsinessencebeforethetermwascoined.Computationallexicologyasarelatedfield（inthesamewaythatcomputationallinguisticsisrelatedtolinguistics）dealswiththecomputationalstudyofdictionariesandtheircontents.Analliedsciencetolexicologyislexicography,whichalsostudieswordsinrelationwithdictionaries–itisactuallyconcernedwiththeinclusionofwordsindictionariesandfromthatperspectivewiththewholelexicon.Thereforelexicographyisthetheoryandpracticeofcomposingdictionaries.Sometimeslexicographyisconsideredtobeapartorabranchoflexicology,butthetwodisciplinesshouldnotbemistaken:

onlylexicologistswhodowritedictionariesarelexicographers.Itissaidthatlexicographyisthepracticallexicology;itispracticallyorientedthoughithasitsowntheory,whilethepurelexicologyismainlytheoretical.

Comprehensivelyspeaking,lexicologyisthebranchoflinguisticsconcernedwiththestudyofthevocabularyofagivenlanguage.Itdealswithwords,theirorigin,development,history,structure,meaningandapplication.Inshort,itisthestudyofthesignificationandapplicationofwords.

Ⅱ.AimsandSignificanceofLexicology

TheaimofthetermlexicologyistogiveasystematicdescriptionoftheEnglishvocabulary.Concretelyspeaking,EnglishlexicologyoffersstudentsaninsightintotheoriginanddevelopmentoftheEnglishvocabulary.ItdealswithmeaningsofModernEnglishwordsandtheirchangesinthecourseofhistoricaldevelopment.Itdiscussestheproblemsofword-structureandword-formationinEnglish,includingtheformationofnewwordswhichhaveappearedsincethe1960s.ItalsoitalsostudiestheuseofEnglishwords,phrasesandidioms.

Thesignificanceoflexicologyforlanguagelearningisalsoevident.ThetermwillhelpthelearnerstoenlargetheirvocabularyandimprovetheirabilitytoanalyzeanduseEnglishwords.Forinstance,thestudyofnewwords,synonyms,figuresofspeech,etc.willarousetheinterestofthelearnersontheonehand,andenhancetheirabilitytochoosethecorrectandexpressivewordsinwritingandspeechontheotherhand.

Languagelearningrequirespractice.Practicemakesperfect.Withoutpracticetherewouldbenotheory.EnglishlexicologyasatheoryofModernEnglishmaybeusefulinvocabularystudybecauseitderivesfrompracticeandshouldguidepractice.StudentswillusethebasicknowledgeofEnglishlexicologytounderstandthematerialalreadyfamiliartothemfromEnglishclasses,andapplyitintheirfurtherstudyofEnglish.

Ⅲ.Language,LinguisticsandLexicology

Brieflyspeaking,lexicologydealswithwords.Wordsarethefoundationandcoreoflanguage.Weknowthatwithoutwords,therewouldbenolanguage,whilewithoutlanguage,therewouldbenolinguistics.Therefore,words,thatis,lexicology,languageandlinguisticsareverycloselyinterrelatedwithoneanother.Beforestudyinglexicology,weshouldlearnaboutwhatlanguageisandwhatlinguisticsis.

Ⅳ.TheConnectionofLexicologywithphoneticsandgrammarandstylistics

1）Withphonetics:

Phoneticsisthestudyandsystematicclassificationofthesoundsmadeinspokenutterance,thatis,thestudyofspeechsounds.Itiscloselyrelatedtolexicology.

Withoutsoundthereisnowordbecauseeverywordisunityofsoundandmeaning.

2）Withgrammar:

Vocabularyandgrammarareorganicallyrelatedtooneanother.Inlearningalanguage,attentiontogrammarisasimportantasattentiontovocabulary.JosephStalinpointedoutthatthevocabularyisthebuildingmaterialofalanguage.Thevocabularyofalanguageassumestremendousimportancewhenitcomesunderthecontrolofgrammar,whichisconcernedwiththemodificationinfrontofwordsandthecombinationofwordsintosentences.

3）Withstylistics:

Stylisticsis“thestudyofoptionalvariationsinthesounds,forms,orvocabularyofalanguageascharacteristicofdifferentusesoflanguage,differentsituationsofuse,ordifferentliterarytypes.”Lexicologystudiesstylisticsvariantsonthebasisofmeaningsofwordsandtheirchanges:

synonyms,antonyms,figuresofspeech,etc.

Stylisticsisconcernedwithlanguagevarietydifferingaccordingtouseratherthanuser.Thesameusermayusedifferentvarietiesfordifferentpurposes,differentsituations,inconversationwithdifferentpeople,toproducedifferenteffects.Thesamesubjectmattercanbeexpressedindifferentstyles.

Ⅴ.TwoApproachesofthestudyofLexicology

Therearetwomainapproachestothestudyoflexicology,thatis,synchronicanddiachronic.

Thetermsynchronicmeansdescribingalanguageasitexistsatonepointoftime.Thetermdiachronicmeansconcernedwithhistoricaldevelopmentofalanguage.

Asynchronicapproachisanapproachtothestudyofalanguageatoneperiodoftime,whereasadiachronicapproachisanapproachtothestudyofthechangeinalanguagethattookplaceoveraperiodoftime.

Ⅵ.TheDivisionoftheHistoryoftheEnglish

ThehistoryoftheEnglishlanguageisdividedintothreeperiods.

1）Theperiodfrom450to1150isknownastheOldEnglishorAnglo-Saxonperiod.Itisdescribedastheperiodoffullinflections,sinceduringmostofthisperiodthecaseendingsofthenoun,theadjective,andtheconjugationoftheverbwerenotweakened.

2）Theperiodfrom1150to1500isknownastheMiddleEnglishperiod.Duringthisperiodtheinflections,whichhadbeguntobreakdowntowardstheendoftheOldEnglishperiod,becamegreatlyreduced,anditisknownastheperiodoftheleveledinflections.

3）Theperiodfrom1500tothepresentdayiscalledtheModernEnglishperiod.Alargepartoftheoriginalinflectionalsystemhasdisappeared,anditisknownastheperiodoflostinflections.

Ⅶ.TheMainProcessesofEnglishWord-formation

Therearefourmaintypesofword-formationinEnglish:

1）Prefixation:

Affixationincludesprefixationandsuffixation.Affixationisthemorphologicalprocesswherebygrammaticalorlexicalinformationisaddedtothebase.

AffixationhasplayedanactivepartinthecourseofthedevelopmentoftheEnglishlanguage.Itisnotonlyanage-old,butalsoaproductivemethodinEnglishword-building.

Whatisprefixation?

Prefixationisamaintypeofword-formationputtingaprefixinfrontofthebase,sometimeswith,butmoreusuallywithoutachangeofwordclass,e.g.dislike（dis+like）.

2）Suffixation:

Suffixationisamaintypeofword-formation,puttingasuffixafterthebase,sometimeswithout,butmoreusuallywithachangeofwordclass,e.g.frankness（frank+ness）

Theprimaryfunctionofprefixesistoeffectasemanticmodificationofthebase,andthechieffunctionofsuffixesistochangethewordclassofthebase,althoughsuffixeshaveonlyasmallsemanticrole.Thereforesuffixesmaybeclassifiedintofourcategoriesaccordingtothewordclass.

3）Conversion:

Conversion（orfullconversion）isamaintypeofword-formationassigningthebasetoadifferentwordclasswithnochangeofform.Forexample,theverbreleaseisconvertedtothenounrelease.

IntheEnglishlanguageconversionisunusuallyprominentasaword-formationprocess.Ofcourse,conversion,likeothermaintypesofword-formation,istreatasaprocessnowavailableforextendingthelexicalresourcesoftheEnglishlanguage.

Therearetwokindsofconversion:

fullconversionandpartialconversion.

4）Compounding：

Compoundingisamaintypeofword-formationaddingonebasetoanother,suchthatusuallytheoneplacedinfrontinsomesensesubcategorizestheonethatfollows,e.g.blackbird,etc.

Compoundingcanoccurnotonlyinthethreemajorwordclasses,nounsand,tolesserextent,adjectives,and,toleastextent,verbsbutalsoinotherwordclasses:

prepositions,suchasinto,within,bymeansof,insteadof,etc.pronouns,suchaseachother,oneanother,anybody,someone,herself,itself,etc.andadverbs,suchasheadlong,somehow,somewhere,upsidedown,insideout,etc.

Acompoundisalexicaluntilconsistingofmorethanonebaseandfunctioningbothgrammaticallyandsemanticallyasasingleword.Compoundsusuallycomprisetwobasesonly,howeverinternallycomplexeachmaybe.

Ⅷ.EnglishIdioms

Idiomsareveryimportantandextremelyinterestingpartoflanguage.Theyarecommonlyusedinallstylesoflanguage:

informalandformal,spokenandwritten.Ifwecanunderstandanduseidiomscorrectly,ourlanguageskillsincreaseconstantly.Oneimportantproblemourstudentshavewithidiomsishowweunderstandtheminourdailystudy.

Thebestwaytounderstandanidiomistoseeitincontext.Letusgiveanexamplebelow.

Ifsomeonesays:

Thistinopener’sdrivingmeroundthebend!

IthinkI’llthrowitawayandgetanewone.Thenthecontextandcommonsensetellsusthatdriveroundthebendreferstosomethingdifferentfromdrivingacarroundacurveintheroad.Sothecontextpointsoutthatthetinopenerisnotworkingproperlyandthatit’shavinganeffectonthepersonusingit.

Driveorsendsb.roundthebendisanidiomusedasaninformalstylemeaning‘tomakesomeoneveryboredorveryangry.’

Ⅸ.BritishandAmericanEnglish

GrammaticaldifferencesbetweenBritishandAmericanEnglisharefew.Themorenoticeabledifferencesarephoneticandespeciall