英语词汇学知识点.docx

英语词汇学知识点.docx

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英语词汇学知识点

EnglishLexicology:

ACoursebook

Chapter1LexicologyandWords

KnowledgePoints:

1.Lexicologyisthestudyofthevocabularyorlexiconofagivenlanguage.

2.Morphologyisthestudyoftheformsofwordsandtheircomponents.

3.Themajorpurposeofstudyinmorphologyistolookatmorphemesandtheirarrangementsinwordformation.

4.Morphemeisthesmallestmeaningfulunitoflanguage.Morphemesmayconstitutewordsorpartsofwords.

5.Semanticsisdefinedasthestudyofmeaning.

6.Generallyspeaking,semanticsfocuseson:

1）themeaningofwords;

2）themeaningofutterancesincontext;

3）themeaningofsentences;

4）meaningrelationsbetweensentences;

5）meaningrelationsthatareinternaltothevocabularyofalanguage.

7.Etymologyisthestudyofthewholehistoryofwords.

8.Wordisusedtraditionallytorefertoasequenceoflettersboundedbyspaces.

9.Thetermwordisalsousedtorefertoanintermediatestructuresmallerthanawholephraseandyetgenerallylargerthanasinglesoundsegment.

10.MajorfeaturesofWords

1）Awordisasoundorcombinationofsoundswhichwemakevoluntarilywithourvocalequipment.

2）Awordissymbolicandisusedtostandforsomethingelse.

3）Thewordisanuninterruptibleunit.

4）Awordhastodowithitssocialfunction.

5）Awordmayconsistofoneormoremorphemes.

6）Wordsarepartofthelargecommunicationsystemwecalllanguage.

7）Awordoccurstypicallyinthestructureofphrases.

11.Intraditionalgrammar,eightpartsofspeecharedistinguishedinEnglish:

noun,pronoun,adjective,verb,adverb,preposition,conjunction,andinterjection.

12.Wordscanalsobeclassifiedintolexicalwordsandgrammaticalwords.

13.Generallyspeaking,lexicalwordsarenouns,verbs,adjectives,andadverbs.

14.Thelexicalwordscanbeused（functions）:

1）torepresentourexperienceoftheword;

2）torefertopersons,places,thingsandconcepts（e.g.thenounsSmith,London,pineapple,unity）;

3）todescribequalitiesandproperties（e.g.theadjectivesexcellent,kind,high）;

4）torepresentactions,processesorstates（e.g.theverbsjump,bite,stay）;

5）todescribecircumstanceslikemanner（e.g.theadverbskindly,slowly,cheerfully）.

Furthermore,lexicalwordshavetheirowncontentmeaningsandmaybemeaningfulwhenusedalone.E.g.bookandhousehavetheirowncontentmeanings.

15.Grammaticalwordsarewordslikepronouns,prepositions,demonstrative,determiners,conjunctions,auxiliaryverbs,andsonon.

16.Semanticorlexicalfield:

Asemanticfieldcontainswordsthatbelongtodefinedareaofmeaning.Crystal（1995）definesasemanticfieldasa‘namedareaofmeaninginwhichlexemesinterrelatedanddefineeachotherinspecificways’.

Chapter2SomeBasicConceptsandWordMeanings

KnowledgePoints:

1.Morphemesaretheultimategrammaticalconstituents,thesmallestmeaningfulunitsoflanguage.

2.Featuresofmorpheme:

1）Amorphememaybeacompleteword.E.g.the,fierce,desk,eat,boot,at,fee,mosquitocannotbedividedupintosmallerunitsthataremeaningfulthemselves.

2）Amorphememayalsobeawordformsuchasanaffix.e.g.–able,in-,-hood.

3）Amorphememaybeacombiningform.e.g.bio-,geo,pre-.

3.Phonemesarethesmallestworkingunitsofsoundperse,andtheybuildupintomorphemes.

4.Lexeme:

Lexemeorlexicalitemisregardedasaunitoflexicalmeaning,whichexistsregardlessofanyinflectionalendingsitmayhaveorthenumberofwordsitmaycontain.

Lexemeisconsideredanabstractlinguisticunitwithdifferentvariants（e.g.singasagainstsang,sung）.

5.Morph:

Anyconcreterealizationofamorphemeinagivenutteranceiscalledamorph.Itisaphysicalformrepresentingsomemorphemesinalanguage.

6.Allomorphs:

Morphswhicharedifferentrepresentationsofthesamemorphemearereferredtoasallomorphsofthatmorpheme.

7.Morphemescanbeclassifiedintoboundmorphemesandfreemorphemes.

8.Boundmorphemesmustbejoinedtoothermorphemes.e.g.thesuffix–dom,isaboundmorpheme.

9.Freemorphemesneednotbeattachedtoothermorphemesandcanoccurbythemselvesasindividualwords.e.g.cat,chair,farm,andbugarefreemorpheme.

10.Morphemesmayalsobeclassifiedintoderivationalmorphemesandinflectionalmorphemes.

11.Denotation:

Denotationofalexemeistherelationshipthatholdsbetweenthatlexemeandpersons,things,places,properties,processesandactivitiesexternaltothelanguagesystem.

12.Reference:

Therelationshipofreferenceholdsbetweenanexpressionandwhatthatexpressionstandsforonparticularoccasionsofitsutterance.

13.Sense:

Senseisarelationshipbetweenthewordsorexpressionsofasinglelanguage,independentlyoftherelationship,ifany,whichholdsbetweenthosewordsorexpressionsandtheirreferents.

14.Leech（1981）distinguishesseventypesofmeaninginlanguage:

conceptualmeaning,connotativemeaning,socialmeaning,affectivemeaning,reflectedmeaning,collocativemeaning,andthematicmeaning.

15.Conceptualmeaning,whichissometimescalleddenotativeorcognitivemeaning,referstomeaningsaspresentedinadictionary.

16.Connotativemeaningisthecommunicativevalueofanexpressionbyvirtueofwhatitrefersto,overandaboveitspurelyconceptualcontent.

17.Socialmeaningreferstothekindofmeaningapieceoflanguageconveysaboutthesocialcircumstancesofitsuse.

18.Affectivemeaningcanbeusedtocovertheattitudinalandemotionalfactorsexpressedinaword.

19.Reflectedmeaningisthemeaningwhicharisesincasesofmultipleconceptualmeaning,whenonesenseofawordformspartofourresponsetoanothersense.

20.Collocativemeaningconsistsoftheassociationsawordacquiresonaccountofthemeaningsofwordswhichtendtooccurinitsenvironment.

21.Thematicmeaningiswhatcommunicatedbythewayinwhichaspeakerorwriterorganizesthemassage,intermsofordering,focus,andemphasis.

22.Stem:

Thewordtowhichaffixesareaddedandwhichcarriesthebasicmeaningoftheresultingcomplexwordisknownasthestem.

23.Root:

Astemconsistingofasinglemorphemeislabeledasroot.For,example,walkisarootanditappearsinthesetofword-formsthatinstantiatethelexemewalksuchaswalk,walks,walkingandwalked.

24.Freemorpheme:

Rootswhicharecapableofstandingindependentlyarecalledfreemorphemes.Singlewordslikeman,book,tea,sweet,cookarethesmallestfreemorphemescapableofoccurringindependently.

25.Boundmorpheme:

somerootsareincapableofoccurringindependently.Theyalwaysoccurwithsomeotherword-buildingelementattachedtothem.Suchrootsarecalledboundmorphemes,like–mitinpermit,remit,commit,admit,andceiveinperceive,receive,conceive.

26.Base:

Abaseisalexicalitemtowhichaffixesofanykindcanbeadded.

Theaffixesattachedtoabase.Inotherwords,allrootsarebases.

27.Affix:

Arootorstemcanbeattachedwithanaffix.Affixesaremorphemeswhichonlyoccurwhenattachedtoothermorphemes.Bydefinitionaffixesareboundmorphemes.

28.Threetypesofaffixes:

prefix,suffixandinfix.

1）prefix:

Aprefixisanaffixattachedbeforearoot（orstemorbase）likere-,un-andin-,asinre-make,un-kind,in-decent.

2）suffix:

Asuffixisanaffixattachedafteraroot（orstemorbase）like-ly,-er,-ist,and-ed,asinkind-ly,wait-er,interest-ing,interest-ed.

3）infix:

Aninfixisanaffixinsertedintotherootitself.AccordingtoKatamba（1993）,infixesareverycommoninsemiticlanguagelikeArabicandHebrew.

29.Othertypesofaffixes:

inflectionalaffixesandderivationalaffixes.

1）Inflectionalaffixesareusedforsyntacticreasonstoindicatenumber,tense,case,andsoon.

2）derivationalaffixescanalterthemeaningorgrammaticalcategoryofthebase.

30.Polysemy:

Polysemyreferstothesituationinwhichawordhastwoormoredifferentmeanings.

Forinstance,thenounbankissaidtobepolysemousbecauseitmaymean:

（1）afinancialinstitutionthatpeopleorbusinessescankeeptheirmoneyinorborrowmoneyfrom;

（2）araisedareaoflandalongthesideofariver;

（3）alargenumberofthingsinarow,especiallypiecesofequipment.

31.Featuresofpolysemy:

1）Theconceptofpolysemyiscomplexandinvolvesacertainnumberofproblems.AsmentionedbyJacksonandAmvela（2000）,wecannotdetermineexactlyhowmanymeaningsapolysemouswordhas,asawordmayhavebothaliteralmeaningandoneormoretransferredmeanings.

2）Theisnoclearcriterionforeitherdifferenceorsamenessofmeaning.

3）Itdifficulttodistinguishbetweenpolysemy（i.e.onewordwithseveralmeanings）andhomonymy（i.e.severalwordswiththesameshape—spellingand/orpronunciation）.

4）Polysemyisanessentialconditionforitsefficiency.

32.Homonymy:

Homonymyreferstoasituationinwhichtherearetwoormorewordswiththesameshape.

33.Towtypesofhomonyms（JacksonandAmvela,2000）:

homographandhomophone

1）homograph:

Homographreferstoawordwhichisspeltthesameasanotherwordbuthasadifferentmeaningandsometimesadifferentpronunciation.Forexample,lead（metal）andlead（dog’slead）arespeltthesamebutpronounceddifferently.

2）homophone:

Homophonereferstoawordthatsoundsthesameasanotherwordbutahsitsownspelling,meaningandorigin.Forexample,right,riteandwritearespeltdifferentlybutpronouncedthesame.

34.Featuresofhomonymy:

1）Therearecasesinwhichtwohomonymswithtotallydifferentmeaningsmaybothmakesenseinthesameutterance.

2）Spellingwilloftenhelptodifferentiatebetweenwordswithareidenticalinsound.

3）Writingconventionscanhelpremove