(完整版)英语词汇学复习题。。。。
Key to chapter 1
1 .What is a word? 1.A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.
2.In what way are words related to vocabulary?
V ocabulary refers to the sum total of all the words in a language. In other words, vocabulary is composed of words and words make up vocabulary. If we compare vocabulary to a family, words are family members.
3.Illustrate the relationship between sound and meaning with examples .
Sound is the physical aspect of a word and meaning is what the sound refers to. Sound and meaning are not intrinsically related and their collection is arbitrary and conventional. For example, tree/tri:/ means 树in English because the English-speaking people have agreed to do so just as Chinese people use/shù/ (树) to refer to the same thing. This explains why people of different languages use different sounds to express the same concept. However, in the same languages, the same sound can denote different meanings, e.g. /rait/ can mean right, rite, and write.
4 .Enumerate the causes for the differences between sound and form of english words
There are generally four major causes of the differences between sound and form. ⑴ There are more phonemes than letters in English, so there is no way to use one letter to represent one phoneme. ⑵ The stabilization of spelling by printing, which breaks the synchronized change of sound and spelling. ⑶ Influence of the work of scribes, who deliberately changed the spelling of words and ⑷ borrowing, which introduces many words which are against English rules of pronunciation and spelling.
5 .Give examples to show the influence of early scribes on english spelling
Early scribes changed the spelling of many words while copying things for others because the original spelling forms in cursive writing were difficult for people to recognize, such as sum, cum, wuman, munk and so on. Later, the letter u with vertical lines was replaced with o, resulting in the current spelling forms like some, come, woman, monk. The changed spelling forms are more distinguishable to readers.
6.What are the characteristics of basic word stock
Words of the basic word stock form the common core of the English language. They are the words essential to native speakers’ daily communication. Such words are characterized by all national character, stability, polysemy, productivity and collocability.
7.choose the standard meaning form from the list on the right to match each of the slang words on the left
A tart loose woman b. bloke fellow c.gat pistol d. swell great e. chicken coward
F .blue fight g. smoky police h full drunk i. dame woman j. beaver girl
8.given the modern equivalents for the following archaic words
haply = perhaps albeit= although methinks = it seems to me eke= also bade= bid
smooth= truth morn= morning troth= pledge ere= before quoth = said hallowed= holy billow= wave/ the sea
9.Explain neologisms with examples
Neologisms refer to newly-coined words or old words with new meanings. For example, euro(欧元), e-book(电子书), SARS(非典), netizen(网民), are newly-coined words. Words like mouse(鼠标),web(网络),space shuttle(航天飞机) etc. are old words which have acquired new meanings.
10.What is the fundamental difference between content and functional words
By notion, words fall into content words and functional words. Content words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals, which have clear notions; whereas functional words are void of notions but are mainly used to connect content words into sentences. Content words are numerous and changing all the time, while functional words are small in number and stable. But functional words have much higher frequency in use than content words.
11.How do you account for the role of native words in english in relation to loan words ?
Native words form a small portion of the English vocabulary, but they make up the mainstream of the basic word-stock which belongs to the common core of the English language. Compared with most loan-words, native words are mostly essential to native speakers’ daily communication and enjoy a much higher frequency in actual use.
12. Categorize the following borrowed words into denizens , aliens translation loans and semantic loans Denizens Aliens Translation loans Semantic loans kettle confrere chopsticks dream die pro patria black humour skirt parvenu long time no see wall Wunderkind typhoon husband Mikado Key to chapter 2
1. Why should students of english lexicology study the In-European language family?
The Indo-Europe Language Family is one of the most important language families in the world. It is made up of the languages of Europe, the Near East and India. English belongs to this family and the other members of the Indo-European Language Family have different degrees of influence on English vocabulary. A knowledge of the Indo-European Language Family will help us understand English words better and use them more appropriately.
2.make a tree diagram to show the family relations of the modern language given below
3. W hat are the fundamental differences between the vocabularies of the 3 periods of development ? Do you think we can divide the historical development in other ways ? Defend your argument.
The vocabularies of the three periods differ greatly from one anther. Old English has (1) a small vocabulary (50 000—60 000), (2) a small number of borrowings from Latin and Scandinavian only and (3) the words full of endings. Middle English has (1) a comparatively large vocabulary, (2) a tremendous number of foreign words from French and Latin and (3) word endings leveled. Modern English has (1) a huge and heterogeneous vocabulary, (2) tremendous borrowings and (3) words with lost endings.
Yes, we can divide the developments in other ways, for example, Old English period can be called Anglo-Saxon period. And Middle English might start from 1066, the time of Norman Conquest. But in doing so, the logical continuation of thee three phases of the original division is lost.
4. what characteristics of english make the english language heterogeneous ?
it is receptivity and adaptability of the English language that make it possible for English to borrow heavily from other major
Indo-European Language Family
Balto-Slavic Lithuanian Prussian Polish Slavenian Russian Bulgarian
Indo-Iranian Hindi Perian
Celtic Breton Scottish Irish
Italic Spanish French Italian Portuguese
Roumanian
Hellenic Greek
Germanic English Swedish German Icelangic Danish Dutch
languages of the world, so that the English vocabulary eventually has become heterogeneous.
5.Account for the popularity of english in the present world from a linguistic perspective.
The popularity of English lies in the fact that English is ready to borrow from other languages and to adapt itself to new situations and new developments, that it has accepted elements from all other major languages and that it has simple reflection and a relatively fixed word order. All these make the language comparatively easy to learn and to use.
6 course human events necessary people
dissolve political connected assume powers
separate equal station nature entitle
decent respect opinions requires declare
causes impel separation
From the words picked out, we can see that most of the content words are either of Greek or Latin origin. What we left are mostly functional words. This shows that Greek and Latin play a very important part in the English vocabulary.
7.Give a brief account of the 4 phases of Latin borrowing with 2 or 3 examples for each period.
Latin borrowing can be divided into four phase: (1) Pre-Anglo-Saxon period,(2)Old English period, (3) middle English period and (4) Modern English period. Borrowings in the first period are mainly common words such as wall, wine, kettle and so on; Words borrowed in the second period are mainly religious terms such as candle, nun, church; the third period saw word borrowed often via French such as frustrate, history, infancy and so on and in the forth period Words borrowed from Latin are usually abstract formal terms like status, nucleus, minimum.
8.tell the difference elements that make up the following hybrids.
eventful [Latin + English] hydroplane [Greek +Latin Falsehood [Latin +English ] pacifist [Latin +Greek ] Saxophone [German +Greek ] heirloom [French +English ] Joss house [Portuguese +English ] television [Greek + Latin ] 9.put the following French loan word into 2 groups , one being early borrowings and the other late ones .
amateur (late) finace (late) Empire (late) peace (early) Courage (early) garage (late) Judgement (early) chair (early) Chaise (late) grace (early) Servant (early) routine (late) Jealous (early) savate (late) Genre (late) gender (early)
Debut (late) morale (late) State (early) chez (late) Ballet (late)
https://www.360docs.net/doc/3d10693045.html,ment on Jespersen's remark on Scandinavian element in english "An englishman cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian words, they are to the language what bread and eggs are to the daily fare.
Jespersen’s comment reveals the importance of Scandinavian words in E nglish. Just as people cannot live without bread and eggs, so English language cannot operate properly without Scandinavian words.
11. Match the Italian musical terms with the proper definitions
allegro f. 轻快Alto i. 女低音Andante j 行板Crescendo b. 渐强Diminuendo g. 渐弱Forte e. 强Largo d. 缓慢Piano h. 轻Pianoforte a. 轻转慢Soprano c. 女高音
12.Look up these words in a dictionary to determine the language from which each has been borrowed
cherub（Hebrew）chipmunk(American Indian ) Chocolate(Mexican ) coolie(Hindi) Cotton (Arabic) jubilee (Greek) Lasso (Spanish) loot (Hindi) Sabbath (Hebrew) shampoo (Hindi) Snorkel (German) ttamale (Mexican)
Tepee (American) tulip (Turkish) V oodoo (African) kibitz (German) Wok (Chinese) sauerbraten (German)
13. Here is a menu of loan words from various sources . Choose a word to fill in each space .
a. alligator
b. Loco
c. rodeo
d.. Bonanza
e. igloo
f. Blitzkrieg
g. wigwam
h. Canoe
i. hurricane
j. Boomerang
k. poncho
14.Describe the characteristics of contemporary vocabulary
the characteristics of the contemporary vocabulary can be summarized as follows: (1) the vocabulary is huge in size and heterogeneous;
(2) it has tremendous borrowings from all other major languages of the world; (3) the words have lost their endings; (4) it is growing swiftly by means of word-formation because of the development of science and technology, social, economic and political changes and
influence of other cultures and languages.
15.What are the major modes of vocabulary development in contemporary english ?
the major modes of vocabulary development of contemporary are creation, that is by means of word-formation; semantic change, adding new meanings to old words; borrowing words from other language and revival of old-fashioned words, which has a insignificant role.
Key to chapter 3
1.write the terms in the blanks according to the definitions
a. morpheme
b. allomorph
c. bound morpheme
d. free morpheme
e. affix
f. inflectional affix
g. derivational affix h. root
i. stem j. base
2. What is the difference between grammatical and lexical morphemes,and inflectional and derivational morphemes .give examples to illustrate their relationships
Inflectional morphemes are the suffixes added to the end of words to denote grammatical concepts such as –s(-es), -ed, -ing and –est (to show superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs) whereas derivational morphemes are prefixes and suffixes added to words to form new words such as pre-, dis-, un-, -tion, -er, -ness and so on.
Grammatical morphemes are those used to show grammatical concepts, including inflectional suffixes as mentioned above and functional words (prepositions, pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs), for example, but, the, do and Was; lexical morphemes are derivational affixes including both prefixes and suffixes
3.Analyse the words in terms of root, stem ,base
Individualistic
individualist + ic [stem , base]
individual + ist [stem, base ]
individu + al [stem, base ]
in + dividu [root, stem, base ]
undesirables
un +desirable [stem, base ]
desir + able [root, stem, base ]
https://www.360docs.net/doc/3d10693045.html,anize the following terms in a tree diagram to show their logical relationships
Key to chapter 4
Enumerate the three important means of word formation and explain their respective role in the expansion of English vocabulary.
The three means of word formation are affixation, which creates 30% to 40% of the total number of new words ;compounding ,which brings 28% to 30% of all the new words; and conversion, which provides English with 26% of the new words.
Affixation
1.What is affixation? What is its alternative name ?
Affixation, also called derivation, is the formation of new words by adding affixes to stems. Affixation Includes prefixation and suffixation according to the types of Affixes used to forms new words.
2.What is the difference between prefixation and suffixation?
Prefixation is to create new words by adding prefixes to base while suffixation makes new words by adding suffixes to base.
3.What are the characteristics of prefixes and suffixes?
Generally speaking, prefixes do not change part of speech of base but only modify their meaning whereas suffixes do change part of speech but seldom modify the meaning of bases.
4.What is the best way to classify prefixes ? Why ?
The best way to classify prefixes is on the basis of meaning because prefixes only change the meaning of bases in general.
5. Form negatives with each of following words by using one of these prefixes dis~,il~.im~ , in~,ir~ ,non~, un~,
non-smoker incapable impractical disobey insecurity irrelevant
immature inability/disability unofficially unwillingness illegal disagreement
illogical disloyal inconvenient non-athletic
6. harden horrify modernize
memorize falsify apologize
deepen glorify sterilize
lengthen intensify beautify
fatten sympathize
a. apologize
b. beautify
c. lengthening
d. sympathized
e. to fatten
f. falsify/harden
g. memorizing h. Sterilize
7. a. employee b. politician c. participant
d. waitress
e. conductor
f. teacher
g. pianist h. examinee/examiner
8. trans- = across: transcontinental, trans-world
mono- = one: monorail, monoculture
super- = over, above: superstructure, supernatural
auto- = self: autobiography, automobile
sub- = bad, badly: malpractice, malnutrition
mini- = little, small: minicrisis, miniwar
pre- = before: prehistorical, preelection
ex- = former: ex-teacher, ex-filmer
Compounding
1.Why are the criteria by which to differentiate compounds from free phrases? What do you think of these criteria?
The three criteria are(1)stress pattern, that is, stress in a compound falls on the first element but on the second in a free phrase, e.g. '- -(compound), - ' -(free phrase);(2)meaning, that is, the meanings of a compound is usually not the combination of the meaning of the
component parts, but the free phrase is, e.g. hot line(compound: busy line),hot potato(free phrase: potato which is hot);(3)grammatical unity, that is, the different elements form a grammatical unit, which does not allow internal change, e.g. easy chair(compound: a special arm chair),easier chair(free phrase: a less easy chair).
However, every rule has expectations. The same is true of the criteria. Three are examples against each of the three rules.
2. heartbeat [S + V] brainwashing [V + O]
movie-goer [place + V.-er] baking powder [ adv+n.]
far- reaching [Adv+v.-ing] dog-tired [adv + adj]
lion-hearted [adv + n.-ed] love-sick [adv + adj]
boyfriend [S + complement] peace-loving [V +O]
snap decision [V + O] easy chair [ adj+ n]
on-coming [adv+v] tax-free [adv +adj]
light-blue [adj + adj] goings-on [V +adv]
Whereas conversation is the derivation of new words by adding zero affixes, such as single(adj.)→single(v.）.
3.Wh at are the usual methods to form compound words ? Give examples.
There are two ways to form verb compounds. For example, first name (v. from first name) and honeymoon (v. from honeymoon) are words created by means of conversion: words such as proofread (v. from proofreading)and chain-smoke (v. from chain smoker)are formed by means of backformation.
4.well-bred 有教养的well-behaved 守规矩的
culture-bound 含文化的homebound 回家的
needle work 针织品homework 家庭作业
praiseworthy 值得表扬的respectworthy 值得尊敬的
bar-woman 吧女sportswoman 女运动员
nationwide 全国的college-wide 全校的
clear-minded 头脑清晰的strong-minded 意志坚强的
military-style 军事风格的newstyle 新款
self-control 自制self-respect 自尊
budget-related 有预算的politics-related 与政治相关的
water-proof 防水fire-proof 防火
once-fashionable 曾经流行的once-powerful 曾经强大的
news-film 新闻片news-letter 时事通讯
mock-attack 演习mock-sadness 假悲伤
sister-in-law 嫂/弟媳妇father-in-law 岳父/公公
home-baked 自家烤的home-produced 自制的
half-way 半途的/半路的half-done 半生不熟的
ever-lasting 永久的ever-green 常青的
age-conscious 年龄敏感的status-conscious 身份敏感的
campus-based 以校园为基地的market-based 基于市场的
Conversion
1.What is conversion? What do you think of the alternatives functional shift and zero-derivation?
Conversion is the formation of new words by turning words of one part of speech to those of another part of speech, The term functional shift reveals the actual function of conversion, i.e. change of the functions of words .the term zero-derivation approaches
conversion from the perspective of derivation because it is a way of deriving new words by adding zero affixes, hence zero derivation.
2.In what way is conversion different from suffixation?
Although both are called derivation ,suffixation is the derivation of new words by adding suffixes to bases, such as simple (adj.)→simplify（v.)
3 what causes of words are most frequently converted ?
The classes most frequently involved in conversation are nouns and verbs.
4 in what way are verbs converted from nouns semantically related to original nouns and vice versa ?
Verbs converted to nouns usually are related to the original verbs in six different ways. The new nouns converted from verbs refer to （1）state of mind or sensation, e.g .desire(state of desiring); (2) event or activity, e.g. swim (the activity of swimming );(3) result of the action, e.g. buy (the result of buying);(4) doer of the action, e.g. bore (the person whom bores); (5) tool or instrument, e,g, paper (doing something with paper ) and (6) place, e.g. turn(the place of turning).
Nouns converted to verbs are generally related to the original nouns in sever different ways . The new verbs usually mean (1) to put in or on the noun, e. g. peel (to remove the peel from );(4) to do with the noun, e.g. Shoulder (to do something with shoulder); (5) to be or act as the noun, e. g. tutor (to be the tutor) ;(6) to make or change into the noun, e.g. cash (7) to send or go by the noun ,e. g. ship (to send by ship).
5.Explain partial conversion and full conversion with examples
When adjectives are converted into nouns, some are completely changed, thus known as full conversation, and others are partially changed, thus known as partial conversion. Adjectives which are fully converted can achieve a full noun status, i. e. having all the characteristics of nouns. That means they can take a / an shorts, finals. Adjectives which are partially converted still keep adjective features. They should always be used with the, and they cannot take -s/-es to show plural forms. Moreover, the words can have comparative or superlative degrees: the poor, the poorer ,the young, the very unfortunate.
6.What changes are occasionally involved in the process of conversion?
The changes occasionally involved are (1) change of spelling accompanied by pronunciation ,e. G. Life/laIf/→live/liv/ , breat h /bre?/→breathe /bri:?/ and blood /bl?d/→ bleed / bli:d/ ;(2) change of pronunciation and stress ,e. g. use . n /ju :s / → use v. / ju:z / and permit n. /'p :mit/→ v. /p 'mit / and so on.
7.a .stomach [n.→v.] b. Room [n.→ v.] c.wolf [n → v] https://www.360docs.net/doc/3d10693045.html,e/go [v → n] e.familiar [a → n] f.innocent [a → n]g.flat [a → n] h. ah/ ouch [int → v]
i.war m [a → n]j.has-been/might-have-been [finite v → n]k.Hamlet [proper n → v]
l.buy [v → n]m.smooth [a → v]
Blending
motel motor + hotel) 汽车旅馆humint (human + intelligence) 情报advertisetics (advertisement + statistics) 广告统计学psywarrior (psychological warrior) 心理战专家hoverport (hovercraft + port 气垫船码头chunnel (channel + tunnel) 海峡隧道hi-fi (high + fidelity) 高保真音响cinemactress (cinema + actress) 电影演员
Clipping
copter (helicopter) front clipping dorm (dormitory) back clipping lab (laboratory) back clipping
prefab (prefabricated house) phrase clipping gas (gasoline) back clipping prof (professor) back clipping
scope (telescope) front clipping champ (champion) back clipping sarge (sergeant) back clipping
mike (microphone) back clipping ad (advertisement) back clipping tec (detective) ront and back clipping
Acronymy
1.both initialisms and acronyms are formed to a certain extent from initial letters. Is there any difference between them ? Illustrate your point with examples
Yes, there is a difference between them. The difference lies in the formation and pronunciation. Initialisms are formations pronounced letter by letter, e.g. UFO(unidentified flying object), BBC(B ritish B roadcasting C orporation), VIP(very important person) and acronyms are formed to conform to the rule of spelling and pronunciation, that is, the words look and sound like ordinary words, e.g. AIDS/eidz/(acquired immune deficiency syndrome), MAD(mutually assured destruction), radar(radio detecting and ranging).
2.what do the short forms stand for ?
kg =k ilogram ft=f oot cf =c onfer cm=c entimeter $=d ollar ibid = i bide etc. = e t cetera VIP=v ery i mportant p erson OPEC=O rganization of P etroleum E xporting C ountries TOEFL=t est of E nglish as a f oreign l anguage
3. a. SALT b. radar c. AIDS
d. BASIC
e. Laser
f. WHO
g. sonar h. G-man
Backformation
1. Both back-formation and back-clipping are ways of making words by removing the endings of words . How you account for coexistence of the 2 ?can you illustrate the difference ?
It is true that both are means of making new words by removing the end part of the words. But they have differences. For a back-formed word , what is removed is the supposed suffix ,e.g. auth------author , donate------donation , loaf-----loafer , the forms –-or,--ion , --er coincide with the their suffixes . For back clipping , however , what is removed is usually different from the existing suffixes ,e.g. ad------advertisement , gas-------gasoline , exam------examination , etc.
2.Cive the original words from which the following words are back-formed
Lase (laser) escalate(escalator) Babysit (babysitter) peeve (peevish) Orate (orator) commute (commuter)
Communization of proper names
a.Tantalize -------Tantalus : to tease or torment by keeping sth. wanted out of reach
b.b Argus-eyed--------Argus : to be extremely watchful
a.narcissim--------Narcissus : excessive admiration of oneself or one’s appearance
b.sabotage-------Sabots : (1) to destroy or damage deliberately
(2) deliberate damage or destruction
e. martinet--------Martinet : strict /stern (military) trainer
f . yahoo-------Yahoo : a lout or ruffian
g. Shylock--------Shylock: a ruthless money lender
h. hovering-------Hoover: cleaning by using a vacuum cleaner
Key to Chapter 5
1. What is reference ?
Reference is the connection between the word form and what the form refers to in the world. (or: Reference is the relationship between language and the world.)
2. What is concept ?
Concept is a notion or idea, formed in the mind as a result of cognition, which reflects the objective world.
3. What is sense ?
The sense of a word shows its place in a system of semantic relationships with other words in the language. It is often used to substitute meaning.
4.What is motivation? Does this theory contradict the theory of "arbitrariness" and "conventionality' concerning the relationship
between linguistic symbols and their senses ?
Motivation explains the relationship between the linguistic symbol and its meaning, or the logical reason why a certain word has a certain meaning.
As mentioned earlier, the relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary and conventional. Motivation seems to contradict the theory. The answer is “yes and no”. By “yes”, we mean all the mono-morphemic words in a language are non-motivated except a few onomatopoeic words which imitate the natural sounds or noises. By “no”, we mean many multi-morphemic words are motivated, for in many cases the meaning of the whole word is the combination of the morphemes. The morphemic structure explains the meaning.
5. What are the 4 types of motivation? Explain them with examples
The four types of motivation are onomatopoeic motivation, morphological motivation, semantic motivation and etymological motivation. Onomatopoeic motivation explains onomatopoeic words whose meaning is based on the pronunciation of the words such as miaow, thump, peng, etc. ; morphological motivation explains the words whose morphological structure throws light on their meaning, such as profiteer(profit+eer), darkroom(dark+room), deconstruction (de+construct+ion), etc. ; semantic motivation explains the figurative meaning of words whose literal meaning suggests the figurative meaning such as the tongue of fire, the mouth of the river, the face of the earth; etymological motivation explains the words whose meaning is closely related to their origins such as banting(therapy for keeping slim by going on a diet discovered by Doctor Banting) and Brille(language used by the blind created by Brille).
6. apes-gibber birds-sing/twitter cattle-low crickets-chirp doves-coo foxes-yelp
geese-gabble sheep-bleat wolves-howl monkeys-chatter pigs- grunt hyenas-laugh turkeys-gobble swans-cry
7. What is the difference between grammatical meaning and lexical meaning?
Grammatical meaning refers to the part of meaning which shows grammatical relationship such as part of speech of words, plural forms of nouns, tense of verbs, etc. and lexical meaning includes all the rest of the meanings of a word apart from the grammatical meaning, i.e. conceptual meaning and associative meaning.
8. What ar ethe characteristics of conceptual meaning and associative meaning?
Conceptual meaning is fundamental, universal and stable whereas associative meaning is secondary, contextual, open-ended or indeterminate, thus changing.
9. What connotations do you think we word atomic might have for each of the following people ?
a. A scientist working in a project to develop industrial uses for nuclear power might have all the positive associations with atomic, such as “benefit”, “energy”, etc.
b. A Japanese resident of Hiroshima, victim of the atomic explosion at the end of World War Ⅱ, might have all the negative associations with atomic, such as “suffering”, “killing”, “death”, “horror”, et
c.
c. To a student of nuclear physics, atomic might be associated with “mystery”, “science”, “knowledge”, etc.
10. talkative: implying a fondness for talking frequently and at length (neutral)
articulate: expressing oneself easily and clearly (positive)
gossip: indulging in idle talk or rumours about others (negative)
rambling: talking aimlessly without connection of ideas (negative)
fluent: speaking easily, smoothly and expressively (positive)
gabby: inclined to chatter (negative)
mouthy: overtly talkative, especially in a rude way (negative)
11.
No Appreciative Neutral Pejorative
a. particular fastidious/fussy
b. critical fault-finding/picky
c. vogue/style fad
d. artful cunning/sly
e. unstable fickle/capricious
f. developing backward/underdeveloped
g. encourage/promote instigate
h. group clique/gang
12. What are semantic features?
Semantic features are the minimal semantic components of words which are abstracted from the words, These features are used to describe te sense of each words.
13. What are the merits and demerits of componential analysis?
Componential analysis (CA) is useful mainly in three aspects. First, CA reveals the semantic features of the sense of a word and helps one grasp the conceptual meaning of the word. Second, CA can help show the synonymy of two words by giving them both the same components. Third, CA can help tell whether a collocation or syntactic structure is acceptable or not.
However, problems are obvious. First, CA is applicable only to concrete words which have definite referents, but not to abstract words or words expressing abstract ideas or concepts. Second, CA is useful in revealing the conceptual meaning, but helpless in showing the figurative meaning of words.
14. bull [-HUMAN+MALE+ADULT+BOVINE]
cow [-HUMAN-MALE+ADULT+BOVINE]
calf [-HUMAN±MALE-ADULT+BOVINE]
rooster[-HUMAN+MALE+ADULT+GALLINE]
hen [-HUMAN-MALE+ADULT+GALLINE]
chicken[-HUMAN±MALE±ADULT+GALLINE]
Key to Chapter 6
Polysemy
1. What is polysemy ? Polysemy is a sense of relation that deals with words of more than one meaning. It is the result of semantic change.
2. When a word is created ,it is monosemous . Then how does the word acquire its new meanings and become polysemous ? Illustrate your point with examples
Take neck for example. It has five senses：（1）that part of a man or animal joining the head to the body；（2）that part of the garment；（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 narrowest part of anything. Of these five meanings，（1）is the meaning given to the word when it was created and all the rest were derived later in the process of development.
3. What is the fundamental difference between radiation and concatenation?
A word develops its meaning through the process of either radiation or concatenation, and in many cases, of both.
Radiation is a semantic process which shows that the primary meaning and each of the derived meanings are directly connected.
Concatenation is a semantic process which shows that the primary meaning gives birth to a second meaning and this second meaning in turn gives birth to a third meaning and so on. Each of the derived meaning is related only to the previous meaning and there is no direct connection between the primary meaning to the latest developed meaning.
4.The word board developed mainly through the process of concatenation but radiation also performed. It first denoted “a table” and later acquired two very divergent senses. Each of them has given rise to another sense from which the Original notion has
disappeared as illustrated in the diagraph below.
Homonymy
1What are the 3 types of homonyms ? Define each type with examples
Homonyms fall into three types: (1) perfect homonyms. (2) homographs and (3) homophones. Homonyms of type (1) are words with the same spelling and pronunciation, e.g. bank （银行）-----bank(岸) ;words of type (2) are bow/???/（n.弓）---bow/???/(ν.鞠躬);those of type (3) are found /?????/(?.)-- found /?????/(past form of find ), ad/??/--add/??/ and so on.
2. How do homonyms come about? Specify the major sources
English homonyms came about mainly (1) by change in sound and spelling, i.e. words originally different in sound and spelling later coincided in sound and spelling through change (2) by borrowing, i.e. a native word forming homonyms with a borrowed word; (3)by shortening , i.e. a common word forming homonyms with a form shortened from another word.
3.We can distinguish polysemants from homonyms by reference to the source and semantic relatedness. A polysemant has a single source whereas homonyms come from two different sources. A polysemant has different meanings which are related to one another while the meanings of the homonyms are not related at all.
4. (1) Make both ends meat is a parody of make both ends meet which means “have enough money for one’s needs”. Here the butcher cleverly uses the pair of homonyms meat and meet to make a pun. It makes a proper ans wer to the lady’s question.
1) Butchers cannot make both ends meat (make sausages with all meat) because they cannot make both ends meet (If they made sausages with all meat, which is more costly, they would not earn enough money to survive)
2) Don’t compl ain. I am not the only one who is making sausages with bread. All the butchers do the same.
(2) Swallow is a bird who is seen in summer. But by one swallow we see, we cannot deduce that it is already summer time. Swallow can also mean a mouthful of wine. On a cold winter day, if one has a swallow of wine, one may feel warm.
(3) Arms has two meanings: 1) weapons; 2) the human upper limbs. Since “a cannon-ball took off his legs”, the soldier was not able to fight on, so he “laid down his arms”, which means “surrender”. It can also mean he laid down his upper limbs.
Synonymy
1. How do you understand the statement that 'true synonymy is non-existent'?
Synonyms are the same in meaning. As mentioned before, meaning is a composite concept; there are different kinds of meaning. Even absolute synonyms may differ in one or more aspects, for example, one word may be more frequently used than the other such as word-building—word-formation, compounding—composition. The two words of each pair are interchangeable, but some people prefer the first word of the pair and others like the other. In this sense, we can say there is no true synonymy in a natural language.
2. What are the major sources of english synonyms?
Synonyms come from different sources, namely, (1) borrowing, i.e. native words forming synonyms with borrowed words or one foreign word becoming synonymous with another foreign word; (2) figurative and euphemistic use of words, i. e. some words forming synonyms with other words used figuratively or euphemistically, etc.
3. avaricious: greedy courteously: politely emancipate:set free customary: usual Width :breadth adversary: opponent
gullible:deceived remainder: residue innocent: sinless Obstacle ;obstruction Vexation; annoyance
4differentiate the following groups of synonyms
a. cautious: implying a careful guard against possible dangers or risks
careful: paying close attention so as to guard against error, injury etc .
shrewd: showing good judgment gained from practical experience (not synonymous with the other two) b: calm free from excitement or nervous activity or strong felling
peaceful: quite and calm
serene: completely calm and peaceful
c. decline: implying a polite denial
refuse: a more direct, even blunt term implying an emphatic denial
object: feel or show opposition or disapproval ( not synonymous with the other two)
d. postpone: arrange for an event to take place for a later time
adjourn (often passive) stop a meeting or a official process for a period of time, especially in a court of law delay: put off to a later time, interchangeable with postpone
e. powerful :( of people) able to control or influence people or event
influential: having a lot of influence on sb or sth
f. boy: a male child or young male person
youth: (often derogatory)a young man ;a young people ,male or female
lad: (old fashioned or informal)a boy or a young man
g. bachelor；a man who has never married
widower: a man whose wife has died and not married again
man: an adult man
h. zealous: ( formal, usually imperative) showing great energy and enthusiasm
eager: felling or showing great desire; keen
enthusiastic: showing lively interest
i. fear: anxiety or distress caused by the awareness of danger or expectation of pain
horror: great fear or disgust
panic: a sudden feeling of great fear
j. summary: a short account outlining the main points
précis: (French borrowing) a summary
digest: a summary or shortened version; a collection of short reports
k. abuse: rude or insulting words said to or about sb; bad or cruel treatment
insult: a rude or offensive remark
slander: a false statement intended to damage sb.
l. amend: make changes in a rule or law
rectify: (formal) put right something that is wrong
correct: make sth. right by changing it or removing mistakes; (of a teacher) mark the mistakes in a piece of work to give a mark or grade
5. a. identifiable b. safety c. motivates d. delicate e. surroundings f. artificial g. prestige h. perspire i.
accomplishment j. silent
k. impressive l. evaporate
6. run move spin turn whirl roll
7. a. steed b. gee-gee c. ripe d. mature e. effective f. efficient
g. fatigued; children h. tired; kids i. declined j. refused
k. rancid l. addled m. Penalties n. fines o. rebuked p. accused
Antonymy
1. What is meant by antonymy?
Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. And antonyms are words opposite in meanings.
2. What are the characteristics of each of the 3 types of antonyms ,complementaries , contraries , converses ?
These antonyms represent true oppositeness of meaning: complementaries, contraries, converses. (1) Complementaries are non—gradable and mutually exclusive, and allow no possibility in between and the assertion of one is the denial of the other,
e.g. alive—dead, true—false.(2) Contraries are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other, e.g. old—young, far—near. (3) Conserves are relational opposites, showing social relation, e.g. employer—employee; reciprocal relation, e.g. teacher—student, and spatial relation, e.g. above—blow.
3. Can you illustrate semantic inclusion among antonyms
Semantic inclusion refers to some pairs of antonyms, in which one word include the meaning of the other. Take man—woman, big –small for example:
(1) There is no man on the island.(implying no people at all including woman)
(2) There is no woman on the island.(implying all the people are men)
(3)How big is the stone?(the stone can be very small)
(4)How small is the stone?(the stone can not be big )
In examples (1) and (2), man include the meaning of woman; in (3) and (4), big covers the meaning of small.
4.Why can a word have more than one antonyms ? Give examples
Whether a word has antonyms or not depends on the senses of it. If the word has more than one sense, it may have over one antonym. Take clear for example:
clear answer → confusing/ambiguous clear mind → muddled
clear plas tic bag → opaque clear water → dirty clear conscience → guilty
5. a. similar/same b. Safe c. sharp/smart d. send e. stingy/selfish f. significant/sensible g. skeptical/suspicious h. simple
i. sure j. slipshod / slovenly/ sloppy k. sleepless/sleep/slumber l. Smooth m. subjective n. sob/scowl
6 a. old-fashioned b. Completely c. moisture d. Special
e. essential
f. Similarity
g. innocent
h. Rigid
i. loosen
j. clarity
k. deserted l. Fruitful m. peremptory n. depressed
7 a. feed—starve; cold—fever b. wisdom—follies c. haste—leisure d. penny—pound; wise—foolish
e. speech—silence
f. absence—presence
g. admonish—praise; private—public
h. young—old; saint—devil
i. wise men—fools j. mind—body k. foul—fair l. danger—security
m. deliberate—prompt n. children—parents o. bully—coward p. head—tail
8. right—wrong single—return dry—sweet hard—easy strong—faint rough—calm light—dark cold—warm high—low/deep Hyponymy
1.What is hyponymy ?
Hyponymy deals with relationship of semantic inclusion. The meaning of a more specific word is that of another more general word, e.g. rose is the hyponymy of flowers, and cat is the hyponym of animal. Rose and cat are specific words. They are included in flower and animals, which are general terms.
2.What is the difference between superordinates and subordinates?
Superordinates are general terms and subordinates are specific words and superordinates include specific words in concept.
Accordingly, flower and animal are superordinates and rose and cat are subordinates.
3.superordinate subordinate
furniture desk, chair, table, bed
matter liquid, gas, solid
meat pork, beef, mutton
go run, fly, walk
4. profession workplace
surgeon clinic, hospital
plumber houses, buildings
lawyer office, law courts
mechanic garage
photographer studio
foreman worksite, factory
5.
6. Comment on the following 2 pairs of sentences in terms of superordinates and subordinates
In the first pair, got, furniture, recently in sentence (a) are superordinates because they are general and convey a very vague idea whereas in sentence (b), the threes words are replaced respectively by bought, cupboard, three days ago, which are subordinates, conveying a definite and clear idea. So sentence (b) is better than sentence (a).
In the second pair, it is said, magnificent building, destroyed, yesterday in sentence (a) is superordinate terms, which are comparatively much more general than the news days,Royal Hotel, burnt down, last night respective in sentence (b), which can be described as subordinates. Since sentence (b) is clearer than sentence (a) in meaning, it is better.
Semantic field
1. What is semantic field ?
Semantic fields refer to sets of words are semantically related. Take the semantic field
f “fruits” for example in which apple, pear, peach, apricot, date, mango, pineapple, orange, lemon, etc. are semantically related.
2.is field theory in any way helpful in language learning?
The meaning of a word does not exit in the world itself, but spreads over the neighbouring words, because the neighbouring words identify the semantic field and help pin down the meaning. For example, orange doesn't mean anything until we put it in a particular field. In the set orange, red, yellow, orange is a kind of colour; in the set orange, pear, peach, orange is kind of fruit; in the set orange, coke, pepsi, sprite, it is a kind of drink.
3. Group 1 is a synonymously semantic field and Group 2 is a semantic field. The difference lies: In Group 1 the words are synonyms, none of them covers the meaning of another, and they differ only in style and emotive values. In Group 2 the words are not synonyms, but each refers to a specific type of horse. Horse is a cover term or superordinate, others are subordinates. These terms have no difference in style or affective meaning.