词汇学知识点总结

LanguageLanguage is a system of symbol based on physiology, psychology, and physics. It’s a special social action and a carrier of information used for human communication in a society.The relationship between Language, Society, and Thought: 1. any language reflects the culture of the society in a particular period. Therefore language is the mirror reflecting the culture of a society. 2. Language is a product of society. Language is inseparable from human society. 3. Language is used as a means of communication in a society. Outside society there is no language. 4. Society depends upon language for its existence. For example, there are many words connected with carriage. Buggy, a light one-horse carriage with two wheels. Coach, a large closed four-wheel horse-drawn carriage. 5. moreover, man’s thought is indispensable to language just as language is indispensable from society. We know that language is used to express man’s thought. The process of thinking is closely connected with language. That is to say, without thinking, there would be no human language. 6. language serves society as a means of intercourse between people.Linguistics is the scientific study of language.The scope of linguistics include phonology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, philology, lexicology, stylistics, general linguistics, descriptive linguistics……Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, history, structure, meaning, and application.Aim of English Lexicology is to give a systematic description of the English vocabulary. It offers students an insight into the origin and development of the English vocabulary.The significance of English Lexicology: help the learners to enlarge their vocabulary and improve their ability to analyze and use the words.Two approaches to the study of English Lexicology: synchronic and diachronic. Synchronic means describing a language as it exists at one period of time. Diachronic means concerned with the historical development of a language. For example: January, February, march, synchronically, they are the words of the months of one year. Diachronically, they are all borrowed words. Synchronically, we consider words like eventful, talkative as derivatives. Diachronically, they are hybrids, that is, words that are made of two parts, each from a different language.Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words and their meanings.Significance: 1.to provides background information and knowledge about the history, origin and development of the English language. 2. To increase the learner’s enjoyment and real understanding of English words from their changes of forms including their spelling and pronunciation to that of meanings. English is classified as a Teutonic language, that is, a Germanic language. English belongs to the Low West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family.Division of the history of the English language: 1. the period from 450 to 1150 is known as the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period. It’s described as the period of full inflection. 2. The period from 1150 to 1500 is known as the Middle English period, also as the period of leveled inflections. 3. The period from 1500 to the present day is called the Modern English period, also as the period of lost inflection.There are two classes of language in the world: synthetic and analytic. A synthetic language is one which shows the relation of word in a sentence largely by means of inflection. An analytic language is one which indicates the relation of words in a sentence by means of word order, preposition or auxiliary verbs, rather than by inflection. Old English the a synthetic language, while Modern English is an analytic language. Modern English can be divided into two parts: the early Modern English period and the Late Modern English period. Dean Swift was a conservative and he opposed the tendency to shorten words, such as ad(advertisement), bus (business). The publication in 1755 of a Dictionary of the English Language edited by Samuel Johnson was a typical example of consolidating and purifying the English language. Etymological Twins: at the beginning of formation of words they are similar not only in form but also in meanings. For example: human and humane, urban and urbane, german and germane.The English vocabulary can be divided into two groups according to its origin: native words and borrowed words. The native words are the foundation and the core of the English language. Borrowed words or loan-words or adapted words are words taken from foreign languages. Latin, Greek and French are the three languages that have contributed most the English language.Four groups of borrowed words: 1. Aliens: borrowed without change,(automobile, coup d’etat, rlite ). 2. Denizens: borrowed with a transformation of the foreign sound and spelling. (egg give skin take, poorness,eventful). 3. Translation-loans: borrowed form foreign language by means of translation. (black humor from humor noir) 4. Semantic borrowings: acquiring a new meaning. (gift, the four modernization, three represents.).Latin abbreviations: a.m./cf./e.g./i.e./p.m./What’s the interrelation between the native and foreign elements in the English vocabulary?In spite of the large-scale borrowings, it’s the native words that form the basic stock of Modern English vocabulary. Although the actual number of native words is much smaller than the number of loan-words in the English vocabulary, native words are used in everyday speech and writing more frequently than borrowed words. In the course of historical development borrowed words have extended the total number of the English vocabulary, and Latin or Greek roots, prefixes or suffixes have changed the structures of English words.Saussure is the Swiss linguist who pointed out that a sign consists of a signifier(能指) and a signified（所指）, that is, a sound image and a concept. According to Ogden &Richards, the symbol is the linguistic element, that is, the word, sentence, etc. and the reference is the object. While the shought or reference is concept. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined “words are the smallest significant units of speech.” According to Leonard Bloomflield’s point of view, a word is a minimum free form, that is to say, the smallest form that may appear in isolation.Motivation is the relationship between the structure of a word and its meaning. three motivation of the word-structure:1. phonetic motivation 2. grammatical motivation 3. motivation by meaning. Classification of words: 1. there are two kinds of words classified according to their lexical meaning and grammatical function: full words (实词) and form words(虚词). 2. according to their usage: popular words and learned words. Most of learned words are of foreign origin. But some popular words are also of foreign origin. 3. according to their character: abstract words and concrete words. 4. according to motivation: transparent or motivated words and opaque or non-motivated words. 5. according to polysemy and monosemy: polysemic words and monosemic words. 6. according to the origin: native words and loan-words.。