英文专业词汇学考试复习资料

Chapter 1 The Basic Con cepts of Words and Vocabulary

1、The Definition of a Word

Lexicology focuses on the study of meanings and origins of words.

According to semanticists （语义学家），a word is a unit of meaning.

A word is a min imal （最小的）free form of a Ian guage that has a give n sound, meaning

and syntactic function （句法功能）.

2、Vocabulary

All the words in a Ian guage make up what is gen erally known as its vocabulary.

3、Sound and Meaning

The relati on ship betwee n sound and meaning is no logic

4、Sound and Form

There was more agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English. With the developme nt of the Ian guage, more and more differe nces arose betwee n sound and form. 5、Classificati on of Words

6简答

（1 ）、What is the relationship between sound and meaning? Give examples to illustrate it. The relati on ship betwee n sound and meaning is arbitrary and conventional. In differe nt

Ian guages, the same con cept can be show n by differe nt soun ds. Woma n ”，for

example, becomes Frau" i n Germa n, Femme" in French and fu nv "in Chin ese. On the other hand, the same sound [mi:t] is used to mean meet, meat, mete", denoting different thi ngs.

(2) 、What are the four major reasons for the differences between sound and form?

The first reas on (he internal reas on) is that there are more pho nemes (音素)tha n letters in

English. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spell ing over the years. The third reas ons that some of the differe nces more created by the early scribes.

The fourth reas on is the borrow ing.

(3) 、How are words classified in the course book?

Words can be classified by differe nt criteria and for differe nt purposes. Words may fall in to:

the basic word stock and non basic vocabulary by use freque ncy; content words and

functional words by notion; native words and borrowed words by origin; simple words, compo

unds and derived words by morphology.

(4) 、What is the differenee between denizensand aliens?

Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated (完全同化) in to

the En glish Ian guage. But alie ns are borrowed words which have reta ined their original

pronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognizable as foreign in origi n.

Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary

1、The Indo-European Language Family

The prehistoric In do-Europea n pare nt Ian guage, thought to be a highly inflected （内部曲折

语）Ianguage.

、

The first peoples who in habited the land were Celts.

The sec ond Ian guage known in En glish was Latin of the Roma n Legi ons.

（1 ）、Old English （450-1150）

In the 9th century England was invaded by Norwegian and Danish Vikings.

（2 ）、Middle English （1150-1500）

The French in flue nee on En glish vocabulary was one of the sig ni fica nt points of the Middle En

glish period.

The most important fact of the Middle English period was the steady erosion of the in flecti onal

systems of Old En glish.

（3）、Modern English （1500-present）

In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient Greek and

Roman classics

It is estimated that about one fourth of moder n En glish vocabulary has come from French.

3、Foreig n Eleme nts in the En glish Vocabulary

In earlier stages of En glish, Lat in. Greek. French and Scandin avian were the four major con tributors.

The simulta neous existe nee of Fren ch, Lati n and En glish lasted for a century.

4、Modes of Vocabulary Developme nt

Moder n En glish vocabulary develops through three cha nn els: creation, semantic change （旧词新义）and borrow ing.

Creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.

5、简答

What are the characteristics of Old En glish?

Old English also known as the Anglo-Saxon, has a vocabulary of about 50000 to

60000 words, which are almost monogen eous and en tirely Germa nic with only a few borrow ings from Lati n and Scandin avia n. Old En glish was a highly in flected

Ianguage. It was a synthetic language （综合性语言）.（Modern English is an analytic