英文专业词汇学考试复习资料

Chapter 1 The Basic Con cepts of Words and Vocabulary1、The Definition of a WordLexicology 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, meaningand syntactic function （句法功能）.2、VocabularyAll the words in a Ian guage make up what is gen erally known as its vocabulary.3、Sound and MeaningThe relati on ship betwee n sound and meaning is no logic4、Sound and FormThere 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 Words6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 ntIan guages, the same con cept can be show n by differe nt soun ds. Woma n ”，forexample, 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 inEnglish. 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 andfunctional words by notion; native words and borrowed words by origin; simple words, compounds 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 tothe En glish Ian guage. But alie ns are borrowed words which have reta ined their originalpronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognizable as foreign in origi n.Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary1、The Indo-European Language FamilyThe 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 English period.The most important fact of the Middle English period was the steady erosion of the in flecti onalsystems 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 andRoman classicsIt 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 VocabularyIn 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 ntModer 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 to60000 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 flectedIanguage. It was a synthetic language （综合性语言）.（Modern English is an analyticChapter 3 Morphological Structure of En glish Words1、MorphemesThe mini mal meaningful un its in En glish are known as morphemes （词素）、3、Morphs （形素）Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs.4、Allomorphs （词素变体）An allomorph refers to a member of a set of morphs, which represe nt one morpheme.A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss ofide ntity.7、简答（1 ）、What is the differenee between free morphemes and bound morphemes?Free morphemes which have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences are independent of other morphemes, but boundmorphemes which cannot occur as separate. Words are bound to other morphemes to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function.（2）、What is the differenee between derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes? Derivati onal morphemes are used to derive new words, but in flecti onal morphemes are employed used to indicate the syn tactic （句法）relati on ship betwee n words and function as grammatical markers. Chapter 4 Word FormatioThe most productive ways of creat ing new words are affixation, compo unding, and con vers ion.1、AffixationAccord ing to the positi on:The words created by addi ng word forming or derivati onal affixes to bases are called derivatives.2、Compounding （复合法）Example: workfare（work+welfare）In adjective-plus-noun compo un ds, the adjective eleme nt cannot take in flecti onal suffixes. Verb compo unds are created either though con versi on or through back-formation.3、Con version （转类法）The con vers ion that takes place between nouns and verbs is the most productive.The con vers ion of two syllable nouns into verbs in volves a cha nge of stress. Nouns fully con verted from adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns.4、Blending （拼缀法）The overwhel ming majority of ble nds are nouns5、Back-formation （逆身法）Back-formati on is con sidered to be the opposite process of suffixation.6简答（1 ）、What is the main differenee between prefixes and suffixes?Un like prefixes which primarily effect a sema ntic modificati on of the base, suffixes have only asmall semantic role, their primary function being to changes th _ grammatical function of a base, i.e.the change of the word class with a slight modification of meaning.（2 ）、What are the three main features of compounds?The three main features of compo unds are phono logical features, sema ntic features andgrammatical features. The word stress of a compo und usually occurs on the first eleme nt. Eachcompound should express a single idea just as one word. A compound tends to play a singlegrammatical role in a sentence（3 ）、What is back-formation? What are the characteristics of back-formation?Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. Words created through back-formation are verbs. Stylistically, back-formed words are largely in formal and some of them have not successfully gained curre ncy.(4)、What is aeronymy? What is the differenee between initialisms and aernyms?Acronymy is the process of formi ng new words by joining the in itial letters of composite names of social and political organizations or phrases used as technical terms. Words formed in this way are called initialisms or acronyms. Initialisms are pronounced letter by letter, but acronyms arepronounced as no rmal words7、论述题1、Medicare ”and sitcom” are blends. Medicare ”is formed by combining the head of _ medical'and the word care”,and sitcom ” is formed by combining the head of situation ” and that of comdey'.2、"Memo”and flu”are clipped words. Memo”is formed by clipping the lack ofmemora ndum" a nd flu ” is formed clippi ng the front and lack of ihflue nza ”.3、"TB ”and NATO ” are new words created through acronymy. TB ”from tuberculosis ” is an initialism,while NATO ” from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization_” is an acronym.Chapter 5 Word Meaning and Comp onen tial An alysis（成份分析法）1、RefereneeWords are but symbols, many of which have meaning on ly whe n they have acquired reference.2、Coneept （概念）Meaning and con cept are closely conn ected but not identical.Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the huma n mind.3、SenseUn like refere nee, sense deno tes the relati on ships in side the Ian guage.4、Motivation （理据）(1 )、What is referenee? What are the characteristics of referenee?Refere nee is the relati on ship betwee n Ian guage and the world. By means of reference, a speakerindicates which things in the world are being talked about. The reference of a word to a thing outside the Ian guage is arbitrary a nd conventional. Although reference is a kind of abstract ion, yet with the help ofcontext, it can refer to someth ing defi nite.(2 )、What is conceptual meaning? What are the characteristics of conceptual meaning?Con ceptual meaning known as cog nitive, deno tative, or desig native is the meaning give n in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. Being constant and relatively stable, con ceptual meaning forms the basis for com muni cati on as The same word gen erally has the same con ceptual mea ning to all the speakers of the same speech com mun ity. (la nguage).(3) 、What is the differenee between conceptual meaning and associative meaning?Conceptual meaning known as cog nitive, denotative, or desig native is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. But Associative meaning is the sec on dary meaning suppleme nted to the con ceptual meaning. It differs from the con ceptual meaning because it is ope n-en ded and in determ in ate, liable to the in flue nee of such factors as culture, experienee, religion, geographical region, class background, educati on, etc..(4) 、What is collocative meaning? What are the characteristics of collocative meaning?Collocative meaning is that part of the word meaning suggested by the words with which it co-occurs. It is aga in no ticeable that collocative meaning overlaps with conno tative and affective meaning because in a sense both connotative and affective meanings are revealed by virtue of collocatio ns or con textuality.Chapter 6 Sense Relations（语义关系）The first meaning of a word is called primary meaning. Later meanings are called derived meaningsThe meaning of a more specific word is in elude in that of ano ther more gen eral word.简答What is the differe nee betwee n radiati on and con cate nati on （连锁型）？Un like radiati on where each of the derived meanings is directly conn ected to the primary meaning, con cate nati on describes a process where each of the later meanings is related only to the precedi ng one like cha ins.Chapter 7 Chan ges in Word MeaningThe vocabulary is the most unstable element of a Ianguage as it is undergoing constant changes both in the sig n-shapes and sig n conten ts.1、Types of Change2、Causes of Change3、简答（1 ）、What is semantic transfer? What are the four main types of transfer?Some words which were used to desig nate/i ndicate one thi ng but later cha nged to mea nsometh ing else have experie need the process of sema ntic tran sfer. The four main types of transfer are the associated transfer, the transfer between abstract and concrete mea nin gs, the tran sfer betwee n subjective and objective mea nings and the syn esthesim.（2）、What are the two factors causing changes in meanings? How are they classified?The two major factors that cause cha nges in meaning are the extra-li nguistic factors and the linguistic factors. The extra-linguistic factors include the historic reason, the class reason and the psychologicalreason. The linguistic factors include shortening, borrowing and analogy.（类比）Chapter 8 Mea ning and Con text (语境)1、Types of Con textWithout context, there is no way to determine the meaning that the speaker intends to convey.When we talk about con text, we usually think of ling uistic con text, hardly aware of the non-li nguistic con text.2、The Role of Con textAmbiguity often arises due to polysemy, homonymy and grammatical structure. When a word with multiple meanings is employed in in adequate con text, it creates ambiguity.3、简答(1 )、what is the differe nee betwee n lin guistic con text and extra-li nguistic con text?Lin guistic refers to the words, clauses, senten ces in which a word appears and it is known as lin guisticcon text or co-text may exte nd to embrace a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the en tire book. Butextra-li nguistic or non-li nguistic con text refers to the participa nts, time, place, and eve n the whole cultural backgro und(2 )、What is the differe nee betwee n lexical con text and grammatical con text?Lexical con text refers to the words that co-occur with the word in questi on. The meaning of the word is ofte n affected and defi ned by the n eighbouri ng words. But grammatical con text refers to the structure which may in flue nee the mea ning of a polysema nt.4、论述题Read the sentence carefully. If you find any thi ng in appropriate, expla in the reas ons and the n improve the senten ce.a. He is a hard bus in essma n.Joh n ran the egg and spo on race.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by polysemy.2、The word hard”n this sentence can be understood as hardworking ” or difficult ”. The con text fails to narrow dow n the meaning so that it is difficult for the reader to decide what exactly the speaker means.3、The ambiguity can be elimi nated by alteri ng the con text a little. There would be no misun dersta nding ofthe origi nal sentence if it is expa nded as He is a hardbusin essma n to deal with ”，or He is a hard bus in essma n and he is often praised by hisemployer ”.(participated or organized John ran the egg and spoon race and got second place. orJoh n ran the egg and spo on race and gain a larger nu mber of mon ey.)b. They saw her duck.The ball was attractive.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by homonymy.2、The word ball ”n this sentence can be understood as a noun, which refer to “oundobject to play in a game ” or a dancing party ” .The con text fails to n arrow dow n the meaning so that it is difficult for the reader to decide what exactly the speaker means.3、The ambiguity can be elimi nated by alteri ng the con text a little. It is clear if it isexpanded as The ball was attractive with nice music and a lot of peoples ”,or The ball made of leather of different colors was attractive ”.(kind of poultry or verb meaning "lower one's head or body quickly, dodge” They saw her duck or swim ming in the river or They saw her duck her body.)c、The fish is ready to eat.I like Mary better tha n Jea n.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by in adequate grammaticalstructure..2、The sentence has two different interpretations. It may mean "the fish is cooked orserved, so ready for people to eat or a the fish is ready to eat things ".The con text fails to narrow down the meaning so that it is difficult for the reader to decide what exactly the speaker means.3、The sentence can be improved as How nice the fish smell! The fish is ready to eat. ” orThe fish is ready to eat thin gs.(I like Mary better than I like Jean or I like Mary better than Jean likes MaryI like Mary better than Jean does. or I like Mary better than I do Jean.)Chapter 9 En glish Idioms1、Characteristics of Idioms2、Classification of Idioms3、Stylistic Features （文体特征）Stylistically, idioms are gen erally felt to be in formal and some are colloquialisms （口语体）and slang.4、Rhetorical Features4、简答（1 ）、What are the characteristics of English idioms?The two mai n characteristics of En glish idioms are sema ntic un ity and structural stability. Idioms eachcon sist of at least two or more con stitue nts, but each is a semantic unity. The structure of an idiom is to alarge exte nd invariable.（2）、What are the rhetorical features of English idioms?The rhetorical features of English idioms include the phonetic manipulation, the lexical manipulation and thesemantic manipulation. The phonetic manipulation includes alliteration and rhyme （叠韵）.The lexicalmanipulation includes reiteration, repletion and juxtaposition. The semantic manipulation includes（Figures of speech） Simile, Metaphor, Metonymy, Syn ecdoche, Personi ficati on, Euphemism.Chapter 10 En glish Dictio naries1、Types of Dictionaries2、The main body of a dictionary is its definitions of words.3、Dictionaries（1 ）、Lon gma n Dictionary of Con temporary En glish-E nglish-Ch in ese（LDCE《朗文高级当代英语词典英汉双解》）Features: Clear Grammar Codes, Usage Notes, Lan guage Notes, New words（2 ）、Colli ns COBUILD En glish Dictio nary（CCED《柯林斯COBUILD英语词典》）Features: Defin iti on. Extra Column, Freque ncy Marker, Pragmatics （词语用法说明）4、British or AmericanAmerica n dict ion aries contain more encyclopaedic informati on in the main body tha n British one whereas British dictionaries, especially learner in formati on.s dictiongytammarttaailce more5、简答What is a dictio nary? What is the relati on ship betwee n a dictio nary andlexicology?A dictionary is a book which presents in alphabetical order the words of English, with information as to theirspelling, pronunciation, meaning, usage, rules of grammar, and in some, their etymology. It is closely related to lexicology because both deal with the same problems: the form, meaning, usage and origins of vocabulary un its.。