英语专业-英语词汇学-笔记

1.What is polysemy?

Having multiple meanings that are related.

2.What are the two different ways of organising polysemous words?

Explain them

1)The diachronic approach begins with the primary meaning and

then arrange the other meanings (derived meanings) in the order

in which they developed.

2)The synchronic approach begins with the most popular meaning

(central meaning) and then arrange the other meanings

(marginal meanings) in order of popularity.

3.What are the two different ways in which polysemy develops? Explain

them

1)Radiation. Secondary meanings are independent from one

another and are derived directly from the primary meaning.

2)Concatenation. Secondary meanings are connected and derive

from primary meaning through successive shifts of meaning from

one secondary meaning to another.

4.What is homonymy?

Homonyms are works different in meaning but either identical both in sound or spelling or identical only in sound or spelling.

5.Give an example of a perfect homonym, a homophone and a

homograph

1)perfect homonym 同音同形date日期/date红枣

2)homophone 同音异形Knew/new, meet/meat

3)homograph 异音同形record(v.)/record(n.)

6.Give an example of the rhetorical use of homonymy

Hi Jack （你好杰克）– hijack（打劫）

7.What is the difference between polysemy and homonymy? Give an

example to illustrate the difference

1)Polysemy is about connection of meanings. Book can mean a

book as in “I read a book”, and “I book a hotel room”. The

second meaning is related to the first one because in the past

hotel staff will write the customers’ information on a book when

reserving a room.

2)homonymy is about form. Lie can mean not being honest or

being in a horizontal position. These two meanings have the

same form but no connection.

8.Classify the following pairs of antonyms into complementaries

(binaries), contraries (gradable) or converses (relational). Explain why

1)Good/bad, contraries

2)odd/even, complementaries

3)above/below, converses

4)clean/dirty, contraries

5)remember/forget, complementaries?

6)old/young, contraries

7)before/after, converses

9.What is hyponymy? Give an example

The meaning of a more specific word is included in that of a more general word.

例Flower is the superordinate term, rose is the subordinate term. 10.What is synonymy?

Synonyms are words different in sound and spelling but nearly or exactly alike in essential meaning.

11.What is the difference between absolute and near (relative)

synonyms?

1)Absolute synonyms – interchangeable in every way

2)Near synonyms – similar in denotation but have different shades

of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.

12.What are some of the reasons why synonyms exist?

1)Borrowing from other languages

2)Dialects and regional English

3)Figurative and euphemistic use of words

4)Coincidence with idiomatic expressions

13.What are some of the factors that discriminate between relative

synonyms? Use examples