词汇学总结

Ⅰ。What is lexicology?The study of words/lexical com ponents of a language.

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, developm ent, structure, formation, m eaning and usage. Generally speaking, linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of language. To be m ore exact, linguistics studies the general principles upon which languages are constructed and operate as system s of human communication

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for hum an communication.

the definition of a word com prises the following points:A minimal free form of a language A sound unity A unit of m eaning A form that can function alone in a sentence

A word is a m inimal free form of a language that has a given sound, m eaning and syntactic function What is vocabulary①The total number of the words in a language. ②All the words used in a particular historical period③.All the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an individual person.

①．5 basic features of the basic word stock All national character 全民性Stability 稳定性Productivity 能产性 Polysem y 多义性Collocability 搭配能力强

Non-basic vocabulary includes the following:

Terminology 专业术语technical term s （formal）

Jargon 行话specialized vocabulary in certain professions

Slang 俚语substandard words often used in informal occasions (colloquial)

Argot 隐语words used by sub-cultured groups (inform al)

Dialectal words 方言词only by speakers of the dialect (inform al)

Archaisms 古语词words no longer in comm on use or restricted (formal)

Neologism s 新词语newly created words with new m eaning (form al)

②Content words/Notional words/full words/lexical words Constitute the m ain body of the English vocabulary, num erous and the number is ever growing

Functional words/ Grammatical words Constitute a very sm all number of the vocabulary; stable

③Native words / Angle-Saxon words Native words are not native in fact but words brought to Britain in the fifth century by the Germ an tribes: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, thus known as Anglo-Saxon words.Native words are sm all in num ber, but form the m ainstream of the basic word stock. What is true of the basic word stock is also true of the native words. Besides they are also (1) neutral in style, (2) frequent in use.

Borrowed words/ loan words / borrowings Denizens 同化词Aliens 非同化词

Translation-loans 译借词Sem antic loans 语义借词

Ⅱ。/General Characteristics

1 Receptivity, adaptability and heterogeneity感受性适应性异质性

2 Sim plicity of inflection:简单变形Old English is a synthetic language人工语言

Modern English is an analytic language分析性语言

3 Relatively fixed word-order相对固定的词序

Foreign Elem ents in the English Vocabulary The m ajor contributors to English are Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavian.

Growth of Contem porary English Vocabulary

Marked progress of science and technology

Socio-econom ic, political and cultural changes