《英语词汇学》复习资料.docx

大家请注意：笔记中大多数是以名词解释的形式出现的，这些是绝对的基础，应该一字不漏的背下来。其实不少简答题也就是几个定义的汇总，再加上个例子就可以拿满分了。区分两个词的区别，主要还是指明其各自的定义。

第一早

1.Word ----- A word is a minimal free form of a Ianguage that has a given sound

and meaning and syntactic function.

2.There is no logical relationship between sound and meaning as the symbolic connection between them is arbitrary and conventional. E> g. “woman” means ' Frau" in German, ' Femme" in French and ' Funv ' in Chinese. On the other hand, the same sound /rait/ can mean right, rite and write, though denoting different things, yet have the same sound?

3.The difference between sound and form result from 4 major factors.

(At least 80%of the English words fit consistent spelling patterns)

a)? the internal reason is English alphabet does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the lamguage?

b)? Pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling

c)? Influence of the work of scribes/printing freezes the spelling of words in 1500

d)? Borrowing of foreign language

4.Vocabulary ------- V ocabulary is most commonly used to refer to the sum total

of all the words of a language? It can also refer to all the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given subject and all the words possessed by an individual person as well as all the words current in a particular period of time in history?

The general estimate of the present day English vocabulary is over 1 million words?

5.Classification of Words—by use frequency, by notion, by origin

1)? Basic word stock - the foundation of the vocabulary.

1.all national character (most important) - natural phenomena

most common things and phenomena of the human body and relations

world around us names of plants and animals

action, size, domain, state

numerals, pronouns, prep. , conj.

2.stability - they donate the commonest thing necessary to life, they are like to remain unchanged. Only relative, some are undergoing some changes. But the change is slow?

e. g. arrow, bow, chariot, knight - past

electricity, machine, car, plane ------------ now

3.productivity - they are mostly root words or monosyllabic words, they can form new words with other roots and affixes?

e. g. foot - football, footage, footpath, footer

4.polysemy - often possess more than one meaning. Become polysemous.

e. g. take to move or carry from one place to another

to remove

5.collocability - quite a number of set expressions, idiomatic usages, proverbial saying and others

e. g. heart - a change of heart, a heart of gold

Non-basic vocabulary -------

1.terminology - technical terms

photoscanning，hepatitis, indigestion, penici11 in，algebra, trigonometry, calculus

2.jargon 一specialized vocabulary in ceria in professions?

Bottom line, ballpark figures, bargaining chips, hold him back, hold him in, parano id

3.slang ----- substandard words often used in informal occasions

dough and bread, grass and pot, beaver, smoky, bear, catch, holler, Roger, X-rays,

Certain words are labeled slang because of their usage?

4.argot - words used by sub-cultured groups

can-opener, dip, persuader

cant, jargon , argot are associated with, or most available to, specific groups of the population.

5.dialectal words - only by speakers of the dialect

beauty, chook, cocky, station, auld, build, coo, hame, lough, bog

6? archaisms - words no longer in common use or restricted in use. In older poems,

legal document and religious writing or speech.

7.neologism - newly created words with new meaning e. g. microelectronics, futurology, AIDS, internet, E-mail

old meaning acquired new meaning e. g. mouse, monitor

2)? Content word (notional word) - denote clear notions.

Functional word (empty word, form word) - do not have notions of their own, express the relation between notions, words and sentences?

a.Content words constitute the main body of the English vocabulary are numerous.

Functional words are in a smal1 number.

b.Content words are growing.

Functional words remain stable?

c.Functional words do far more work of expression than content words.

3)? Native words - are words brought to Britain in the 15 contury by the German tribes. Ango-Saxon Words, 50, 000-60, 000

What is true of the basic word stock is also true of native world? More are

1.neutral in style (not stylistical specific )

2. 2.frequent in use (in academic fields and scienee French, Latin or Greek are used) (usage 70-90%)

Borrowed words (loan words, borrowing) - words taken over from foreign language- 80% According to the degree of assimilation and mariner of borrowing, we can bring the loan words under 4 classes.

1.Denizens - words borrowed early and now are well assimilated into English language-

e?g? port from portus (L) shift, change, shirt, pork

cup from cuppa (L)

2?Aliens - retained their original pronunciation and spelling

e. g. decor(F) blitzkreeg(G) emir, intermez, rowtow, bazaar, rajar, status quo

3.t ranslation loans - formed from the existing material in the English language but modeled on the patterns taken from another language.

1)? Word translated according to the meaning

e. g. mother tough from lingua maternal (L)

black humor from humor noir

long time no see, surplus value, master piece

2)? Words translated according to the sound

e. g. kulak from kyrak (Russ)

1ama from lama (Tib)

ketchup

tea

4.Seniantic loans - their meaning are borrowed from another language

e? g? stupid old dump

new sassy

dream old joy and peace

pioneer old explorer/person doing pioneering work

new a member of the young pioneer

fresh old importinent, sassy, cheeky

第二章

Indo-European language family (Europe, the Near East, India)

Bal to - Slavic Indo-Iranidn Italic Germanic

Prussian Persian Portuguese Norwegian

Lithuanian Hindi Spanish Icelandie

Polish Italian Danish

Bulgarian Rounianian Swedish

Slovenian French English

Russian German

Albanian Armenian Celtic Hellenic

Irish Greek

Breton

Scottish

2.History (时间,历史事件，特征)

1)Old English (450-1150) totally 50, 000-60, 000 words

The 1st people known to inhabit England were Celts, the language was Celtic-

The second language was the Latin of the Roman Legions?

The Germanic tribes called angles, Saxons and Jutes and their language, Anglo-Saxon dominated and blotted out the Celtic? Now people refer to Ang1o-Saxon as old English?At the end of 6th contury, the introduction of Christianity has a great impact on the

English vocabulary.

The common practice was to create now words by combining two native words?

In the 9th century, many Scandinavian words came into English. At least 900 words of Seandinavian are in modern English, our daily 1ife and speech?

特点：highly inflected language

complex endings or vowel changes (full ending)

2)Middle English (1150-1500) English, Latin, French

Until 1066, although there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly Germanic- But the Norman Conquest started a continual flow of French words into English.

By the end of the 13th century, English gradually come back into public areas.

Between 1250 and 150 about 9000 words of French origin come into English? 75% of them are t订 1 in use today.

As many as 2500 words of Dutch origin come into English?

特点：fewer inflections

leveled ending

3)Modern English (1500-up to now) early modern English (1500-1700)

late modern English (1700-up to now)

The Renaissanee, Latin and Greek were recognized as the languages of the Western world" s great literary heritage.

The Industrial Revolution was in the mid-17 century. With the growth of colonization, British tentacles began a stretching out of to every corner of the globe, thus enabling English to absorb words from all major languages of the world?

After World War II, many new words have been created to express new ideas, inventions and scientific achievements.

More words are created by means of word-formation.

thousands and thousands of new words have been entered to express new ideas inventions, and scientific achievements.

more words are created by means of word-formation?

in modern English, word endings were mostly lost with just a few exceptions English has evolved from a synthetic lamguage to the present analytic language?

science and technology terms make up about 45% of new words, words associated with life-

style constitute of 24% and social and economic terms amount to over 10% .

mention should be made of an opposite process of development i. e? old words falling

out if use.

特点：ending are almost lost.

3.Three main sources new words

1.The rapid development of modern science and technology

2.Social, economic and political changes

3.The influence of other cultures and languages

4.Three modes of vocabulary development

1.Creation - the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. (This is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.)

2.Somantic change - an old form which take on a new meaning to meet the new need.

3.Borrowing 一to take in words from other languages?(particularly in earl ier time)

4? (Reviving archaic or obsolete)

French 30%, Latin 8%, Japanese Italian 7%, Spanish 6%, German Greek 5%, Russian Yiddish 4%

第三章

1.Morpheme ------ A morpheme is the smallest mean in gful unit of a language. (The smallest functional unit in the composition of words?)

2.Morph ---- A morpheme must be realized by discrete units. These actual spoken

minimal carriers of meaning are morphs.

3.Monomorphenic words - morphemes are realized by single morphs.

4?Allomorph Some morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position. Such alternative morphs are allomorphemes. E. g. the morpheme of plurality (-s) has a number if allomorphemes in different sound context, e. g?in cats/s/, in bags/z/, in matches/iz/<

5.Free morphemes or Free root -------- T he morphemes have complete meaning and van

be used as free grammatical units in sentences, e. g. cat, walk. They are identical with root words, morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free-

6.Bound Morphemes ------- The morphemes cannot occur as separate words? They are

bound to other morphemes to form words, e. g> recollection (re+collect+ion) collect - free morpheme remand - ion are bound morphemes? (inelude bound root and affix) Bound morphemes

are found in derived words-

7.Bound root ------ A bound root is that part of the word that carries the

fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a free root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words. Take -diet- for example： it conveys the meaning of "say or speak" as a Latin root, but not as a word. With the prefix pre-(二before) we obta in the verb predict mean i ng "tell beforeha nd” □ Contradict “ speak against" 。Bound roots are either Latin or Greek.

Although they are 1imited in number, their productive power is amazing.

8.Affixes ------ Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements

to modify meaning or function. Almost affixes are bound morphemes?

9.Inflectional morphemes or Inflectional affixes Affixes attaches to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. The number of inflectional affixes is small and stable.

a. There is the regular plural suffix 一s (-cs) which is added to nouns such as machines, desks.

b? Simple present for the third person singular, -s (~es)

c.The possessive case of nouns. ' s

d.- er and - est to show comparative and superlative degree

e.The past tense marker - ed

f?一ing to form present participles or gerunds?

10.Derivational morphemes or Derivational affixes ----------- Derivational affixes

are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words?

IL Prefixes ------ Prefixes are affixes that come before the word, such as,

pre+war, sub+sea

12.Suffixes ------ suffixes are affixes that come after the word, for instance,

blood+y.

13.Root ----- A root is the basic form of a word, which cannot be further

an alyzed wi thout total loss of identity ? (What rema ins of a word after the removal of

all affixes. ) . e. g. “internationalists” remo ving in ter-, -al-, - ist, 一s, leaves the root nation.

14.Stem ----- a form to which affixes of any kind can be added? E.g.

u internationalists v , nat ion is a root and a stem as wel1.

a stem may consist of a single root or two roots and a root plus a affix.

a stem can be a root or a form bigger than a root?

第四章

The expansion of vocabulary in moder n Engl ish dope nds chiefly on word-format i on.

Not all the words that are produced by applying the rules are acceptable.

Rules only provide a constant set of models from which new words are created from day to day.

Rules themselves are not fixed but undergo changes?

affixation 30%-40% compounding 28%-30% conversion 26% shortening 8%-10%

(c1ipping and acronymy) blending and others 1%-5%

1.Af fixation (Derivati on) --------- t he formation of words by add in g word forming

or derivational affixes to stems? (derivative 派生词)

According to their position, affixation falls into： prefixation and suffixation.

1)? Prefixation ------ the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems.

It does not change the word-class of the stem but change its meaning.

1.Negative prefixes - a- (abnormal) , dis- (disobey) , in- (il~, ir~, im-) (in jus ti ce), non- (non-smoker), un- (unwilling) un - are the most productive and can usually replace in- or dis- with adj.

2.Reversative prefixes - de- (decentralize), dis- (disunite), un- (unwrap)

3.Pejorative prefixes - mal- (maltreat) , mis- (mistrust) , pseudo- (pseudo-scienee)

4.Prefixes of degree or size - arch- (archbishop) , extra- (extra-strong), hyper- (hyperactive) , macro- (macrocosm) , micro- (microcomputer) , mini-

(mini-election) , out- (outlive) , over- (overweigh) , sub- (subheading), super- (superfreeze) , sur- (surtax) , ultra- (ultra-conservative) , under- (underdeveloped)

5.Prefixes of orientation and attitude - anti- (anti-nuclear) , contra- (contraflow) , counter-, pro- (pro-student)

6.Locative prefixes - extra- (extraordinary) , fore- (forehead) , inter- (inter-city) , intra- (intra-party) , tele-, trans-

7.Prefixes of time and order - ex- (ex-wife) , fore- (foretell) , pre-, re- (reconsider)

8.Number Prefixes - bi-, multi- (poly-) (multi-purpose), semi- (hemi-), tri- (tricycle) , uni- (mono-) (uniform)

9.Miscella neous pref ixes - auto-, neo -(n eo - Nazi), pan- (pa n - European), vice-

2). Suffixation Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems.

Change the grammatical function of steins (the word class) . Suffixes can be grouped on a grammatical basis.

Noun suffixes

Denominal nouns (名词+suffix ---------- 名词)

且?Concrete --- -eer (engineer) , -er (teenager) , -ess (hostess) , -ette

(cigarette) , -let (booklet)

b. Abstract ------ -age (wastage) , -dom (处于…状态)(officialdom) , ~ery

(slavery) , -ery (-ry) , -hood (childhood) , -ing (farming) , - ism (…

主义) (terrorism) , -ship (状态) (sportsmanship)

Deverbal nouns (动词+suffix -------- 名词)

a. Denoting people --------- ant (assistant), -ee (trainee), -ent (respondent),

-er (-or)

b? Denoting action, result, process, state, ect. ------------------ age (linkage),

-al (dismissal) , -ance (attendance) , -ation (-ition， -tion, -sion, -ion),

-ence (existence) , -ing (savings) , -ment (statement)

De-adjective nouns (形容词+suffix -------- 名词) -------- ity (popularity) , -ness (happiness)

Nouns and adjectives suffixes ---------- ese (Chinese) , -an (Australian) , -ist (主义)(socialist)

Adjective suffixes

Denominal suffixes --------- ed (wooded) , -ful (successful) , -ish (foolish),

-less (priceless) , -like (lady-like) , -ly (friendly) , -y (smoky)

-al (-ial, -ical) (cultural, residential) , -esque (picturesque) , -ic

(economic) , PUS (-eous, 一ious) (coutageous)

-ic and - ical can be affixed to the stem in some cases, but differ in meaning.

Historic (important in history) historical (of history)

Classic (great, memorable) classical (of Latin or Greek)

Comic (of comedy) comical (funny)

Economic (in the economy) economical (money-saving)

Electric (powered by electricity) electrical (of electricity)

Deverbal suffixes --------- able (-ible) (washable) , -ive (-ative, -sive)

(active, decisive)

Adverb suffixes --------- ly (calmly), -ward(s) (homewards), -wise (clockwise)

Verb suffixes --------- a te (or ig in ate)， - en (darke n)， -( i) f y (beautify),

-ize (ise) (modernize)

Nik most of them are considered slang?

https://www.360docs.net/doc/fe5418624.html,pounding (Composition) ---------- Compounding is a process of word-formation

by joining two or more stems.

Compounds- a lexical unit consisting of more than one stem and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word?

三种形式solid, hyphenated, open

1) ? Characteristics (differ from free phrases)

Phonetic features

Compound (not absolute) Free phrase

Stress on the first el ernent Stress on the second element

Semantic features

Compounds are different from free phrases in somantic unity.

Every compound should express a single idea just as one word.

A lot of compounds are transparent and the meaning can be inferred from the separate elements of compounds.

Grammatical foatures

A compound plays a single grammatical role in a sentence.

In adjective-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes.

Compound Free phrase

fine art finer art

Formation

Most compounds consist of 2 stems, but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and the internal grammatical relationship within the words is considered complex?

Noun compounds

Adjective compounds

Verb compounds (through conversion and back formation)

Back formed verb compounds are formed mainly by dropping the suffixes, -er, -ing, -ion, -etc.

3. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conversion (zero-derivation, functional shift) --------------------------------------- Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class. These words are new only in a grammatical sense? The most productive is between nouns and verbs?

A change of grammatical function

The different range of meaning

Conversion to noun

Verb to noun-almost all monomorphemic verbs can be used as nouns?

1.State (of mind or sensation)

2.Event or activity

3.Result of the action

4.Doer of the action

5.Tool or instrument

6.P1 ace of the action

Adjective to noun (full conversion, partial conversion)

1.Words fully converted-a noun converted from an adjective has all the characteristics of nouns. It can take an identical article or - e (s).

2.Words partial ly con verted - do not possess al 1 the qual i ties a noun does. They must be used together with definite articles. They retain some of the adjective features. Words of this class general ly refer to a group of the kind.

3.Miscellaneous conversion

Conversion to verbs

1.Noun to verb-verbs of this kind are all transitive-

2? Adjective to verb

3. Miscellaneous conversion

4? Blending一is the word formation by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word.

Head + tail autocide / motel/ slurb / cremains / chunnel

comsat / telex / Amerind / sitcom / FORTRAM Head + head

Head + word medicare / Eurasia / telequiz / atuocamp

Word + tail lunarnaut / bookmobile / workfare / tourmobile

The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns, very few are verbs and adjectives are even fewer.

5.Clipping - shorten a longer word by cutting a part of the origin and using what rema ins instead. People tend to ve eco no mical in writing and speech to keep up the tempo of new life style?

Front clipping

Quake (earthquake) / Copter (helicopter) / scope (telescope) / phone (telephone)

Back clipping

Dorm (dormitory) / momo ( ) /stereo ( ) /gent ( ) /fan ( ) /disco ()

Front and back clipping

Phrase clipping

Pub ( ) /pop ( ) /zoo ( ) /perm ()

6?Acronymy - joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special phrases and technical terms

Initialisms

are words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as letters? It" s one of the word formations of acronymy.

E?g? IMF/ai em ef/=International Monetary Fund?

Acronyms

are words formed from the initial letters of word and pronounced as words?? It" s one of the word formations of acronymy.

E?g? NATO/' noito/二North Allantic Treaty Organization.

7.Back-formation is a process of word-formation by which a word is created by the deletion of a supposed affix? It is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation.

8.Words from proper names modern Engl ish has a large number of words which come from proper nouns. They include

https://www.360docs.net/doc/fe5418624.html,s of people

Words of this group are from names of scientists, investors, etc. these terms arc used as measurcnients.

Some words are from characters in mythology.

Some are from historical figures?

Some words are from characters in literary books.

https://www.360docs.net/doc/fe5418624.html,s of places

Many words denoting products, objects or materials come from the names of places where they were first produced?

https://www.360docs.net/doc/fe5418624.html,s of books

4.Tradenames

When proper nouns are communized, many of them have lost their original identity. They can be converted to other classes. These words can also take suffixes.

Words that are communi zed from proper nouns have rich culture associations and thus stylistically vivid, impressive and though-provoking.

第五章

Reference （领会）- the relationship between language and the world. By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world （including persons） are being talked about.

The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional< This connection is the result of generalization and abstraction.

Although reference is abstract, yet with the help of context, it can refer to something specific.

Concept （领会） - which beyond language is the result of human cognition reflecting the objective world in the human mind. It isn" t affected by language. Meaning and concept are closely cormected but not identica1. Meaning belongs to language, so is restricted to language use.

A concept can have as many referring expressions as there are language in the world.

Sense （领会） - denotes the relati on ship inside the language ? Every word that has meaning has sense.

The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language.

It is also abstraction?

Motivat ion ---- acco unts for the connecti on between the linguis tic symbol and its meaning?

English does have words whose meanings can be explained to a certain extent.

Most words are non-motivated?The connection of the sign and meaning dose not have a logical explanation.

Onomatopoeic Motivation - the words whose sounds suggest their meaning?

（Indicate the relati on ship between sound and meaning） . Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning. These words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises. For example, bang, ping-pang, crow by cocks, etc.

Such echoic words are also conventiorml for the sounds we say in English may not be the same in other language.

Morphological Motivation -------- C ompounds and derived words are multi-morphemic

words and the meaning of many words are the sum total of the morphemes combined? (Indicate the relationship between word meaning and each morpheme meaning) . For instance, airmail means to "mail by air” ，miniskirt is “a small skirt” 。

There are a lot of words whose structures are opaque, their meanings are not the combinations of the separate words.

Semantic Motivation ------ refers to the mental associations suggested by the

conceptual meaning of a word. It explained the connection between literal sense and figurative sense of a word)? E? g? When we say the mouth of a river, we associate the opening part of the river with the mouth of a human being or an animal.

Etymological Motivation ------- The history of the word explains the meaning of the word. (Indicate the relati onship between word meaning and its origin) ?

E? g? the word laconic^ meaning ， brief ， or ， short， is derived from Laconic, a tribe of people who were known for their ' brevity of speech" and for their habit of never using more words than necessary. Hence a laconic answer is a ' short answer" □All the words communized from proper nouns can be interpreted in terms of their orig ins.

Types of meaning (领会，运用)

Word-formation is not monogamous but a composite consisting of different parts.

Grammatical meaning - refer to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships, such as part of speech of words, singular and plural meanings of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms.

Grammatical meaning becomes important only used in actual context.

Different Lexical meaning may have different grammatical meaning?

The same word may have different grammatical meaning.

Functional words, though having little lexical meaning, posses strong grammatical meaning, content words have both meanings and lexical meaning in particular.

Lexical meaning ------ is constant in all the words within or without context

related to the notion that the word conveys.

It has two components conceptual meaning and associative meaning?

Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning make up the word-meaning.

Grammatical meaning surfaces only in use?

Conceptual mea ning (denotative mea ning) - the meaning given in the dicti on ary and forms the core of word-meaning?

It is constant and relative stable. Conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication.

e. g. The sun rises in the East, the "sun”

Associative meaning - the secondary mean i ng suppl ernentod to the conceptual mea ning.

It is open-ended and indeterm inate

Connotative meaning (connotation) ---------- the overtones or association suggested

by the conceptual meaning? It is not an essential part of the word- moaning， but associations that might occur in the mind of a particular use in the Ianguage.

e.g? Mothci ---- a fema1e parent -------- l ove, care, tenderness, forgiving

Home ---- a dwelling place ------- family, friends, warmth, safety.

It is unstable varying considerably according to situations.

Stylistic meaning - stylistic features make the words appropriate for

different contexts.

(informal, formal, literary, archaic, slang) e. g. pregnant, expecting, knock up, in the club,

The stylistic difference is true of synonyms.

There are few words have both the same Conceptual meaning and Sty 1 istic meaning.

分析：

1.they chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.

2.after costing a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

The stylistic feature of words are obvious.

Sentence 1 could be said by 2 criminals, all the words used in italics are slangy, sentence 2 might be said by the chief inspector in making his official report and the words used are literary (cast, abscond) or neutral (police, money)?

Affective meaning - the speaker" s attitude towards the person or thing in question. Interjections are affective words as they are expression of emotions?

Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories： appreciative and

pejorative? Words of positive overtones are used show appreciation or the attitude of approval. Those of negative cormotations imply disapproval, contempt or criticism?

Affective meaning varies from individual to individual, from culture to culture …

e. g. revolution, democracy, imperialism,

dog loyalty, faithfulness, a close companion (western)

useful animal (Chinese)

Collocative meaning 一the associations a word acquires in its collocation. It is that part of the word—meaning suggested by the word before or after the word in discussion.

There is some overlaps between the collcations of the two words-

e? g? pretty and handsome = goodlooking

pretty woman stress the attractiveness of facial feature.

handsome woman may not be facial beautiful, yet is attractive in other respects?

tremble/quiver = shake involuntary

tremble with fear/quiver with excitement

Function： Collocative meaning overlaps with stylistic and affective meanings because in a sense both stylistic and affective meanings are revealed by means of collocations.

Form - by form we mean both its pronunciation and spelling. A word is the combination of form and meaning. Form is the carrier of meaning.

Meaning

第六章

1. Polysemy （识记）一polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. When a words is first coined, it always monosemic, but tin the course of development , the same word may have two or more different meanings.

e. g. The word “flight" may mean "passing through the air", u power of flying", "air of journey" , etc.

Two approaches （识记）

Diachronic approach - Diachronically, polysemy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of one and same word. This first meaning is the primary meaning? With the advance of time and the development of language, it took on more and more

meanings. These latter meanings are called derived meanings. E? g? face

The primary meaning gave birth to new meaning.

The primary meaning become either absolute or disappeared altogether

E. g. harvest time of cutting reaping and gathering the crops

a season， s yield of grain or fruit

Pain penalty or punishment pains and penalty

upon/under pain of suffering

Synchronic approach - synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistent of various meaning of the same word in a certain historical period of time? The basic meaning of a word is the core of word meaning. The core of word meaning called the central meaning （secondary meaning）.

The central meaning has gradually dimished in currency with the changes and one of the derived meanings has become dominant. E? g. gay

Two process of development （领会）

Radiation - a seniantic process which shows that the primary meaning stands at the center and each of the derived meanings proceed out of in every direction like rays ?The meanings are independent of one another, but can all be tracked back to the central meaning.

e. g. Neck

1）That part of a man or animal jointing the head to the body

2）That part of the garments

3)The neck of an animal used as food

4) A narrow part between the head and body or base of any object

5)The part of anything

Of the 5 meanings 1) is the primary and all the rest are derived but each of the other four is directly related to 1) . Therefore, we say neck has developed through the process of radiation.

Concatenation - meaning " linking together”，is the semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradualaway from its first sense by successive shifts until, in many cases, there is not a sign of connection between the sense that is finally developed and that which the tern had at the begining.

e? g? candidate

1)White-robed

2)Office seeker in white gouns

3) A person who seeks an office

4) A person proposed for a place, award, etc?

Of the 4 meanings, 1) is the primary meaning and the other three are derived, but each of the derived meaning is only directly related to the preceding one and there is no direct connection between 1) and 4) ? Therefore, we say candidate has developed through the process of concatenation?

Differenee

Radiati on is concatenation is closely related, being different stages of the development leading to polysemy.

Radiation, each of the derived meaning is directly connected to the primary mea ning.

Concatenation, each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like chains. Though the latest sense can be tracked to the original, there" s no direct connection in between.

The two processes work together, complementing each other.

Radiation precedes concatenation?

2?Homonyms ---- are generally defined as words different in meaning but either

identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling?Perfect Homonyms ------ are words identical both in sound and spelling, but

different in meaning.

e? g? bank/bank

bear/bear

date/date

Homographs ----- are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and

meaning?

e. g. Bow/bow

Sow/sow

Homophones (most common) --------- a re words identical only in sound but different

in spelling and meaning?

e. g. Dear/dear

Right/ri te

Son/sun

Origins of Homonyms (识记)

1.Change in sound and spelling (homonyms are native by origin, derived from di f fere nt earl ier forms in Old En gl ish ? The change in sound and spel ling gradual ly made then identical in modern English.)

e. g? ear/ear

long/long

2.Borrowing (many words of foreign origin coincide in sound and/or spelling with those of native origin with those of other foreign origin.)

e. g? fair/fair

ball/ball

3.Shortening (many shortened forms of words happen to be identical with other words in spelling or sound)

e? g? ad/add

rock/rock

NOW/now

Differentiation of Homonyms and polysemants (领会)

Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical regard to spelling and pronunciation.

Homonyms refer to different word, which happen to share the same forms. Polysemant is the one and some wordt which has several meanings.

One important criterion is to see their etymology. Homonyms are from different sources. A polysemant is from the same source, which has acquired different meaning in the course of development.

The second principle is semantic relatedness. The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected to some central meaning to a greater or less degree- Meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another.

Rhetoric feature

They create puns for desired effect of, say, humour, sarcasm or ridicule-

3.Synonyms一are words different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning. Synonyms share a likeness in denotation and in part of speech?

Types of Synonyms

1?Absolute (Complete) Synonyms are words, which are identical in meaning in all its

aspects, i. e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical mea ning, in eluding conceptual and associative meanings?Absolute (Complete) Synonyms are restricted to high-specialized vocabulary.

For instance, composition / compounding. They have the perfect same meaning in Lexicology.

2. Relative (Near) synonyms --------- a re similar or nearly the same in denotation

but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.

e? g? Change/al ter/vary

Take stagger/reel/totter for example-

Stagger implies unsteady movement characterized by a loss of balance and failure to maintain a fixed course. E. g. stagger under a heavy load；

Reel suggests a swaying or lurching so as to appear on the verge of falling. E. g. The drunken man reeled down the hall；

Totter indicates the uncertain, faltering steps of a feeble old person or of an infant learning to walk.

Sources of Synonyms

□ Borrowing：(the most important source)

Native ForeignRoom chamberFoe enemyHelp aidLeave departWise sageBodily corporalEarthly terrestrialWar1 ike bellicoseBuy purchase Native French LatinAsk question interrogateFast firm secureFire flame conflagrationFear terror trepidationHoly sacred consecratedGoodness virtue probityTime age epoch

o Dialects and regional English：

Railway (BrE) railroad (AmE)

Mother (BrE) minny (ScotE)

Charm (BrE) glamour (ScotE)

Ranch (AmE) run (AusE)

Job (StandE) gig (BlackE)

Jim (BlachE) mal person (StancIE)

□ Figurative a.比喻的，彖征的」and euphemistic 「a.委婉的」use of words：

Occupation walk of life (fig.)

Dreamer star-gazer (fig?)

Drunk elevated (euph.)

Lie distort the fact (euph?)