2024年1月13日发(作者：)
英语词汇学笔记整理
Chapter 1
1 - The definition of a word comprises the following points:
(1) a minimal free form of a language;
(2) a sound unity;
(3) a unit of meaning;
(4) a form that can function alone in a sentence.
A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and
syntactic function.
2- Sound and Meaning: symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary and
conventional.
A dog is called a dog not because the sound and the three letters that make up the
word just automatically suggest the animal in question.
3- Old English, the speech of the time was represented very much more faithfully in
writing than it is today. The internal reason for this is that the English alphabet was
adopted from the Romans, which does not have a separate letter to represent each
sound in the language so that some letters must do double duty or work together in
combination.
Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling over
the years, and in some cases the two have drawn far apart.
4-A third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes.
Finally comes the borrowing, which is an important channel of enriching the English
vocabulary.
5 - Vocabulary: All the words in a language make up its vocabulary. Not only can it
refer to the total number of the words in a language, but it can stand for all the
words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of
a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an
individual person. Thegeneral estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is over
million words.
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words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of
a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an
individual person. The general estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is over
million words.
words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of
a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an
individual person. The general estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is over
million words.
words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of
a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an
individual person. The general estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is over
million words.
6 - Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use
frequency, into content words and functional words by notion, and into native words
and borrowed words by origin.
7 - The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over
centuries and forms the common core of the language. Though words of the basic
word stock constitute a small percentage of the English vocabulary, yet it is the most
important part of it. These words have obvious characteristics.
8 - All national character. Words of the basic word stock denote the most common
things and phenomena of the world around us, which are indispensable to all the
people who speak the language
Natural phenomena/Human body and relations/Names of plants and animals/Action,
size, domain, state/Numerals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions
9 - Stability. Words of the basic word stock have been in use for centuries.
10 - Productivity . Words of the basic word stock are mostly root words or
monosyllabic words. They can each be used alone, and at the same time can form new
words with other roots and affixes.
11 - Polysemy. Words belonging to the basic word stock often possess more than one
meaning because most of them have undertone semantic changes in the course of use
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and become polysemous.
12 - Collocability . Many words of the basic word stock quite a number of set
expressions, idiomatic usages, proverbial sayings and the like.
13 - Terminology consists of technical terms used in particular disciplines and
academic areas .
14 - Jargon refers to the specialized vocabularies by which members of particular arts,
sciences, trades and professions communicate among themselves such as in business.
15 - Slang belongs to the sub-standard language, a category that seems to stand
between the standard general words including informal ones available to everyone
and in-group words like cant, jargon, and argot, all of which are associated with, or
most available to, specific groups of the population.
Slang is created by changing or extending the meaning of existing words though some
slang words are new coinages altogether. Slang is colourful, blunt, expressive and
impressive.
16 - Argot generally refers to the jargon of criminals.
17 - Dialectal words are words used only by speakers of the dialect in question.
18 - Archaisms are words or forms that were once in common use but are now
restricted only to specialized or limited use.
19 - Neologisms are newly-created words or expressions, or words that have taken on
new meanings.
20 - By notion, words can be grouped into content words and functional words.
Content words denote clear notions and thus are known as notional words. They
include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals, which denote objects,
phenomena, action, quality, state, degree, quantity.
21 - Functional words do not have notions of their own. Therefore, they are also
called empty words. As their chief function is to express the relation between notions,
the relation between words as well as between sentences, they are known as form
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words. Prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries and articles belong to this category.
22 - However, functional words do far more work of expression in English on average
than content words.
23 - Native words are words brought to Britain in the fifth century by the German
tribes; the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, thus known as Anglo-Saxon words.
24 - Apart from the characteristics mentioned of the basic word stock, in contrast to
borrowed words, native words have two other features:
Neutral in style. they are not stylistically specific.
Stylistically, natives words are neither formal nor informal whereas the words
borrowed from French or Latin are literary and learned, thus appropiate in formal
style.
Frequent in use. Native words are most frequently used in everyday speech and
writing.
25 - Words taken over from foreign languages are known as borrowed words or loan
words or borrowings in simple terms. It is estimated that English borrowings
constitute 80 percent of the modem English vocabulary. The English
language is noted for the remarkable complexity and heterogeneity of its vocabulary
because of its extensive borrowings
26 - Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and
spelling. These words are immediately recognizable as foreign in origin.
27 - Semantic-loans. Words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the
form. But their meanings are borrowed. In other words, English has borrowed a new
meaning for an existing word in the language.
Chapter 2
1 - It is assumed that the world has approximately 3, 000 (some put it 5, 000 )
languages, which can be grouped into roughly 300 language families on the basis of
similarities in their basic word stock and grammar.
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2 - The Indo-European is one of them. It is made up of most of the languages of
Europe, the Near East, and India.
3 - They accordingly fall into eight principal groups, which can be grouped into an
Eastern set: Balto-Slavic , Indo-Iranian , Armenian and Albanian ; a Western set:
Celtic, Italic, Hellenic, Germanic.
4 - In the Eastern set, Armenian and Albanian are each the only modern language
respectively. The Balto-Slavic comprises such modern languages as Prussian,
Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Russian.
5 - In the Indo-Iranian we have Persian. Bengali, Hindi, Romany, the last three of
which are derived from the dead language Sanskrit.
6 - In the Western set, Greek is the modern language derived from Hellenic.
7 - The Germanic family consists of the four Northern European Languages:
Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Swedish, which are generally known as
Scandinavian
languages. Then there is German, Dutch, Flemish and English.
languages. Then there is German, Dutch, Flemish and English.
8 - Old English (450-1150)
Anglo-Saxon as Old English. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50, 000 to 60,
000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like moderm German.
Anglo-Saxon as Old English. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50, 000 to 60,
000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like moderm German.
9 - Middle English (1150-1500)
Although there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly
Germanic.
Between 1250 and 1500 about 9000 words of French origin poured into English.
Seventy-five percent of them are still in use today.
If we say that Old English was a language of full endings. Middle English was one of
leveled endings.
10 - Modern English (1500-up to now)
Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England.
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Early (1500-1700) and Late (1700-up to the present) Modern English
Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England.
Early (1500-1700) and Late (1700-up to the present) Modern English
In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient
Greek and Roman classics. This is known in history as the Renaissance.
Latin and Greek were recognized as the languages of the Western world’
’s great literary heritage and of great scholarship
In fact, more than twenty-five per cent of modern English words come almost directly
from classical languages.
It can be concluded that English has evolved from a synthetic language (Old English)
to the present analytic language.
11 - Three main sources of new words: the rapid development of modern science and
technology(45%); social, economic and political changes(24%);
the influence of other cultures and languages(11%).
the influence of other cultures and languages(11%).
12 - Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic
change, borrowing.
Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely
roots, affixes and other elements. In modern times, this is the most important way of
vocabulary expansion.
Semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new
need. This does not increase the number of word forms but create many more new
usages of the words, thus enriching the vocabulary.
Borrowing has played a vital role in the development of vocabulary, particularly in
earlier times. Borrowed words constitute merely six to seven percent of all new
worlds. In earlier stages of English, frnch, greek and Scandinavian were the major
contributiors.
Reviving archaic or obsolete words(复活古词和废弃词) also contributes to the
growth of English vocabulary though quite insignificant.
Chapter 3
1 - These different forms occur owing to different sound environment. These minimal
meaningful units are known as morphemes.
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In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of
words"
In other words, the morpheme is "the amallest functioning unit in the composition of
words"
2 - Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units
known as morphs. They are actual spoken , minimal carriers of meaning. The
morpheme is to the morph what a phoneme is to a phone.
3 - These morphemes coincide with words as they can stand by themselves and
function freely in a sentence. Words of this kind are called monomorphemic words.
4 - Some morphemes, however, are realized by more than one morph according to
their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.
5 - There are cases where the allomorphs of the plural morpheme are realized by the
change of an internal vowel or by zero morph.
6 - Free Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be
free. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as
free grammatical units in sentences. They are identical with root words, as each of
them consists of a single free root, we might as well say that free morphemes are free
roots.
7 - Bound Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are so
named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Bound
morphemes are chiefly found in derived words.
8 - Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix.
Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a
free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other
morphemes to make words.
In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in
number, their productive power is amazing.
Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a
free root. Unlike a tree root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other
morphemes to make words.
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In English, bound roots are either Latin or Greek. Although they are limited in
number, their productive power is amazing.
Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or
function. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups;
inflectional and derivational affixes.
Affixes attached 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.
Derivational affixes. As the term indicates, derivational affixes are affixes added to
other morphemes to create new words. Derivational affixes can be further divided into
prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes come before the ward and the suffixes after the word.
9 - A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analysed without total
loss of identity. The root, whether free or bound, generally carries the main
component of meaning in a word. Root is that part of a wordform that remains when
all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed.
10 - A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in iron or of two root
morphemes as in a compound like handcuff. It can be a root morpheme plus one or
more affixational morphemes as in mouthful.
A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added
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