“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” English Lexicology (I)

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

English Lexicology (I)

English Lexicology(I) 2

unilateral, bilateral, trilateral, multilateral

monogamy, polygamy inflexible, imbalance, irrational, illegal download, copyright, mother wit,

green wealth We summered in Qingdao last year.


skate, skim, skin, ski, sketch, skid This fox goes well with your cap. He is too found of bottles. blue-collar workers, white-collar workers,

gray-collar works, pink-collar works, gold-collar workers

forbidden fruits The question was like the Sphinx’s riddle to

them Your Adam’s apple is not apparent as timid as a rabbit ; a green hand


It’s a difficult operation. I do think Adam is quick. a sheet of paper; a white paper, a term

paper; today’s paper, examination paper


He is a wise boy. A: Is the library open Sundays?

B: Of course. Ladies and Gentleman, I’m delighted

to introduce you a very pretty girl, Miss Brown. She is a very good teacher from U.S.A.


Contents

1. Introduction 2. Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary 3. The Development of the English Vocabulary 4. Morphological Structure

To be continued

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Language, Linguistics and Lexicology1.2 Aims and Significance of the Course


1.1 Language, Linguistics and Lexicology

What is language? Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols

used for human communication. It is a specific social action and a carrier of information.

“Language is man’s way of communication with his fellow man and It is language alone which separate him from the lower animals”



What is linguistics? Generally speaking, linguistics can be defined as

the scientific study of language. To be more exact, linguistics studies the general principles upon which languages are constructed and operate as systems of human communication



What is lexicology? Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned

with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, structure, formation, meaning and usage.


1.2 Aims and Significance of the Course

What is lexicology? English lexicology is a theoretically-oriented

course. It is chiefly concerned with the basic theories of words in general and of English words in particular. However, it is a practical course as well, for in the discussion, we shall inevitably deal with copious stocks of words and idioms, and study many usage examples. Naturally, there will be a large quantity of practice involved.



The role of vocabulary in the language system Vocabulary is the building material of the language system.

It is one of the there essential elements of language: speech sounds, grammar and vocabulary.

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”

“…there is a sense in which learning a foreign language is basically a matter of learning the vocabulary of that language. Not being able to find the words to express yourself is the most frustrating experience in speaking another language.”



Aims of the course Give a systematic description of the English

vocabulary. Offer an insight into the origin and development of

the English vocabulary. Discuss the problems of word-structure and word-

formation Study the use of English words , their meanings

and changes in meaning, their sense relations.



The significance of the course Develop your personal vocabulary and consciously increase

your word power (active vocabulary). Understand word-meaning and organize, classify and store

words more effectively. Raise your awareness of meaning and usages, use words

more accurately and appropriately. Develop your skills and habits of analyzing and generalizing

linguistic phenomena in your learning experiences. Ultimately improve your receptive and productive skills in

language processing as well as language production.


Four levels of word power Speaking vocabulary (active vocabulary) Writing vocabulary(active vocabulary) Reading vocabulary(passive vocabulary) Guess vocabulary(passive vocabulary)


Watergate, Irangate, Zippergate ecology, ecocide, ecocrisis, eco-

friendly -ump: plump, chump, rump, hump,

stump, dump, mump, lump, bump, tump


Picture painting, drawing (including sketch, diagram, graph), illustration, chart

A flock of sheep, goats, birds A herb of cows, elephants, zebras, antelopes A school of fish, whales, dolphins A swarm of ants, bees, wasps, locusts (insects) A pride of lions

Essential, indispensable, necessary Warm clothing is indispensable in cold wealth. It’s necessary for us to study hard. The essential point is we must do what the contract says.


National psychology Dutch: to go Dutch, to talk Dutch, double Dutch,

Dutch courage, Dutch bargain, Dutch comfort, I’m a Dutchman if…

Cognate adjectives historic, historical; economic, economical; considerable, considerable: comprehensible, comprehensive; confident, confidential

Chapter 2 Basic Concepts of Words and

Vocabulary

2.1 What Is a Word?2.2 Word, lexical Item, Vocabulary2.3 Sound and Meaning2.4 Meaning and Concept2.5 Classification of Words


The structure of English words Entry Lexeme Word form Lexical unit 词是能独立运用的、最小的、有语义的语言单位。 Function word and content word I (pron. 我） Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoco

niosis (n. 肺尘病）


2.1 What Is a Word? The definition of a word

It is quite difficult to state the criteria by which a word can be defined; so far no completely satisfactory definition has been given.

In brief, a word may be defined as a fundamental unit of speech and minimum free form; with a unity of sound and meaning (both lexical and grammatical meaning), capable of performing a given syntactic function. Therefore, from the lexicological point of view, a word is a combination of form (phonological) and meaning (lexical and grammatical). In addition, a word acts as a structural unit of a sentence.


2.1 What Is a Word?

The definition of a word To sum up, the definition of a word comprises the

following points A minimal free form of a language A sound unity A unit of meaning A form that can function alone in a sentence


Compare:

Book books bookish bookcase Tolerate tolerance tolerant

toleration tolerable intolerable Telephone telegram telescope

telecommunication


book+s book+ish book+case Toler+ate toler+ance toler+ant

toler+ation toler+able in+toler+able -ate Tele- -phone Morpheme


2.2 Word, Lexical Item, Vocabulary

Lexical item A unit of vocabulary is generally referred to as a

lexical item. A complete inventory of the lexical items of a language constitutes that language’s dictionary.



Vocabulary Broadly speaking, all the words in a language

together constitute what is known as vocabulary. The term vocabulary usually refers to a complete inventory of the words in a language. But it may also refer to the words and phrases used in the variants of a language, such as dialect, register, terminology, etc. There is a total English vocabulary of more than 1 million.



Relation Nation—a lexical item, also a word National, nationalize, nationalism, the Chinese

nation, the United nations—words and word equivalents

All the words and word equivalents constitute the vocabulary of a language.


2.3 Sound and Meaning There is a debate over the connection

between sound and meaning. Mainly there are two positions. The naturalists maintain there is a natural connection

between sound and meaning. The Conventionalists, on the other hand, hold that the

relations between sound and meaning are conventional and arbitrary. The meaning of a word is a kind of linguistic social contract. Facts have proved this argument to be valid. Words that convey the same meaning have different phonological forms in different languages. Alternatively, the same phonological forms may convey different meanings; e.g.: sight, site, cite.


2.4 Meaning and Concept

Relation Meaning is closely related to a concept. A concept

is the base of the meaning of a word. A word is used to label a concept. The concept is abstracted from the person, thing, relationship, idea, event, and so on, that we are thinking about. We call this the referent. The word refers to the referent through a concept.

This approach to meaning can be diagrammed as followings: wordconceptreferent.



But meaning is different from concept: A concept is an abstraction from things of the

same kind. A concept refers to something in general, but not in particular, while meaning can refers to both something in general and in particular. For example:

…some have begun to realize that the automobile is a mixed blessing.

The automobile was stalled in a snowstorm.



But meaning is different from concept: Meaning in the language context may have

emotional and stylistic colors, express one’s emotion, attitude and position. Therefore, meaning adds supplementary value to the concept the word expresses.

For example, dog might include the connotations of friend, helper, loyalty, etc. other examples are: motherland, home, candle, locust, panda, etc.


2.5 Classification of Words

The English vocabulary consists of different kinds of words, which may be classified by different criteria. In this section we will discuss three main criteria: By origin By level of usage By notion



By origin Native words Loan words



Native words Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are native words. They form

the great majority of the basic word stock of the English language. The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over a number of epochs. Most native words in modern English are monosyllabic. Though small in number, these words are the ones used most frequently in everyday speech and writing; they play no small part in linguistic performance and communication.


2.5 Classification of Words Native words

In the native stock we find the most frequently used words denoting the commonest things necessary for life, such as

names of natural phenomena (sun, moon, rain, frost, snow…), names of animals and plants (horse, dog, tree, flower…), names of parts of body (head, hand, foot…), adjectives denoting size and color (big, small, red, white…), verbs expressing concrete actions (live, eat, work, go, come…) auxiliary and modal verbs, pronouns, most numerals, prepositions

and conjunctions.


2.5 Classification of Words★ Native words

The fundamental features of the basic word stock National character: Words of the basic word stock

denote the most common things and phenomena of the word. These words cannot be avoided by any speaker of a given community, irrespective of class origin, education, profession, geographical regions, culture, etc.

Stability: as words in the basic word stock denote the commonest things necessary to life, they are likely to remain unchanged.


2.5 Classification of Words★ Native words

The fundamental features of the basic word stock Productivity: Words of the basic word stock are mostly

root words or monosyllabic words. They are very active in forming new words. For example, the word hand forms such derivatives and compounds as: handful, handy, handily, handbag, handball, handwriting, etc.

Collocability: Basic words combine readily with other words to form habitual expressions and phrases. The word hand again can be found in phrases like at first hand, hand in hand, to show one’s hand, to play into sb.’s hands, and so on.


2.5 Classification of Words Loan words

The English vocabulary has replenished itself by continually taking over words from other languages over the centuries. Those words borrowed from other languages are loan words or borrowed words. The historical development of the English language shows that English is a heavy borrower; it has adopted words from almost every known language, especially from Latin, French, and Greek. After World War II the English vocabulary expanded at a rate much faster than ever before.



By level of usage

Common words Literary words Colloquial words Slang words Technical words



Common words Common words are connected with the ordinary

things or activities necessary to everyday life. The core of the common words is the basic word stock. They are stylistically neutral, hence they are appropriate in both formal and informal writing and speech.


2.5 Classification of Words Literary words

Literary words are chiefly used in writing, especially in books written in a more elevated style, in official documents, or in formal speeches. They are comparatively seldom used in ordinary conversation. In English, most of the literary words are of French, Latin or Greek origin. Many of them have their everyday synonyms. For example, cast (throw), edifice (building), endeavor (try), purchase (buy), etc.

More examples: recognition, distinction, inclination, dubious, amelioration…



Colloquial words In contrast with literary words, colloquial words or

expressions are used mainly in spoken English, as in conversation among friends and colleagues. They can also be use in informal writings, but are inappropriate in formal speeches or writings. They are marked colloq. or informal in dictionaries. Such as: kid, guy, fellow, gay…



Compare: Feeling fatigued, tom retired early. (literary) Tom felt so dog-tired he hit the sack early. (colloquial) John was dismissed for petty thieving. (common) John was fired for petty thieving. (colloquial) Penalties for overdue books will be strictly enforced

(literary) You have got to pay fines for overdue books.(colloquial) They approved of the plan. (literary) They agreed to the plan.(common)


2.5 Classification of Words Slang words

Slang is defined as language, words or phrases of a colorful, facetious (playfully jocular; humorous), or taboo nature, invented for specific occasions, or uses, or derived from the unconventional use of the standard vocabulary. The chief reason for the formation and use of slang expressions is to secure freshness and novelty. A slang usage is not generally used in formal conversation unless the speakers are on intimate terms; slang embraces those daring and new expressions that have not been accepted by the majority of people as Standard English.



Slang words Beaver(girl) Smoky, bear (police) Nut, dome, upper, bean, block (head) Elevated, merry, jolly, comfortable, boiled, tight,

blue-eyed, stiff (drunk)



Technical words Technical or special words refer to those words used in

particular disciplines and academic areas.They are also called terminologies or technical terms. Every branch of science, every profession or trade, every art and every sort of sports has its own technical terms. The function of those technical words is partly to denote things or processes which have no names in ordinary English, and partly to increase precision in nomenclature.



Technical words In music: symphony, sonata, orchestra, concerto. In education: audiovisual, microteaching In mathematics: algebra, geometry, calculus,

trigonometry In biology: clone, embryo, cell , organism,

DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid), gene



Technical words Most of these technical terms are Latin or Greek in

origin. In fact, they are part of literary words. Most of the technical words remain essentially foreign to outsiders, even to educated native speakers. However, under the influence of radio, television, newspaper and the Internet, we are witnessing a remarkable breaking down of the barrier between technical and common words. Many technical neologisms created yesterday by specialists are today heard in ordinary conversation, e.g. moonwalk, space shutter, gene, transgenic, clone, etc.



By notion Function words Content words


2.5 Classification of Words Function words

Function words are often short words such as determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliaries, and so forth. Although they do not have much of their lexical meaning, they have a special kind of meaning---grammatical meaning. They act as grammatical signals to show the connection between content words.

Another important characteristic is that function words belong to a relatively small and permanent set of words, in comparison to content words. The total number of functional words is about 154. They are stable; they do not come and go with changing fashions and ideas.



Content words Content words have independent lexical meanings.

Content words belong to an open list. New lexical items are constantly being created, and no one could make a complete list of all the content words in English.

Chapter 3 The Development of the English

Vocabulary

3.1 The Historical Development3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary3.3 Percentage of Each Source of New Words3.4 Modes of English Vocabulary Development


3.1 The Historical Development

The study of the historical development of the English vocabulary should not be treated in isolation from the history and the growth of the English language itself. Understanding the history may give us an insight into the nature of English: extremely rich and heterogeneous, a heavy borrower, full of synonyms, global language.



Time Historical events Influences

Celts (the earliest inhabitants The Celts

450 The conquest and settlement of the Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes

Anglo-Saxon

790 the Scandinavian or the Danish conquests

Old Norse borrowed

1066 The Norman Conquest French borrowed



Time Historical events Influence

16th-18th century

The Renaissance(14th century)

1. Latin borrowed

2. Other European languages borrowed

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

Colonization 1.Non-European

2. languages borrowed

English worldwide

After WWII Advance in science and technology

Many new words created



The history of the English language is divided into three periods. The Old English (450-

1100) The Middle English

(1100-1500) The Modern English

(1500-present)


3.1 The Historical Development The Old English

(450-1100) The history of the English

language begins with the conquest and settlement of what is now England by the Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes from about 450 AD. The language they spoke was Anglo-Saxon, which replaced the Celtic spoken by the former inhabitants Celts.



The Old English (450-1100) The vocabulary of Old English was chiefly Anglo-

Saxon with a small mixture of Old Norse words as a result of the Scandinavian or the Danish conquests of England in the ninth century, such as, cake, call, egg, knife, take, give, etc.The English continued to adopt words from Latin during the Old English period due to the Angles and Saxons’ various contacts with the Romans, such as, candle, kettle, mountain, school, cup, etc.



The Middle English (1100-1500) Middle English is characterized by the strong influence of

French following the Norman Conquest in 1066. Since the French-speaking Normans were the ruling class, French was used for all state affairs and for most social and cultural matters; but the masses continued to speak English. The language that emerged at that time showed vast and significant changes in the English vocabulary---the loss of a large part of the Old English word stock and the adoption of thousands of French words.



The Middle English (1100-1500) The Norman Conquest:

William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 AD.



The Middle English (1100-1500) The French loan words were found in every section

of the vocabulary: law and governmental administration (judge, jury,

justice, country, government, parliament, state…), military affairs (conquer, sergeant, victory…), religion (baptism, confess, divine, sermon…), food (beef, pork, dinner, mutton…), art (beauty, image, design…), literature (chapter, poet, prose, rime…), and so on.


3.1 The Historical Development The Middle English (1100-

1500) The Middle English literary

culture was mostly an oral one, and literacy levels were still low at this time. Middle English poetry is a particularly oral genre, and is often structured so as to make it easy to remember, either through rhyme or through alliteration

Geoffrey Chaucer


3.1 The Historical Development The Modern English (1500-present)

In the early stages of this period, the Renaissance brought great changes to the vocabulary. In this period, the study of classics was stressed and the result was the wholesale borrowing from Latin.

From the sixteenth century onward, English borrowed words from an increasing number of languages, the major ones being the three Romance languages, French, Spanish, and Italy. English also adopted words from other European languages.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result of exploration, colonization and trade, many words came in from non-European languages.



The Modern English (1500-present) Since the beginning of this century, particularly

after World War II, the world has seen breathtaking advances in science and technology. As a result, thousands and thousands of new words have been created to express new ideas, inventions, and scientific achievements. Although borrowing remained an important channel of vocabulary expansion, yet more words are created by means of word-formation.



In fact English has adopted words from almost every known language in the course of its historical development. This has made the English vocabulary extremely rich and heterogeneous. English is supposed to have the most copious vocabulary of all the languages, estimated at more than a million words. It is also noted for its wealth of synonyms and idioms, a fact no doubt due to its sharing so many common words with other languages.


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary Neologism

Neologisms are newly coined words or words that are given new meaning to fit new situation because of social, economic, political, cultural, scientific and technological changes in human society.


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary After World War II, neologisms

sweep in at a rate much faster than any other historical period. The main reasons for the frequent appearance of neologisms are three: Marked progress of science and technology Socio-economic, political and cultural changes The Influence of other cultures and languages


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary Marked progress of science and

technology Exploration of space: moonfall, moonwalk, moonquake,

moonscape, space suit, space shutter, space station, lander, black hole…

Ecology: environmentalist, ecocide, ecocrisis, air pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, visual pollution, cultural pollution, spiritual pollution, graffiti pollution, eco-friendly, environment-friendly, green product, green wealth…


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary

Marked progress of science and technology Computer science: software, hardware, input,

output, memory, on line, to process, internet cafeteria, online communication, e-mail, cyberspace, data base, programming, virtual communities…


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary Marked progress of science and

technology Others: transgenic products, clone,

nanotechnology, behaviour science, bulletin train, instant coffee, bionics, sociolinguistics, container ship, green revolution …



Socio-economic, political and cultural changes income gap, income inequality, economic inequality,

wealth disparity, economic polarization, downsizing, layoff, second career, knowledge workers, cross functional, Euro, credit card, globalization

Watergate (a political scandal), Irangate, Camillagate, computerspeak, netspeak, artspeak, biz-speak, college-speak, newspeak, oldspeak, Clintonspeak…



Socio-economic, political and cultural changes TV dinner, megavitamin, soy milk, discotheque,

soul music, rock music, folk music, talk shows CD (compact discs), VCD (video compact disk) open classroom, open university, distance education



Socio-economic, political and cultural changes Chairperson, chairwoman, spokeswomen,

saleswoman, feminism, sexism (the women’s liberation movement); sit-in, swim-in, black power (the civil rights movement); teach-in (the campaign against the Vietnam War)…



Socio-economic, political and cultural changes The lost generation, the beat generation, the X

generation, hippies, yippies, yuppies, baby boomers, the Vietnam generation

The Third World (developing countries, undeveloped countries), the Fourth World, shuttle diplomacy, trade war, psywar


3.2 The Growth of Present-day English Vocabulary The Influence of other cultures and

languages Examining the English vocabulary in its historical

perspective, on can see that English is characterized by a marked tendency to go outside her own linguistic recourses and borrow from other languages.

Karaoke (Japanese), discotheque, extraordinaire, avant-garde, black humor (French),cosmonaut,sputnik (Russian), paper tiger, Red Guards, open-door policy, Kungfu, Renminbi, Mao suit, tofu, wok, typhoon, brainwashing (Chinese).


3.3 Percentage of Each Source of New Words

56%30%

14%

science and technology terms

life-style terms

social and economic terms


3.4 Modes of English Vocabulary Development

Modern English vocabulary develops through three modes Creation (by word-formation) Semantic change (by adding new meaning to existing

words) Borrowing (By borrowing words from other languages)

We shall discuss these modes later in word-formation

Chapter 4 Morphological Structure

4.1 Morphemes4.2 Types of Morphemes4.3 Allomorphs


4.1 Morphemes

The definition of a morpheme The morpheme( 词素 ) is the smallest meaningful linguistic

unit of language, not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms. A word is the smallest unit of a language that stands alone to communicate meaning. Structurally, however, a word is not the smallest unit because many words can be separated into smaller meaningful units. Words are composed of morphemes. What is usually considered a single word in English may be composed of one or more morphemes:


4.1 Morphemes

The definition of a morpheme Example

One morpheme: nation Two morphemes: nation-al Three morphemes: nation-al-ize Four morphemes: de-nation-al-ize


4.2 Types of Morphemes

Free morphemes( 自由词素 ) Morphemes which are independent of other

morphemes are considered to be free. Free morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. Therefore, we might as well say that free morphemes are content morphemes or free roots( 自由词根 ).

man, earth, wind, faith, red, write….



Bound Morphemes( 粘着词素 ) Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words

are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Unlike free morphemes, they do not have independent semantic meaning; instead, they have attached meaning (un-kind, hope-ful) or grammatical meaning (cat-s, slow-ly, walk-ing, call-ed). They are also called grammatical morphemes.



Types of bound morphemes Bound roots( 粘着词根 ): 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. For example:

dict- conveys the meaning of ‘say or speak’-----contradict, predict, contradiction, prediction, dictate, diction, dictionary….

dur-: continuous, during, duration, durable, endure



Types of bound morphemes Affixes( 词缀 ): 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.


4.2 Types of Morphemes Inflectional affixes

( 曲折词缀 ) Affixes attached to the

end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. For example: cats, walked, walking, John’s book…

Derivational affixes( 派生词缀 ) Affixes added to other

morphemes to create new words. They can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes

Prefixes( 前缀 ) Suffixes( 后缀 )



Diagram of morphemes

Morphemes

Free

Bound

Bound root

Affixes

Inflectional

Derivational

Prefix

Suffix


4.3 Allomorphs

An allomorph( 词素变体 ) is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds. For example: The morpheme of plurality {-s}: /s/ after the sounds

/t, p, k/; /z/ after /d, b, g, l/; /iz/ after /s, z, …/ go: went, gone


4.3 Allomorphs -ion/-tion/-sion/-ation are the positional variants of the same

suffix. Verbs ending with the sound /t/ usually take –ion (as in

invent, invention); verds ending with consonants other than /t/ take –tion (as

in describe, description); verbs ending in –ify and –ize take –ation (as in justify,

justification; modernize, modernization); verbs ending in –d, -de, or –mit, take –sion (as in

expansion, decision, omission); there are exceptions: attend, attention; convert, conversion, etc.


4.3 Allomorphs

A prefix like im- occurs before p, b, or m (imperfect, imbalance, immobile); its allomorphs are

ir- before r (irregular, irresponsible); il- before l (illogical, illegal); in- before all other consonants and vowels

(inflexible, incomplete).


Exercises

Decentralization Specialize Individualistic Half-hearted A man of letters Downfall Power-drunk


Exercises

Decentralization Specialize Individualistic Half-hearted A man of letters Downfall Power-drunk

de-, center, -al, -ize, -ation

species, -al, -ize in-, divide, -al, -ist, -ic half, heart, -ed a, man, of, letter, -s down, fall power, drink, an

allomorph of –ed


Exercises

Ecocrisis Meaningfulness Prediction Inequality understatement Undeveloped Downsizing Moonscape supernatural


Exercises Ecocrisis Meaningfulness Prediction Inequality understatement Undeveloped Downsizing Moonscape supernatural

eco-, crisis mean, -ing, -ful, -

ness pre-, -dict-, -ion -in, equal, -ity -under, state, -ment -un, develop, -ed down, size, -ing moon, -scape -super, nature, -al

Documents

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” English Lexicology (I)