词汇学

The knowledge of English lexicology
1.What is a word（词）?
A word is a minimal free form of language which has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function.
Four points:
(1)A minimal free form of a language;
(2)A sound unity;
(3)A unity of meaning;
(4)A form that can function alone in a sentence.
? For example: book, red
2.What is entry (字目，词条）?
Entry is a term used by dictionary compilers. It refers to all the information about a word that appears in a dictionary.
3.What is lexeme(词位)?
? In linguistic study, every entry (specifically the headword) which are collected into a dictionary is called a lexeme by linguists.
? A lexeme is an abstract unit in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN.
4. What is word form(词形）？
4.1 Different forms of a word which are caused by the change of tense, number, point of view, part of speech etc. are called word forms.
? For example：
。“Go”, “went”, and “gone” are word forms of the verb “go”. (Tense)
。“books” is a word forms of “book”. (Number)
。“Am”, “is”, “are”, “was” and “were” are all word forms of verb “be”. (Tense and number)
。“Happier” and “happiest” are the word form of the adjective “happy”. (Comparative degree)
5. What is vocabulary（词汇）?
? Vocabulary: All the words in a language are termed as vocabulary or lexicon. However, vocabulary can also be used to refer to all the words in a book, or in a particular historical period of time, or in a dialect, or in a particular discipline, or even to all the words that a person possesses.
6. What is Lexical unit(词汇单位)?
? Lexical unit (or lexical item) is a single word or chain of words that are the basic elements of a language's lexicon (vocabulary).
? Examples are “cat”, “traffic light”, “take care of”, “by-the-way”, and “it‘s raining cats and dogs”. The entire store of lexical items in a language is called its lexis(词库).
7. 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. Examples:
? One morpheme: nation, book, sun
? Two morphemes: national, bookish, sunny
? Three morphemes: nationalize, bookcases
? Four morphemes: denationalize, inevitability
7.1 The classification of morphemes
? According to the independence of the morpheme:
Free morpheme
Bound morpheme
? According to the semantic importance of the morpheme:

Root
Affix
Bound morphemes include bound root and bond affixes.
? 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 …/
? “Went”, “gone” are allomorphs of verb “go”.
8. Methods of word formation
8.1 Derivation(派生法)
8.2 Compounding（复合法）
8.3 Conversion（转换法）
8.4 Shortening（缩略法）
? Clipping（截短法）
? Initialism（首字母缩略法）
? Acronym（首字母拼音法）
? Blending（拼缀法）
8.5 Back-formation（逆生法）
8.6 Onomatopoeia（拟声法）
(1)What is derivation?
? The word formation method in which prefixes and suffixes are added to roots or bound root and bound root combine to form new words.
? Prefix + root + suffix
? Bound root + bound root
? The process by which noninflectional affixes are added to roots to form words is the process of derivation.
? Derivation(派生法) and derivatives（派生词）
(2) The definition of compounding and compound
? Compounding (composition) is a process of word formation by which two independent words are put together to make one word.
? Compounding is word formation method in which more than one free morpheme is combined to form a new word.
? The word formed by compounding is called compound.
(3) Definition of conversion
。Conversion refers to the word formation method in which the words gain the new meaning by directly converting the part of speech without changing its original form.
。Conversion is also called functional shift, transmutation, derivation by zero suffix or zero-derivation.
(4)Definition of Shortening
? Shortening is the word formation method in which some syllables of the word is abbreviated.
? Shortening is a word formation method in which a word become short by losing some of its syllables.
? Shortening is also called abbreviation.
(5)Back formation is the word formation method in which a new word is created by taking off the end of a simple word because people mistake the end for a suffix.
? Most of the back formed words are verbs and adjectives.
? Many verb compounds are back formed by nouns. Peoples’ names, place names and brand names can also back form new words.
? But back formation is not suitable in all the cases, so we can but back form words by our will. We have to refer o the dictionary.
(6)Onomatopoeia is the word formation method in which a word is make by sound imitating.
? The words which are created by the method are called onomatopoetic words, imitative words, or echo words.
9. What is word meaning?
In the triangle of significance, word meaning refers to the concept in human mind which is generalized from people’s sensation, perception and representation.
9.1 The composition of word meaning
（1） Grammatical meaning*（语法意义）
（2） Lexical meaning

（词汇意义） 包括：Conceptual meaning 和Conceptual meaning
（3） Conceptual meaning（概念意义）：又叫referential meaning所指意义, dictionary meaning。
? Core of word meaning
? Comparatively stable
? General and concrete
（4） Associative meaning（关联意义）
? The attached meaning
? It changes with the context
Associative meaning 包括：
? Connotative meaning(内涵意义)
? Stylistic meaning（文体意义）
? Affective meaning（情感意义）
? Collocative meaning（搭配意义）
（5）Stylistic meaning（文体意义）
Stylistic meaning of a word refers to the property of using it in a certain occasion.
? Neutral style
? Basic word stock in English and their feature
? Particular style
? Formal
? Informal
? Neologism and obsolescence
? Regional dialect and social dialect
（6）Affective meaning（情感意义）
? Affective meaning refers to the word property of expressing the emotion and attitudes of the speaker.
。Most of the words in English are neutral. Only a few of them are slanted or loaded.
。A special phenomenon is that several word share the same conceptual meaning, but differ in their affective meaning
? Slender—thin—skinny
? Gathering—crowd--mob
（7）Collocative meaning（搭配意义）
? Collocative meaning refers to the word property which use together with certain words according to the grammatical rules.
? Pretty boy
? Handsome boy
? Very good
? Fully awake
? Sound sleep
10. What is polysemy? （一词多义）
? Polysemy is the lexical phenomenon that one word has more than one meaning.
? Words which have more than one meaning are called polysemic words.
? Most of the English words are polysemic words.
10.1 Different meanings of polysemic words
? Primary meaning vs. extended meaning（原始意义和延伸意义）
? General meaning vs. specific meaning（普遍意义和特殊意义）
? Abstract meaning vs. concrete meaning（抽象意义和具体意义）
? Literal meaning vs. metaphorical meaning（字面意义和比喻意义）
（1）Primary meaning refers to the original meaning of a word.
（2）The meanings except for the primary meaning are extended meanings of a word.
（3）General meaning refers to the fact that the referent of the word is a collective.
（4）Specific meaning means that the referent of the words is a specific thing.
（5）Abstract meaning means that the referent of the word is a abstract thing, such as beauty, love and confidence.
（6）Concrete meaning means that the referent of the word is a concrete thing such as tree, book and car.
（7）Literal meaning is the meaning of the words which don’t employ any rhetoric usage.（8）Metaphorical meaning of a words is the meaning when a metaphor is involved in the usage.
11. What is homonymy? (同形异义词)
? Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that two or one than two words have the same spelling or/ the same pronunciation but have absolutel

y different meanings.
? Words which have the same pronunciation or the same spelling but different meaning are called homonyms.
11.1 The classification of homonymy
? Absolute homonymy (bound, bark)
? same spelling
? same pronunciation
? different meanings
? Homophone (hair, hare)
? same pronunciation
? different spelling
? different meaning
? Homograph (tear, bow)
? same spelling
? different pronunciation
? different meaning
12. Sense relations（词义关系）
? Synonymy 同义关系
? Antonymy 反义关系
? Hyponymy 上下义关系
? Taxonomy 分类关系
13. What is synonymy? （同义关系）
? Synonymy refers to the phenomenon that more than one words express the same meaning or concept.
? If more than one words express the same meaning, these words are called synonyms.
13.1 Types of synonyms
? Perfect synonyms: They are synonyms whish share completely same conceptual meaning and one can substitute another in any circumstances.
? Partial synonyms: If the words have the same or similar basic meanings, they are called partial synonyms.
? Costly, expensive, dear—having a high value or valuation, especially in terms of money
? Big, large, great—of large size, extent, importance.
14. What is antonymy? （反义关系）
? Antonymy is the lexical phenomenon in which two words are opposite in meaning.
? Two words which are opposite in meaning are called antonyms.
（1）Types of antonyms
? Absolute antonyms绝对反义词
? Gradable antonyms可分级反义词
? Relational antonyms关系反义词
? Semantic incompatibles多项不相容词
。Absolute antonyms are also called contradictory terms, binary antonyms or complementaries.
。Absolute antonyms are antonyms which the affirmation of one is the denial of another. eg: dead-alive right-wrong
。Two antonyms are gradable if there are intermediate forms between them, and even outside of them.
? e.g.: old—elder—middle-aged—young
Hot—warm—tepid—lukewarm--cool--cold
? Pair of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship are called relational antonyms.
? E.g.: husband—wife
Parent—child
Doctor--patient
Semantic incompatibles
? More than two words coexist in a language and they are incompatible to each other.
? e.g.: north, south, east, west
Spring, summer, autumn, winter
The usages of antonyms
? Oxymoron矛盾修饰法
It is a kind of rhetoric usage in which two antonyms are used side by side to achieve an opposite but harmonious special effect.
e.g.: a clever fool painful pleasure
15. Hyponymy（下义关系）
? Hyponymy is the sense relation between a general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. It is the relation of inclusion.
? The general word is called superordinate. Those specific words are called hyponyms. A group of hyponyms of a superordinate are called co-hyponyms.
16.Taxonomy分类关系
? Taxonymy（分类学） is the science of st

udying the classification of things.
? The study of the classification of English words are called lexical taxonymy(词汇分类学).
? The relationship between the classified words are called taxonymy(分类关系).
16.1 The features of taxonomy
（1）X is a type of Y.
（2）It is a semantic relation which is within five layers.
（3） Lexical gaps are unavoidable.
16.2 Types of taxonomy
? 1. perfect taxonomy
? 2. non-perfect taxonomy
? Taxonomy with lexical gaps
? Quisi-taxonomy
17. Change of word meaning
? Expansion of words meaning(词义扩大）
? Narrowing of word meaning（词义缩小）
? Elevation of word meaning（词义升格）
? Degradation of word meaning（词义降格）
? Semantic shift （词义转移）
18. Expansion of words meaning (词义扩大）
18.1 The change of word meaning from special to general is called expansion of words meaning.
It is also called the enlarging, the widening, extension or the generalization of word meaning. E.g.: lady, scene, and barn
18.2 Different types of meaning expansion
? 1. from special to general (pipe)
? 2. from concrete to abstract (grasp)
? 3. from technical words to common words (complex)
? 4. from proper noun to common words (sandwich)
19. Narrowing of word meaning (词义缩小)
? The change of word meaning from special to general is the narrowing of word meaning.
? It is also called the restriction of word meaning or the specialization of word meaning.
? E.g.: deer, girl, disease
19.1 Different types of meaning narrowing
? 1. from general too special (meat)
? 2. from abstract to concrete (room)
? 3. from common words to proper nouns (the Cape)
? 4. from common words to technical words (memory)
? 5. the narrowing of the meaning of loan words (garage)
20. Elevation of word meaning
? It is the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance.
? Some words early in their history signify something quite low or humble, but change as time goes by to designate something agreeable or pleasant.
? 词义的升华指词由贬义或中性转变为褒义。即，有些词在历史上表示“卑微、下贱”之义，随着时间的推移转为“惬意的，愉快的”。
? Elevation of word meaning is also called ascent or amelioration of word meaning.
? Typical examples:
? Inn: small and shabby hotels beside a country road—any hotel
? Knight: servant or retainer—the lowest noble man in Great Britain.
? Fond: foolish--loving
21. The degradation of word meaning
? It is a process whereby words of good origin or affective neutrality fall into ill reputation or come to be used in a derogatory sense.
? 这是一个词由原先表示中性意义或褒义转为表示贬义的过程。
? Degradation of word meaning is also called the degeneration, deterioration, catachresis or pejoration of meaning.
? Typical example:
? Silly: Happy, fortunate—innocent, harmless—foolish, imbecile
? Cunning: knowing, skillf

ul—sly
? Knave: boy—servant—person of low social positions
22. Semantic shift(词义转移)
22.1 Metaphor（隐喻）is the use of one thing to represent another based on the similarities between them. Likeness and associations are the bases on metaphor.
E.g.: the head of the bead
? Wings of the plane
? the root of a hair
? Knee-cap
? Lamb
? To ape, to fox
? The similarities of the metaphor include the similarity on shape, fiction and affection
22.2 Metonymy（借代）is the substitution of one thing with anther because of the relations between them.
E.g.: The Kettle is boiling
? I’m reading Lu Xun
? The White House is investigating it.
? Distinguishing metaphors and metonymy
? Transferred epithet and synaesthesia
22.3 Synecdoche（提喻）：This kind of transfer takes place between words of sensation. That is, words usually associated with one sense are used to describe another sense.
E.g. Clear-sounding (from sight to hearing)
? Warm colors (from touch to sight)
? Sweet voice/music (from taste to hearing)
Synecdoche is using a part to represent the whole or using the whole to represent a part.
E.g.: He saw new faces there.
? To earn one’s bread
? Chins won the football match.