Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Linguistic Notions:
1. Cognate
2. Etymology
3. Jargon
4. The core vocabulary
5. The learned vocabulary
6. Dialect
7. Inflection
6.
Linguistic knowledge
3. Language classification
(a) Isolating
Each idea expressed in a separate word or morpheme; words tend to be monosyllabic
e.g, Chinese;
(b) Agglutinative
Words made of multiple syllables; each syllable has meaning e.g., Turkish. For example, ev
(house), evler (houses), evlerde (in the houses), evlerden (from the houses)
(c) Inflective
An alteration in or addition to a form of a word to indicate such things as case, gender, number,
mood, and tense; one fusional affix may mark several grammatical categories at the same time,
e.g., Latin & Old English
(d) Incorporative
Major sentence elements incorporated into single word e.g., Inuktitut (Eskimo):
Qasuiirsarvigssarsingitluinarnarpuq means "Someone did not find a completely suitable resting
place"
4. Language family
In time, with enough migrations, a single language can evolve into an entire family of
languages.
Languages in the same family, share many common grammatical features and many of the
key words
Indo-European language family
5. Language change
Accents
Dialects
Languages
Expanding vocabulary
1.applaud / explode
2.gossip, kidnap
1. comprise
2. incomprehensible
3. accelerate
4.
target words
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
inference
attribute
venerable
vulnerable
illustrative
environment
For English majors, we should have some ideas about the historical development of
the English vocabulary as well as about its rapid growth today.
Period of full inflections
450-1066, Old English
1066-1476, Middle English Period of leveled inflections
1476--1776,Early Modern English Period of lost inflections
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.
A. Old English or Anglo-Saxon period (449-1066): contains some fifty or sixty
thousand words, which were chiefly Anglo-Saxon with a small mixture of Old
Norse (a general term for the Scandinavian language in its very early stage)words
as a result the Scandinavian or the Danish conquests of England in the ninth
century. But the Old Norse words (such as are, they, their, them, till, call die,
give, take, skin, sky, window, ill , weak, etc.) were so much like the Anglo-Saxon
that it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. The English
language borrowed words from Latin during the Old English period, especially
after the introduction of Christianity into Britain in 597. It is natural that most of
the Latin words borrowed at that time were related to religion,
Note: Foreign Influence on the old English (all loan words here are in their
modern form).
The Celtic
Affix inherited: for-, in-, -ful, -dom, -hood, -ship, -ness, -the, -ful, -ish
The Latin
altar, candle, disciple, hymn, martyr, nun, priest, pope, shrine, temple
Suffix inherited from Latin: -able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive
changes to the vocabulary. In this period, the study of classics was stressed and
the result was the wholesale borrowing from Latin. The Latin loan words were
now mostly connected with science and abstract ideas, such as chemist, function,
scientific, vacuum; area, irony, theory, education, adapt, exist, appropriate,
precise, and many of them become part of the everyday speech of the English
people. The renewed study of Greek in the renaissance not only led to the
borrowing of Greek words indirectly through the medium of Latin, but also led to
the introduction of some Greek words directly into the English vocabulary. Greek
borrowings were mostly literary, technical and scientific words: drama, comedy,
tragedy, lexicon, criterion, botany, physics.
D. Modern English (1776--) From the 16th century onward, English borrowed
words form an increasing number of languages, the major ones being the three
Romance languages: French, Spanish and Italian.
French: attach, charge daffaires, caf
Italian: particularly dominant in the fields of music, art and architecture, for
example, concert, duet, piano, soprano, solo, tenor, model, bust, studio, dome
balcony, piazza
Spanish: armada, cargo, vanilla, cocoa, cigar
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result exploration, colonization and
trade, many words come in form Non-European languages. As summed up in The
Encyclopedia Americana: The English language has vast debts. In any dictionary
some 80% of the entries are borrowed. So English is supposed to have the most
copious vocabulary of all the languages in the world, estimated at more than a million
words. (1980)
E. The rapid growth of present-day English vocabulary (especially after
World War II) and its causes
After World War II, neologisms (new words or new meanings for established
words) swept in at a rate much faster than that of that of the pre-war period. The
main reasons for neologism are the following:
a. marked progress of science the technology
nuclear bomb: chain reaction, radioactivity, fall-out, clean bomb, overkill,
megadeath, neuron bomb, medium-range ballistic missiles
exploration of space: astronaut and cosmonaut (both are Russian words), blast
off, countdown, capsule, launching pad, space suit, spacemen, space platform,
space shuttle
computer science: software, hardware, input, output, memory, monitor,
process, programming, data base, internet, log on (off), etc.
word
morpheme
phoneme
allomorph
Notions
5. root
6. affix
1. Expanding vocabulary
1. Renaissance
2. the rise of literacy
3. the proficiency of Latin
4. have access to books
5. recyclable units
6. poodle cut
7. bangs
8. bunches
9. ducktail cut
10. dreadlock
2. Stories behind words
1. assassin/ assassination
2. bangs
3. Roots learning
Properties of morphemes
Derivational affixes have not only independent lexical meaning but also affective
meaning.
It is interesting to note that a few dead derivational morphemes are sometimes
revived:
-wise (in terms of, in connection with): weatherwise, moneywise, budgetwise,
etc.
New ones are coined from time to time: When Russian word sputnik came into
English in 1957, the morpheme nik became available to speakers of English: beatnik,
peacenik, computernik.
Derivational morphemes are commonly subdivided into prefixes and suffixes.
Affixes before the word are called prefixes; those after are called suffixes.
Both prefixes and suffixes can be grouped according to:
a. linguistic origin
b. productivity
Questions:
1. Explain the following terms and provide examples:
Morpheme allomorph free morpheme bound morpheme prefix suffix
2. What are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes?
Word-formation rules: the rules of word-formation define the scope and methods
whereby speakers of a language may create new words; any rule of word-formation is
of limited productivity in the sense that not all words which result form the
application of the rule are acceptable; they are freely acceptable only when they have
gained an institutional currency in the language. For example, readable is acceptable,
but writable is not.
Root, stem and base are terms used in linguistics to designate that part of a word that
remains when all affixes have been removed. Modern linguistics, however, have made
some attempts to distinguish between these three terms:
A root is a form which is not further analyzable, either in terms of derivational or
inflectional morphology. It is the basic part always present in a lexeme.
A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology.
A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added.
The percentage of firmly established new words coined by the above processes, since
World War II is shown in the following table:
The three major processes of word-formation:
Compounding or composition (about 27%)
Derivation or affixation (about 17.5%)
Conversion ( about 10.5)
Note that words formed by these processes account for 55% of the new vocabulary
The eight minor processes of word-formation:
blackboard
black board
bluefish
blue fish
bluebottle
blue bottle
greenhouse
green house
but accent does not always work so neatly:
backyard grassroots redtape short-sighted shrink-wrap
c. Semantic criteria: some linguists define a compound as a combination forming a
unit expressing a single idea. This is a rather vague criterion. Sometimes the
lexical meanings of the components are the sum meanings of its constituents. For
example: backdoor sunset; sometimes one can not always tell what the compound
means by the words it contains. For example: dog days (the hottest days of the
year-------in July and August), flatfoot (a policeman), blue blood (the quality of
being a nobleman by birth), blue ribbon (an honor given to the winner of the first
prize in a competition.)
Semantically, therefore, compounds can be said to have a meaning which may be
related to but cannot always be inferred from the meaning of its component parts,
and none of the these criteria can be used as the only marker to define a
compound.
Classification of Compounds
1. Noun compounds: S+V/V+S heartbeat headache crybaby
V+O pickpocket birth-control dressmaking housekeeping
S+O/O+S steam boat honey bee gaslight
V+adverbial swimming pool drinking cup typing
paper
S+C/ C+S frogman tearoom girl friend
Exocentric compounds:(Informal in style) birdbrain
blockhead butterfingers egghead fathead loudmouth scarecrow
2. Adjective compounds: V+O breath-taking heartbreaking
V + adverbial oceangoing air-borne town-bred self-styled
Easy-going far-reaching Dry-cleaned class-conscious labor-intensive
No-verb: fireproof tax-free airsick this kind is very productive,
especially with such adjectives: free (from), proof (against), weary (of),
etc.
Grey-green grass-green auditory-visual aural-oral Sino-Italian socioeconomic
Franco-German deaf-mute
Phrasal or sentence formation:
This endless talked-about topic bored me.
My grandfather displayed a never-to-be-too-old-to-learn spirit.
He has been of the look-before-you-leap sort.
It is a completely cards-on-the-table conference.
He told the whole story in a matter-of-fact tone.
the do-what-you-can-and-take-what-you-need policy
once-in-a-life-time trip
a cant-be-put-down book
do-it-yourself repairs
3. Verb compounds:
O+V lip read fire-watch brain-wash
Adverbial +verb bottle-feed daydream sleep-walk window-shop
The most commonly-used formations of reduplicatives are as follows:
Rat-a-tat goody-goody walkie-talkie criss-cross din-din tick-tock ticktack
Ping-pang flip-flop hocus-pocus wish-washy dilly-dally shilly-shally
Teeny-weeny teensy-weensy tip-top
We still have a large number of words which do not fit in anywhere:
has-been: a person or thing that was formerly popular or effective but is no longer
so
also-ran: any loser in a race, competition, election, etc.
Words like dew-bright lemon-fragrant coffee-pot-fresh are often seen in
advertising.
Thank you for your up-to-the-minute information.
The old man would sit for hours, thinking sadly of all the might-have-beens.
1. III. Derivation
Derivation or affixation is generally defined as a word-formation process by
which new words are created by adding a prefix, or suffix, or both , to the base.
To be more exact, derivation may be defined as a process of forming new words by
the addition of a word element, such as a prefix, suffix or combining form, to an
already existing word.
Combining form is a term of questionable value. Standard dictionaries differ in
their label of some of the affixes and combining forms, for instance: micro- macroare labeled combining forms in the OED and COD, but they are marked as prefixes in
LDOCE.
1. Prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefix or combining form to
the base. Prefixes modify the lexical meaning of the base. They do not generally
alter the word-class of the base. But it has been found that there are quite a number
of prefixes in current English which do convert words to a different word-class in
comparison with their original bases, such as, be- adj.
deenunantiinter-
postpreClassification of prefixes:
In Grammar of contemporary English (by Quirk et al. 1972) the major living
prefixes are classified into the following 8 categories by their meaning:
a. negative prefixes: un-, non-, in-, dis-, a-,
b. reversative prefixes: un-, de-, disc. pejorative prefixes: mis- , mal-, pseudo-,
d. prefixes of degree or size: arch-, super-, out-, sub--, over-, under-, hyper-,
ultra-, mini-,
e. prefixes of attitude: co-, counter-, pro-, anti-,
f. locative prefixes: super-, sub-, inter-, transg. prefixes of time and order: fore-, pre-, post-, ex-, re-,
h. number prefixes: uni-, mono-, bi-, di-, tri-, multi-, poly-,
2. Suffixation
Suffixation is the formation of a new word by adding a suffix or a combining
form to the base, and usually changing the word-class of the base.
Classification of suffixes:
a. noun-forming suffixes:
b. adjective-forming suffixes:
c. verb-forming suffixes:
d. adverb-forming suffixes:
3. Brief description of some productive suffixes in current English
-able, -er, -in, -ish, -ize, -y, -ese,
4. Differentiating suffixes:
English has many pairs of adjectives ending in ic and ical, which bear a
difference in meaning.
historic: notable or memorable in history, as in a historic speech
historical: pertaining to history, as in a historical novel
economic: of economics, connected with commerce and industry, as in national
economic policy
economical: not wasteful; careful in the spending of money, time, etc. and in the
use of goods, as in the car is economical to run.
comic: of comedy; causing people to laugh, as in a comic opera
comical: slightly derogatory. and infml. amusing in an odd way, as in a comical
old hat
politic: (of person) acting or judging wisely, prudent; (of actions), tactful, as in
his politic behavior
political: concerned with politics, as in for political reasons
other pairs of words with different meanings brought about by different
suffixes: e.g
womanly: having or showing the qualities suitable to a woman.
B. Conversion to Verb:
b. de-nominal
bottle, corner, position, floor (to put in N)
coat, commission, mask, plaster (to provide with N)
core, skin, peel, gut (to deprive that of N)
knife, brake, finger (to do with N)
father, nurse, pilot, (to be or act as N )
cash, group ( to make or change.into N)
mail, telegraph, bicycle, boat, motor, canoe (to go or travel by N)
c. de-adjectival
calm, dirty, soundproof, lower, better ( to make adj. or to make more
adj.)
dry, empty, narrow, yellow, gray, blue, (to become adj.)
d. conversion from closed-class words and non-lexical items to
verbs:
They downed tools in protest.
She will off and do her own thing.
i.
conversion to adjective
a. de-nominal
A brick garage--------The garage is brick.
Worcester porcelain---------This porcelain is Worcester.
A very Oxbridge accent--------His accent is Oxbridge.
The noun form occurs in predicative as well as attributive positions. It is
worth noting that a noun often functions as a pre-modifier in cases where
there is no adjective to perform that function in the English language.
c. conversion from phrases to adj.
An up-in-the-air feeling-------------I feel up in the air.
An upper-class manner---------------His manner is very upper-class.
He will be given a face-to-face interview
It is all to nothing that they will succeed.
Clipping or Shortening
The process of clipping involves the deletion of one or more syllables from a word
(usually a noun), which is also available in its full form. Clippings may be divided
into four types :
a. Back clippings: ad (=advertisement), amp (=ampere, amplifier), auto
(=automobile), champ (=champion), gym(=gymnastics),homo(=homosexual),
b. Front clippings: bus (=omnibus),chute (=parachute), plane (=airplane),
copter (=helicopter), quake (=earthquake), phone(=telephone), scope
(=telescope, microscope, radarscope, etc.)
c. Front and Back clippings: flu (=influenza), fridge (=refrigerator),
tec( sl.=detective novel)
d. Phrase clippings: nark (narcotics agent, one as a government agent who
investigates narcotics violations), non-com(non-commissioned officer), perm
(permanent wave) pop (=popular music, concert, or record)
Clipping often alters spelling; for example, business---biz, bicycle----bike,
sergeant----sarge, comfortable-----comfy, handkerchief----hanky, teenager----
Blending
novelties.
IV.
Back-formation
Back-formation refers to a type of word-formation by which a shorter word is formed
by deleting a supposed affix from a longer form already present in the language.
Many back-formation are created by analogy:
Loaf
loafer gangle
gangling donate
donation edit
editor bulldoze
bulldozer escalator r escalator vacuum-clean vacuum-cleaner
cross multiply cross multiplication calligraph calligraphy ept inept
flappable
unflappable gloom gloomy greed
greedy
Science and technology often have an apparent need for verbs changed from nouns
by the process of back-formation. It will continue to make needed and substantial
contributions to English vocabulary.
V.
Words from Proper Names
These kinds of new words come from all sources, from names of scientists, politicians
and statesmen to trademarks and place name. Some have originated from characters in
literature, IV films and movies, but some also come from book titles.
a. words from the names of scientists:
watt ( James Watt, an Englishman), volt ( Alessandro Volta, an Italian ), ohm
(Georg Ohm, a German), ampere ( Andre Ampere, a Frenchman), hertz ( H.R.
Hertz, German), pasteurize ( Louis Pasteur, French chemist, the father of modern
bacteriology), Curie (the unit of radioactivity, adopted in honor of Madam Curie )
b. words from the names of politicians and statesmen:
Nicotine: a poisonous alkaloid found in tobacco leaves, named after Jean Nicot, a
French diplomat who introduced tobacco into France in the 16th century.
John Hancock: meaning ones signature, comes from John Hancock, one of the
American revolutionary leaders, who was the first to sigh his mane on the
Declaration of Independence, and who did so in bold and legible letters.
Quisling: comes from the name of a Norwegian army officer V.A.I. Quisling
(1887-1945), who helped the Germans invade his own country, and became the
head of a puppet state from 1940-1945. He was executed for treason in 1945.
McCarthyism: derived from the name of a U.S. Senator J. R. McCarthy (19091957), means policy of hunting out (suspected) Communists and removing them
esp. from Government departments. (COD)
c. Words from the names of places:
china, japan, champagne, a-go-go (a night club for dancing to live or recorded
pop music, from Whisky a Gogo caf and discotheque in Paris)
Berlin Wall (a barrier preventing communication, especially the free flow of
information) (SBDONE)
Neoclassical Formation
The majority of neoclassical formations are scientific and technical. Examples are:
aeroacostics: the study of sound propagation in the air and its effect on the
environment.
astrochemistry: the study of the chemical composition of heanvenly bodies and the
regions of outer space.
bacteriocin: an antibacterial agent produced by bacteria
centisecond: one hundredth of a second
densometer: an instrument of measuring the porosity of paper by forcing air through it
psychedelic: causing an exposure of normally repressed psychic elements
With the advance of science and technology, more and more new names will be
created along classical lines. Some of them are labeled ISV (International Scientific
Vocabulary)
VIII. Miscellaneous
Genuine coinage is rare. Some of few examples are as follows:
quack: coined by an American physicist Muray Gell-Mann to name an imaginary
particle bearing a charge of electricity.
pizzazz (pizzazz): to describe a person with exciting attractiveness or a thing showing
spirit and vitality.
muckraker: coined by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 to indicate a group of journalists
who were conducting investigations of corruption in business and politics.
vroom: any of the sounds made by a motor vehicle in accelerating or as an
intransitive verb, meaning to make or move off with, such sounds.
Other onomatopoeic words:
chugalug: the sound of a person swallowing a liquid
What is meaning?
In his book Semantics John Lyons gives us ten sentences to discuss what meaning is:
a. What is the meaning of sesquitedalian ? (signify)
b. I did not mean to hurt you. (intend)
c. He never says what he means.
d. She rarely means what she says.
e. Life without faith has no meaning. (significance/ value)
f. What do you mean by the word concept (intend to say)
g. He means well but hes rather clumsy.
h. Fame and richness mean nothing to the true scholar.
i. Dark clouds mean rain. ( a sign of )
j. It was John I meant not Harry.(speak of/ have in mind)
From the examples given above it is evident that this sense of meaning cannot be
explained or understood except in relation to the notions of intension, on the one
hand, and significance (or value), on the other hand, which are relevant to the
interpretation of at least some of the other senses of meaning and to mean. (John
Lyons: Semantics Vol. 1, p3)
II.
a. grammatical meaning
Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning identical in individual forms
of different forms of different words, for example, the tense meaning, the case
meaning and the plurality meaning. (asked, went, did; children, geese, boxes,
ants;)
b. lexical meaning
Lexical meaning is the meaning of an isolated word in a dictionary. This
component of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word. (go, goes, went,
gone, going )
c. contextual meaning
The context meaning determines which meaning out of all the possible meanings
is to be attached to the word. Examples:
(1) Some of this country are much warmer than others.
(2) After many years abroad he wanted to return to his country.
(3) The country is opposed to war.
(4) What does a farming country mean ? (land with a special nature)
(5) Were hoping to go for a day in the country if the weathers fine
tomorrow.
(6) This is unknown country (a branch of learning) to me.
d. denotative meaning
Oliver had not been within the walls of the workhouse a quarter of an hour, when Mr. Bumble,
.returned; and telling him it was a board night, informed him that the board had said he was to
appear before it forthwith. Not having a very clearly defined notion of what a live board was,
Oliver was rather astonished by this intelligence, Bow to the board said Bumble. Oliver
brushed away two or three tears that were lingering in his eyes, and seeing no board but the table,
fortunately bowed to that.
Another example is the word fond, which once meant foolish in old English. Then it
was specialized to foolish or doting affection, but now it means loving in a kind,
gentle, or tender way. It is interesting to note that other meanings of the word fond
involve the value of foolish n Modern English. Look at the following examples:
(1) A fond mother may spoil her child. (foolishly loving)
(2) In spite of his bad results in the examination, he has a fond belief in his own
cleverness. (foolishly trusting or hopeful)
(3) You are too fond of leaving the door open when you go out. (having the
bad/foolish habit of)
IV.
Homonymy
Homonymy is a term used to refer to two or more words, which have the same form,
but differ in meaning. They are pronounced alike, or spelled alike, or both. Modern
English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words. The abundance of homonyms in
Modern English may be due to the monosyllabic structure of many common English
words, because monosyllabic words stand a far better chance of being homonyms
than others.
1. Types of homonyms
A. Perfect homonyms: words are identical both in sound and in spelling but
different in meaning, such lie, page, base, meet.
B. Homophones: words are identical in sound but different in spelling and
meaning, such as air/heir, deer/dear, compliment/complement, pair/pear,
son/sun, bear/bare, principal/principle, stationary/stationery.
C. Homographs: words identical in spelling but different in sound and
meaning, such as lead/lead, sow/sow, tear/tear, prayer/prayer,
sewer/sewer
2. Sources of homonyms
A. phonetic convergence
Old Norse ras
/reis/
French race
ea /e:/ (in Shakespeares time)-------/i:/ (in present-day English)
bean/been, beat/beet, flea/flee, heal/heel, read/reed, sea/see, seam/seem,
steal/steel
B. semantic divergence
Homonymy can also be brought about through diverging sense development. When
two or more meanings of the same word drift apart to such an extent that there will be
no obvious connection between them, polysemy will give place to homonymy
(Ullmann 1977:177) It is quite difficult to say where polysemy ends and homonymy
begins.
flour/flower, metal/mettle, mantle/mantel, gate/gait, sole/sole, to long/long
C. Foreign influence
fair: attractive, beautiful, lovely (OE)
fair: a gathering of people held at regular intervals for barter and sale of goods (L,
holiday)
sound: healthy, not diseased or injured or rotten (OE)
sound: sensation caused in ear by vibration of surrounding air (OF, L)
sound: test depth or quality of bottom of (sea, channel, pond, etc.) (ME, OF)
sound: arm of sea; narrow passage of water connecting two seas or sea with lake, etc.
(OE sund, ON sund swimming strait)
D. shortening
Homomyms may also be created by the word-formation process of clipping.
pop (popular)/pop (to thrust, to push)
rock( rocknroll)/rock (stone forming part of the earths surface)
hood (hoodlum)/hood (a covering for the whole of the head and neck)
Polysemy and homonymy may bring confusion to the language and cause ambiguity,
but the punster often makes use of this ambiguity to play on words and achieve
humor. There are ample illustrations of punning and word play in literature. For
example:
----I do look nice in the picture, dont I ?
---Well, mam, the answer lies in the negative.
---- How is bread made?
----You take some flour
----Where do you pick the flower? In a garden or in the hedges?
-----Well, it isnt picked at all, its ground..
-----How many acres of ground?
_____(from Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland)
------Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, Thou makest thy knife keen.
_____from The Merchant of Venice (Act IV, Scene 1)
-----On Sunday they pray for you and on Monday they prey on you. (
)
V.
Synonymy
1. What are synonyms?
The word synonym is derived from Greek synomymon, of like meaning or like
name. Synonyms are traditionally defined as words differing in sound form but
identical or similar in meaning. The Third Webster defines it as a word having
the same meaning as another word: as one of two or more words of the same
language and grammatical category having the same essential or generic meaning
and differing only in connotation, application, or idiomatic use: one of two or
more words having essentially identical definitions..
2. Two Kinds of Synonyms
a. complete synonyms: two words are totally synonymous only if they are fully
identical in meaning and interchangeable in any context without the slightest
alteration in connotative, affective and stylistic meanings. Absolute synonyms are
rather rare in language, but it would be wrong to believe that complete synonyms
do not exist. They may be found in scientific terms which are precisely delimited
and neutral in affective meaning and stylistic meaning.
scarlet fever-----------scarlatina caetitis-------typhlitis
word formation---------word building motherland--------fatherland
mother tongue-----------native language
b. relative synonyms: quasi-synonymous words, differing from complete synonyms
in the following respects:
(1) in shade of meaning
cf. finish, complete, close, conclude, end, terminate, finalize
anger, rage, fury, indignation, wrath
(2) in stylistic meaning
cf. to die, to pass away, to kick the bucket
to chide, to berate, to scold, to blame, to carpet, to tell off, to bawl out
(3) in emotive meaning
Negro, nigger, black; thrifty, miserly, niggardly, frugal; bravery, foolhardiness;
firm, pigheaded;
(4) in range of use: about and on
(5) in collocation
pretty (girl, child, flower, garden, color, village, cottage)
handsome (boy, man , car, table, overcoat, airliner, house)
a flock of sheep, a herd of elephants, a shoal of fish, a swarm of bees
to sail a small boat, to navigate a liner; rancid butter (bacon), addled eggs (brains)
(6) in British and American usage
sick and ill, sidewalk and pavement, gas and petrol, movie and film, elevator and
lift, can and tin, mail and post, railroad and railway, call box and telephone booth,
taxi stand and cab rank, muffler and silencer, sedan and saloon, ranger and
commando, etc.
Language is like dress. We vary our dress to suit the occasion. We do not appear
Hyponymy
Hyponymy is the relationship which obtains between specific and general lexical
items. For example, a cat is a hyponym of animal, chair of furniture, and so on.
Food
Meat
Vegetable
fruit
Neologisms are newly coined words or words that are given new meaning to suit new
situation because of social, economic, political, cultural, scientific and technical
changes in human society.
Archaisms are also called obsolete words, which are not used now except for special
purposes.
The reasons for the disappearance of words could be:
a. the thing that the word denotes has disappeared
b. the existence of synonyms
c. the collision of two homonyms
But some obsolete words may be still used at the present time:
a. obsolete words survived in some fixed phrases or idioms: such as, Many a little
makes a michle (large amount)
b. some obsolete words survive but different from it original meaning, such as,
trident, armour, albeit (all be it, though).
c. Some obsolete words remain in Modern English as purely historical terms, or in
poetry and fiction, for example:
1. The boy is fair, of female favour ( looks, countenance,from Shakespeare: As
You Like It)
2. I saw the potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.
(quire: choir, T.S. Eliot: The Hippopotamus)
C. By word-formation
D. By adding new meanings to existing words, such dove and hawk
E. By borrowing words from other languages
F. By analogy in which a word derives from the form of another existing word,
such as apolune and perilune coming from the words aphelion and perihelion
(see p110)
II.
Changes in the denotative component of the lexical meaning may result in the
extension or the narrowing of the meaning; changes in the connotative component
may bring about the elevation of meaning and the degradation of meaning.
A. Extension of meaning (Generalization)
a. from specific to general: picture
b. from proper nouns to common nouns: champagne
c. from concrete to abstract: matter, thing
d. from technical terms to general words: catalyst
B. Narrowing of meaning(Specification)
a. from general to specific: meat, wife, starve
b. from abstract to concrete: gear( habit, manners)
c. from common nouns to proper nouns: the Mediterranean
C. Elevation of meaning (Amelioration)
That is the acquisition by a word of good implication: success, minister, marshal,
politician
D. Degradation of meaning (Deterioration)
Words with a commendatory meaning may become ones with a derogatory sense.
a. A word falls into disrepute because of social prejudice against certain
classes and occupations
b. A word becomes less respectable because of euphemism: undertaker:
from an influential person in the 17th century England who undertook to
procure particular legislation, especially to obtain supplies from House of
Commons if the king would grant some concession to one whose
business is to carry out arrangements for funerals
III.
Semantic Changes from the Literal Use of Words to Their Figurative Use:
Many inanimate objects are compared to the parts of the human body, for example,
eye
the eye of a needle, the eye of a potato, the eye of an axe, the eye of a flower, the eye
of a peacocks tail, the eye of a dome, the eye of the hurricane, the eye of the
revolution, the eye of the law, in ones minds eye
other parts of the body, such as tooth, mouth, lip, tongue, nose, head, leg, foot, brow,
elbow, arm, heart, lung, hand, rib, sinew, may also be used in a figurative way:
the teeth of a comb, the mouth of a river, the lip of a cup, the tongue of a shoe, the
nose of a car (or gun), the head of a hammer, the leg of a table, the foot of the wall,
the brow of a hill, the elbow of a pipe, the arm of the sea, the heart of darkness, the
lungs of London, the hand of a clock, the ribs of a boat, the sinews of war
b. animal metaphors:
an ass: a stupid foolish person
a pig: a dirty, greedy person
a mouse: especially a woman, who is quiet and easily afraid
a goose: a silly person, especially female
a cat: a nasty person
a rat: a low worthless disloyal man
a lion: a famous and important person
a fox: a person who deceives others by means of clever tricks
a tiger: a person like such an animal in fierceness, courage, etc.
a donkey: a foolish slow-thinking person or one who refuses to do as he is told
a owl: a solemn person, wise-looking dullard
a mule: a stupid or obstinate person
an ape: a person who copies the behavior of others
a monkey: a child who is full of annoying playfulness and tricks
a parrot: a person who repeats, often without understanding, the words or action of
another
a jackal: a person who does preparatory drudgery , etc. or who assists anothers
immoral behavior
a black sheep: a person regarded with disfavor or shame compared to others in a
group
a dark horse: a person whose abilities are hidden or unknown
c. synesthetic metaphors:
Synesthetic metaphors are metaphors used to refer to a direct association
between the form and the meaning of language.
warm or cold voice loud colors sweet sound or music piercing (acute)
sound grave news stormy quarrel golden opportunity stony heart dirty
night
B. Metonymy
Metonymy is another important factor in the shift of meaning that involves
substitution of the name of one thing for that of another closely associated with it.
According to the different associations between names and senses metonymy can be
classified as follows:
a. names of persons and animals:
Uncle Sam Uncle Tom John Bull John Doe the British Lion the Bear ( the
Soviet Union)
I like reading Lu Xun and Shakespeare
b. parts of the body :
foot :infantry (horse, foot and artillery)
heart: feelings, e.g. Her heart rules her head.
head: mind, brain e.g. It never entered his head to help me.
brain: mind, intelligence: e.g. He doesnt got much brain.
Phrases and idioms: to see eye to eye with
to pay through the nose for
to play by ear
to lay a finger on
head and shoulders above
with open arms
head over heels
under sbs thumb
d. locations or businesses:
White House Whitehall Downing Street Kremlin Hollywood Wall Street
Pentagon Beijing Bolin press bench
the
e. containers or materials
e.g. The kettle is boiling.
He drank a cup.
His favorite dish is fried steak.
He had only a few coppers in his pocket.
He has 20 in notes and 5 in silver.
Brevity is the chief virtue of metonymy. It is one of the most widely used method to
augment the meaning of a word.
C. Synecdoche
Synecdoche is a figure of speech that involves the substitution of the part for the
whole or the whole for the part. For example:
There are five sails in the harbor.
We are short of hands.
Two pencils are given per head.
He manages to earn his bread.
D. Euphemism
Euphemism is the substitution of a word of more pleasant connotation for one of
unpleasant connotation. For example, death is one of these things and the English
is full of expressions like: to decease
to join the (great) majority
to pass away
to breathe ones last
to go west
to go to heaven
to be in heaven
to yield up the ghost
to go to ones last reckoning
to go the way of all the earth
to go the way of all flesh
to go the way of nature
to go hence
to go out of this world
to go to a better world
to go to the better
to expire
to depart from life
to be taken or called
to be gone
to succumb to
to kick the bucket
to come to an untimely end
to come to a sticky end
to cross the bar ( or Bar)
to lose (somebody)
to be food for worms
to be food for fishes
to feed the fishes
to be no more
to be close at hand
to make ones exit
Introductory Remarks
learning English idioms is trying to understand its correct meaning but use them
with great caution.
b) The Features of English Idioms
Generally speaking, English idioms are usually made of commonly used words.
They are brief and terse in wording, fixed and sometimes irregular in structure,
metaphorical and vivid in meaning. The following are some of their features:
i.
vi.
vii.
ii.
iii.
Phrase Idioms
1. Verb phrase idioms: combinations of a verb and an adverb or a
preposition or both
Verb phrase idioms are the most important and common type of English
idioms. Most of them are made up of one-syllable words, and are of
native Anglo-Saxon origin. The most common ones are: break, blow,
bring, call, catch, come, do, fall, get, give, go, hold, keep, day, look,
make, put, run, set, stand, take, turn, work, etc.
Adverbs and prepositions that can go with those words are: about,
across, at, away, back, by, down, for, in, into, off, on, out, over, around,
through, to, up, with, etc.
In contemporary English, however, verb phrase idioms are decidedly
preferred to corresponding single verbs of Romantic origin in casual or
informal contexts. Such as: turn down (reject), do away with (abolish),
step up (increase), lay on (provide), take up (continue).
2. Noun phrase idioms
3. Adjective phrase idioms
4. Prepositional phrase idioms
5. Adverbial phrase idioms
Clause Idioms ( subject-less clause patterns)
Sentence Idioms (proverbs and habitual conversations)
1. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
2. One swallow does not make a summer.
3. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
4. Where there is a will, there is a way.
5. All that glitters is not gold.
6. You may lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.
7. You scratch my back and Ill scratch yours.
8. Make hay while the sun shines.
9. Strike, while the iron is hot.
10. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
11. You can say that again.
12. Lets call it a day.
13. You are telling me.
2. The lawyer on the other side has an ace up his sleeve and has bribed a
witness to give false testimony.
3. Dont be worried about your job; Im sure your rich uncle will pull the
strings.
4. When Jennifer went in for the job interview at the law firm, she had
plenty of butterflies in her stomach.
5. Many people say Professor Blank doesnt have both oars in the water, but
if you listen to his lecture you will know why he is called genius by his
students.
6. I heard through the grapevine that Mark and Julie just broke up.
7. Nobody knows the ropes about the auto industry better than Mr. Black.
8. The townspeople fought tooth and nail against the governments plan to
build a nuclear station.
9. Sally is out of town for a few days and I am at loose ends until she gets
back on Monday.
10. When you told me to give up this hopeless plan you hit the nail in the
head. Thank you for your warning.
1.
Introductory Remarks
An estimate by J. D. Bowen suggests that 300million people speak English as their
native language in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, the West Indies and South Africa; another 300 million people use English
regularly as a second language in those countries where English has an important
position as an official language, or as the medium of instruction in schools and
universities. This second language function is more noteworthy in countries where
only a small proportion of the people have English as their native language, such as
India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and many others. In India, for instance, with its three
hundred and fifty million people and its two hundred and twenty-five different
languages, English is still a second language among educated speakers from different
parts of the country.
Modern English has a history of about 600 years. Since the time of American
colonization in the 17th century, English has been the language of the United States.
Then why does American English differ from British English?
Firstly, British English itself changed in the course of time; secondly, American
English has acquired a character of its own. It reflects the growth, development and
history of American society. For example, moose ( a type of a large deer in the
northern part of America), tomahawk ( a light axe used by North American Indians in
war and hunting), hickory ( a kind of tree of North America), wigwam ( a kind of tent
used by American Indians).
Differences between British and American English
(AE) He has gone to the school. (BE without the definite article)
D. Differences in vocabulary
The differences in American and British vocabulary can be grouped into three
categories:
a. words without counterparts
b. same words with different meanings
word
bill
Billion
guy
pressman
Public school
veteran
table
American English
Bank note
A thousand million
Fellow, any person
Operator of a printing office
A municipally-run school
An ex-service man of any age
Set aside a motion
British English
Demand for payment of a debt
A million million
A ridiculous figure
A newspaper man
A private school
An old soldier of long service
Put down for discussion
Conclusion:
Although these two varieties differ in certain details, they contain very many
similarities. American and British English should be regarded as two different forms
of one language, not as two different languages. Moreover, it is not proper to say
which is better, or which is superior. Any judgment that British English is superior to
American one is a prejudice against the description of language.
American English shows two striking characteristics: creativeness in enriching
the language versus conservativeness in preserving a number of archaic features of
old English. The future tendency of these two varieties is that some divergences will
still exist; but due to the constant exchanges between the two nations in every field
some differences will probably disappear.
What is a dictionary?
Dictionary, or An Interpreter of Hard English Words, 1623) first used the word
dictionary in the sense in which we now understand it. An excellent example of this
period is Samule Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language of 1755.
5. the fifth period: the 19th century to the 20th century
This is a period when English dictionaries saw much improvement and reached
maturity. The representative works of this period are:
Charles Richardsons A New Dictionary of the English Language (1836)
The Oxford English Dictionary (1928)
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1911)
Noah Websters The American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
Websters Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (1961)
v.
Before consulting a dictionary the learner should read carefully the preface and
introduction published at the front of a dictionary. In the preface and introduction the
importance and purposes of compiling such a dictionary are indicated and the
intended users of this dictionary is also addressed. For example, Longman Dictionary
of Contemporary English(1978) is primarily intended for foreign students, and to
some extent for any person--- whether teacher, student, linguist or writer---who
requires as much information about the central core of the language as can be
conveniently presented n an alphabetic list. Some features of a dictionary can be
found in the introduction, telling the learner how to use a dictionary efficiently. There
are sixteen features of Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English
(1978):
a vocabulary of general contemporary English with other words
likely to be met in literature;
a wide range of specialist English terms;
a detailed record of idiomatic expressions and collocations;
practical definitions in simple English;
numerous example phrases and sentences to illustrate sentence
patterns and contexts;
over 100 000 items in a phonetic transcription, using International
Phonetic Association Symbols specially designed for the foreign
learners;
American English spellings, meanings and pronunciation plus
American vocabulary
Detailed and consistent guidance on stylistic values;
Over fifty labeled specialist English registers;
Unrivalled detail in the articles on structural vocabulary
A modern system of Verb Patterns with numerical references from
the verb entries to explanatory tables in the Introduction;
Irregular conjugations, plural, comparative, etc. with pronunciations;
Labeling of countable and uncountable nouns;
Reviewing Notes
Chapter 1
A. Notions:
Cognate
Etymology
Jargon
Language family
Dialect
Inflection
B. Questions:
1. What are the three English periods with a view to its historical development?
2. How did the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance influence the English vocabulary?
C. Practice:
1. Revise the following groups of words into correct English sentences by using function words:
a. you start cook supper ten minutes
b. train leaves station two hours
2. Underline the inflections of the following sentences:
a. I have worked for two hours.
b. He is one of my best friends.
3. Which type of language does the following sentence belong to?
a. ev (house), evler (houses), evlerde (in the houses), evlerden (from the houses)
b. wo xihuan pingguo. (I love apples.)
c.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
word
morpheme
phoneme
allomorph
root
affix
B. Questions:
What are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes?
C. Practice:
1. How many morphemes does each of the following words contain? And what are they? Are
they free morphemes or bound morphemes?
Chapter 3.
A. Notions:
Compounding or composition
Derivation or affixation
Conversion
Initialisms and acronyms
Blending
Clipping
Words from proper names
Back formation
Reduplication
Neoclassical formations
B. Practice:
Chapter 4.
i.
Notions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
semantic features
polysemy
homonymy
synonymy
antonymy
hyponymy
semantic field
B. Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
C. Practice:
1. Point out the sense relations between the words:
a. flower, lily
b. long, short
c.
anger, rage
Chapter 5
A. Questions:
1. What are the main features of English idioms?
2. What is the classification of English idioms?
B. Practice:
1. Translation
16. to burn ones boat
17. to add fuel to the flames
18. castle in the air
19. a thorn in sbs flesh
20. There is no smoke without fire.
21. Misfortune never comes alone.
22. Wall have ears.
10. A honey tongue, a heart of gall.
11. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
12. One swallow does not make a summer.
13. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
14. Where there is a will, there is a way.
15.All that glitters is not gold.
23.
16
17.
18.
19.
20.
Chapter 6. English Dictionary
A. Questions:
4. What are the features of the dictionary you are using now.
5. What problems have you come across in using English dictionaries?
6. Why is it necessary for English majors to use monolingual dictionaries along with bilingual
dictionaries?
B. Practice:
1. Fill in blanks:
a. Henry Cockerams _________________________(1623) first used the word dictionary in the
sense in which we now understand it.
b. ____________ published A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755.
2. See the sample page from an English dictionary and indicate the functions of the
following indices:
(1) , (2), (3).