10 March 2010 A Survey of English Lexicology 英语词汇学教程

10 March 2010 Course assessment:  Attendance (5%)  Presentation (15%)  Assignment (10%)  Final exam (70%)

10 March What is your understanding of the name of this course “lexicology”? 2. What do you think is the good way to learn the vocabulary in a language? Questions for discussion:

10 March 2010 A Brief Introduction of Lexicology --- Language, Linguistics and Lexicology --- Study Methods of Lexicology --- Aims of the Course

10 March 2010 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.

10 March 2010 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 operated as systems of human communication. Language, Linguistics and Lexicology

10 March 2010 What is lexicology?  The term lexicology comes from Greek morphemes “ lexicon ” and “ -logy ” ; the former means “ wordbook ” or “ vocabulary ”, while the latter “ The study or science of ”. Hence the literal meaning of lexicology is the “ science of the word ”.  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.( Scope of lexicology) Language, Linguistics and Lexicology

10 March 2010 Study Methods of Lexicology Synchronic method & Diachronic method Synchronic method : From a synchronic point of view, words can be studied at a point in time, disregarding whatever changes might be taking place. Synchronic For example, the word wife now means ‘ a married woman, esp. in relation to her husband ’. This is the current meaning.

10 March 2010 Study Methods of Lexicology Diachronic method: consider the word historically, looking into its origin and changes in form and meaning. Diachronic If we take a diachronic perspective the word wife evolved from the Old English form wife, meaning ‘ woman ’, but later it became specialized in the course of development to the modern meaning ‘ a married woman ‘.

10 March 2010 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. Aims of the Course

10 March 2010 Chapter 1 Basic Concepts ★ Definition of word. Distinctions: word, vocabulary/lexicon Classification of Words ★ Structure of words

10 March 2010 ★ The definition of a word 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. ★ A word is a minimal free form of language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function. 词是能独立运用的、最小的、有语义的语言单位。

10 March 2010 Vocabulary/lexicon: refers to all the words of a given language. Vocabulary (Colloquial), lexicon (technical), Distinctions: word, vocabulary/ lexicon

10 March 2010 Classification of Words Main criteria of classification By notion By origin By level of usage

10 March 2010 By notion Content words Function words Classification of Words

10 March 2010 Function words are words that have little lexical meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. Such as determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliaries, and articles.grammatical Content words have independent lexical meanings. Such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb. Q: Which group of words play a more important role in expression? By notion

10 March 2010 By notion E.g. Machine begins digitally recording speech passing it several recogniser modules. E.g. The machines begins by digitally recording speech and passing it to several recogniser modules. Content words, which constitute the main body of English vocabulary, are numerous, and the number is ever growing whereas function words, which make up a very small number of the vocabulary, remain stable. However, functional words do far more work of expression on average than content words.

10 March 2010 By origin Native words Loan words Classification of Words

10 March 2010 Native words: Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are native words. Native words are small in number, but they form the great majority of the basic word stock and stand at the core of the English language. Loan words: Words borrowed from other languages. Borrowings constitue about 80% of the modern vocabulary. By origin

10 March 2010 By level of usage common ( 常用语 ) literary ( 文学用语 ) colloquial ( 口语 ) slang ( 俚语 ) technical terms (terminology) ( 科技术语 )

10 March 2010 Common words are connected with the ordinary things or activities necessary to everyday life. They are stylistically neutral, hence they are appropriate in both formal and informal writing and speech By level of usage

10 March 2010 Literary words are chiefly used in writing, especially in books written in a more elevated style, in official documents, or in formal speeches By level of usage

10 March 2010 In contrast with literary words, colloquial words or expressions are used mainly in spoken English, as in conversation among friends and colleagues. Such as: kid, guy, fellow, By level of usage

10 March 2010 Penalties for overdue books will be strictly enforced. You have got to pay fines for overdue books. They approved of the plan. They agreed to the plan. Compare:

10 March 2010 Page. 6 Active vocabulary Speaking vocabulary Writing vocabulary Passive vocabulary Reading vocabulary Guess vocabulary

10 March 2010 ★ The structure of words The component parts of a word Classification of morphemes Relationship between the two classifications of morphemes

10 March 2010 ★ The component parts of a word Words are formed by morphemes. Morpheme: the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language. The term morpheme is derived from Greek morph- and French -eme, the former means form, while the latter the smallest unit. Chinese equivalents of morpheme ： - 语素； - 词 素； - 形位

10 March 2010 Analyze the composition of the following words: - house - guns gun, -s - tolerate toler-, -ate - unfaithful un-, faith, -ful - lighthouse light, house

10 March 2010 Classification of morphemes I Morphemes may be classified into free and bound. Free morphemes may constitute words by themselves. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. That is to say, a free morpheme can stand alone as a word. e.g. book. walk. talk.

10 March 2010 Free morphemes &Bound morphemes Bound morphemes can not occur as separate words, they must appear with at least one other morpheme, either free or bound in a word. e.g. toler-, -ful, -s

10 March 2010 Classification of morphemes II Morphemes may also be classified into roots and affixes. Root is the base form of a word that expresses its essential meaning, a meaning that never changes, even though affixes may be added at the beginning or at the end of a word. e.g. book, walk, toler-, Q: Are all free morphemes roots? Are all roots free morphemes?

10 March 2010 Root & Affix Affixes are morphemes that are attached to roots (words or word elements )to modify meaning or function. Affixes can not stand as words in their own right. e.g. -s, -ful, -ish, in-, un-… Q: Are all affixes bound morphemes? Are all bound morphemes affixes?

10 March 2010 Two types of roots - Free roots In English, many roots are free morphemes, such as a, the, in, bed, live, good, black (simple word) black, blacken, blacksmith, p15, summarize the characteristics of free roots ? high frequency, stability, productivity, collocability. ☆ green

10 March 2010 Two types of roots Bound roots However, there are quite a number of roots which cannot exist on their own and thus belong to the class of bound morphemes. Most bound roots came from Greek or Latin and they were non-productive. e.g. “ tain ” “ hold, have ” in retain, contain, maintain; Note: These roots cannot be used to form new words. (non-productive) P16 combining form

10 March 2010 Two types of affixes Affixes are morphemes that are attached to roots (words or word elements )to modify meaning or function. There are two types of affixes: Inflectional affixes ( 屈折词缀） Derivational affixes （派生／演生词缀）

10 March 2010 Inflectional affixes - Inflectional affixes serve to attach to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships. (1) plurality: e.g. -s in chairs, pens; -es in boxes, (2) Possessive case of noun : e.g. ’s in boy’s, children’s.

10 March 2010 Inflectional affixes (3) the verbal endings: a. -(e)s in words like teaches shows the third person singular present tense. b. -ing in words like teaching shows the present participle. c. -(e)d in words like saved shows the past tense or past participle. (4) the comparative and superlative degrees: e.g. -er in words like smaller, -est in words like smallest,

10 March 2010 ★ Derivational affixes - Derivational affixes can be added to other morphemes to derive new words. - They can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes. - All the inflectional affixes are suffixes.

10 March 2010 Derivational affixes (1) Prefixes are affixes before the root, e.g. unjust, rewrite. ★ As a rule, most prefixes modify the meaning of roots, but not their parts of speech. e.g. imbalance, preview, foretell, ☆ some prefixes that can modify the parts of speech. - en-(em-) as in words like embody, enrich - be- as in words like befriend, belittle - a- as in words like asleep, aside

10 March 2010 Derivational affixes (2) Suffixes are affixes after the root, e.g. darkness, worker. By the addition of the suffix, the word is usually changed from one part of speech into another. e.g. liberation, modernize. P18. The origins of affixes ? -in; -nik; -manship; super-

10 March 2010 morpheme freebound Root affixes

10 March 2010 morpheme freebound Bound rootinflectional affixesderivational affixes prefixes suffixes Root affixes

10 March 2010 morpheme root affix Free form morpheme Bound form morpheme Classification of morphemes

10 March 2010 morpheme root affix Free root Bound root Derivational affixes Inflectional affixes prefix suffix Free form morpheme Bound form morpheme Classification of morphemes

10 March 2010 Exercises: p22 exercise 1 I. Multiple choices 1. A word is of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function. A. a minimal free form B. a smallest meaningful unit C. an element which can not be further analyzed D. a grammatically minimal form 2. Which of the following statements is Not correct? A. A word can be formed by two free morphemes B. A word can be formed by a free morpheme and a bound morpheme C. A word can be formed by two bound morphemes D. A word can be formed by any two affixes.