1. CHAPTER I A GENERAL SURVY OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY 1.The definition of word 2.The development of English vocabulary A. English vocabulary as viewed in the historical perspective B. The rapid growth of present- day English vocabulary 3. Classification of English words according to different criteria

2. THE DEFINITION OF WORD What is a word?word A word is a minimum free form(Bloomfield 1933) A word is defined by the association of a given sense with a given group of sounds capable of a given grammatical use(Antoine Meillet)

3. A word may be defined as one of the fundamental units of speech and as having a minimum free form. It is a unity of sound and meaning, capable of performing a given syntactical function.

4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY All the words in a language together constitute what is known as its vocabulary English vocabulary as viewed in the historical perspective

5. The period from 450 to 1150 is known as the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon period. The period from 1150 to 1500 is known as the Middle English period. The period from 1500 to the present day is called the Modern English period.

6. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH 1 The pronunciation of Old English words differs somewhat from that of Modern English words.

7. O.E vowels undergone changes Mod.E stan stone fot foot fyr fire represented the sound of th by p and Ǿ wip with Ǿa then

8. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH 2 The basic elements remained. They express fundamental concepts of human life, such as: mann (man), wif (wife), cild (child), hus (house), benc (bench), mete (meet, food)

9. Old English was a highly inflected language. It had a complete system of declensions with four cases and conjugations.It’s a synthetic (not analytic) language.