Chapter 1 The Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary1、The Definition of a WordLexicology focuses on the study of meanings and origins of words.According to semanticists（语义学家）, a word is a unit of meaning.A word is a minimal（最小的）free form of a language that has a given sound, meaningand syntactic function（句法功能）.2、 VocabularyAll the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary.3、 Sound and MeaningThe relationship between sound and meaning is no logic4、 Sound and FormThere was more agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English.With the development of the language, more and more differences arose between sound and form.（1）、What is the relationship between sound and meaning? Give examples to illustrate it.The relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary and conventional. In differentlanguages, the same concept can be shown by different sounds. “Woman”, for example,becomes “Frau” in German, “Femme” in French and “fu nv” in Chinese. On the otherhand, the same sound [mi:t] is used to mean “meet, meat, mete”, denoting differentthings.（2）、What are the four major reasons for the differences between sound and form?The first reason (he internal reason) is that there are more phonemes （音素）than lettersin English. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly thanspelling over the years. The third reasons that some of the differences more created bythe early scribes. The fourth reason is the borrowing.（3）、How are words classified in the course book?Words can be classified by different criteria and for different purposes. Words may fallinto: the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency; content words andfunctional words by notion; native words and borrowed words by origin; simple words,compounds and derived words by morphology.（4）、What is the difference between denizens and aliens?Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated（完全同化）into the English language. But aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognizable as foreign in origin.Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary1、The Indo-European Language FamilyThe prehistoric Indo-European parent language, thought to be a highly inflected （内部曲折语）language.The first peoples who inhabited the land were Celts.The second language known in English was Latin of the Roman Legions.（1）、Old English（450-1150）In the 9th century England was invaded by Norwegian and Danish Vikings.（2）、Middle English（1150-1500）The French influence on English vocabulary was one of the significant points of theMiddle English period.The most important fact of the Middle English period was the steady erosion of theinflectional systems of Old English.（3）、Modern English（1500-present）In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancientGreek and Roman classics.It is estimated that about one fourth of modern English vocabulary has come from French.3、 Foreign Elements in the English VocabularyIn earlier stages of English, Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavian were the four major contributors.The simultaneous existence of French, Latin and English lasted for a century.4、 Modes of Vocabulary DevelopmentModern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic change（旧词新义）and borrowing.Creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.5、简答What are the characteristics of Old English?Old English also known as the Anglo-Saxon, has a vocabulary of about 50000 to 60000 words, which are almost monogeneous and entirely Germanic with only a few borrowings from Latin and Scandinavian. Old English was a highly inflected language.It was a synthetic language（综合性语言）.（Modern English is an analytic language）Chapter 3 Morphological Structure of English Words1、 MorphemesThe minimal meaningful units in English are known as morphemes（词素）.Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs.4、 Allomorphs（词素变体）An allomorph refers to a member of a set of morphs, which represent one morpheme.6、A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss ofidentity.7、简答（1）、What is the difference between free morphemes and bound morphemes?Free morphemes which have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as freegrammatical units in sentences are independent of other morphemes, but boundmorphemes which cannot occur as separate. Words are bound to other morphemes to form words or to perform a particular grammatical function.（2）、What is the difference between derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes?Derivational morphemes are used to derive new words, but inflectional morphemes areemployed used to indicate the syntactic （句法）relationship between words and functionas grammatical markers.Chapter 4 Word FormatioThe most productive ways of creating new words are affixation, compounding, and conversion. 1、AffixationThe words created by adding word forming or derivational affixes to bases are calledderivatives.2、Compounding（复合法）Example: workfare(work+welfare)In adjective-plus-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes.Verb compounds are created either though conversion or through back-formation.3、Conversion（转类法）The conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs is the most productive.The conversion of two syllable nouns into verbs involves a change of stress.Nouns fully converted from adjectives have all the characteristics of nouns.4、 Blending（拼缀法）The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns5、Back-formation（逆身法）Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation.6、简答（1）、What is the main difference between prefixes and suffixes?Unlike prefixes which primarily effect a semantic modification of the base, suffixeshave only a small semantic role, their primary function being to changes thegrammatical function of a base, i.e. the change of the word class with a slightmodification of meaning.（2）、What are the three main features of compounds?The three main features of compounds are phonological features, semantic features and grammatical features. The word stress of a compound usually occurs on the first element.Each compound should express a single idea just as one word. A compound tends to playa single grammatical role in a sentence.（3）、What is back-formation? What are the characteristics of back-formation?Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes.Words created through back-formation are verbs. Stylistically, back-formed words are largely informal and some of them have not successfully gained currency.（4）、What is acronymy? What is the difference between initialisms and acrnyms?Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of composite names of social and political organizations or phrases used as technical terms. Words formed in this way are called initialisms or acronyms. Initialisms are pronounced letter by letter, but acronyms are pronounced as normal words7、论述题1、“Medicare” and “sitcom” are blends. “Medicare” is formed by combining the head of “medical’and the word “care”, and “sitcom” is formed by combining the head of “situation” and that of “comdey’.2、”Memo” and “flu” are clipped words. “Memo” is formed by clipping the lack of“memorandum” and “flu” is formed clipping the front and lack of “influenza”.3、”TB” and “NATO” are new words created through acronymy. “TB” from “tuberculosis” is aninitialism, while “NATO” from “the North Atlantic Treaty Organization” is an acronym.Chapter 5 Word Meaning and Componential Analysis（成份分析法）1、ReferenceWords are but symbols, many of which have meaning only when they have acquiredreference.2、Concept（概念）Meaning and concept are closely connected but not identical.Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind.3、SenseUnlike reference, sense denotes the relationships inside the language.4、Motivation（理据）（1）、What is reference? What are the characteristics of reference?Reference is the relationship between language and the world. By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world are being talked about. The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. Although reference isa kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context, it can refer to something definite.（2）、What is conceptual meaning? What are the characteristics of conceptual meaning?Conceptual meaning known as cognitive, denotative, or designative is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. Being constant and relatively stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as The same word generally has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same speech community. (language).（3）、What is the difference between conceptual meaning and associative meaning?Conceptual meaning known as cognitive, denotative, or designative is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. But Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning because it is open-ended and indeterminate, liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education, etc. .（4）、What is collocative meaning? What are the characteristics of collocative meaning?Collocative meaning is that part of the word meaning suggested by the words with which it co-occurs. It is again noticeable that collocative meaning overlaps with connotative and affective meaning because in a sense both connotative and affective meanings are revealed by virtue of collocations or contextuality.Chapter 6 Sense Relations（语义关系）The first meaning of a word is called primary meaning. Later meanings are called derived meaningsThe meaning of a more specific word is include in that of another more general word.简答What is the difference between radiation and concatenation（连锁型）?Unlike radiation where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primary meaning, concatenation describes a process where each of the later meanings is related only to the preceding one like chains.Chapter 7 Changes in Word MeaningThe vocabulary is the most unstable element of a language as it is undergoing constant changes both in the sign-shapes and sign contents.（1）、What is semantic transfer? What are the four main types of transfer?Some words which were used to designate/indicate one thing but later changed to meansomething else have experienced the process of semantic transfer. The four main typesof transfer are the associated transfer, the transfer between abstract and concretemeanings, the transfer between subjective and objective meanings and the synesthesim.（2）、What are the two factors causing changes in meanings? How are they classified?The two major factors that cause changes in meaning are the extra-linguistic factors andthe linguistic factors. The extra-linguistic factors include the historic reason, the classreason and the psychological reason. The linguistic factors include shortening,borrowing and analogy.（类比）Chapter 8 Meaning and Context（语境）1、 Types of ContextWithout context, there is no way to determine the meaning that the speaker intends to convey.When we talk about context, we usually think of linguistic context, hardly aware of theAmbiguity often arises due to polysemy, homonymy and grammatical structure. When a word with multiple meanings is employed in inadequate context, it creates ambiguity.3、简答（1）、what is the difference between linguistic context and extra-linguistic context?Linguistic refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word appears and it is known as linguistic context or co-text may extend to embrace a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the entire book. But extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context refers to the participants, time, place, and even the whole cultural background（2）、What is the difference between lexical context and grammatical context?Lexical context refers to the words that co-occur with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring words. But grammaticalcontext refers to the structure which may influence the meaning of a polysemant.4、论述题Read the sentence carefully. If you find anything inappropriate, explain the reasons and then improve the sentence.a.He is a hard businessman.John ran the egg and spoon race.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by polysemy.2、The word “hard” in this sentence can be understood as “hardworking” or “difficult”.The context fails to narrow down the meaning so that it is difficult for the reader todecide what exactly the speaker means.3、The ambiguity can be eliminated by altering the context a little. There would be nomisunderstanding of the original sentence if it is expanded as “He is a hardbusinessman to deal with ”, or “He is a hard businessman and he is often praised by hisemployer”.（participated or organized John ran the egg and spoon race and got second place. orJohn ran the egg and spoon race and gain a larger number of money.）b.They saw her duck.The ball was attractive.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by homonymy.2、The word “ball” in this sentence can be understood as a noun, which refer to “roundobject to play in a game” or a “dancing party”. The context fails to narrow down themeaning so that it is difficult for the reader to decide what exactly the speaker means.3、The ambiguity can be eliminated by altering the context a little. It is clear if it isexpanded as “The ball was attractive with nice music and a lot of peoples ”, or “Theball made of leather of different colors was attractive”.（kind of poultry or verb meaning ”lower one’s head or body quickly, dodge”They saw her duck or swimming in the river or They saw her duck her body.）c、The fish is ready to eat.I like Mary better than Jean.1、The sentence is ambiguous. The ambiguity is caused by inadequate grammaticalstructure..2、The sentence has two different interpretations. It may mean “the fish is cooked orserved, so ready for people to eat or a “the fish is ready to eat things”. The context fails to narrow down the meaning so that it is difficult for the reader to decide what exactly the speaker means.3、The sentence can be improved as “How nice the fish smell! The fish is ready to eat.” or“The fish is ready to eat things.（I like Mary better than I like Jean or I like Mary better than Jean likes MaryI like Mary better than Jean does. or I like Mary better than I do Jean.）Chapter 9 English IdiomsStylistically, idioms are generally felt to be informal and some are colloquialisms（口语体）and slang.（1）、What are the characteristics of English idioms?The two main characteristics of English idioms are semantic unity and structural stability.Idioms each consist of at least two or more constituents, but each is a semantic unity. The structure of an idiom is to a large extend invariable.（2）、What are the rhetorical features of English idioms?The rhetorical features of English idioms include the phonetic manipulation, the lexicalmanipulation and the semantic manipulation. The phonetic manipulation includesalliteration and rhyme（叠韵）. The lexical manipulation includes reiteration, repletionand juxtaposition. The semantic manipulation includes (Figures of speech) Simile,Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Personification, Euphemism.Chapter 10 English DictionariesThe main body of a dictionary is its definitions of words.3、Dictionaries（1）、Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English-English-Chinese（LDCE《朗文高级当代英语词典英汉双解》）Features: Clear Grammar Codes, Usage Notes, Language Notes, New words（2）、Collins COBUILD English Dictionary（CCED《柯林斯COBUILD英语词典》）Features: Definition, Extra Column, Frequency Marker, Pragmatics（词语用法说明）4、British or AmericanAmerican dictionaries contain more encyclopaedic information in the main body than British one whereas British dictionaries, especially learner’s dictionaries, embrace more grammatical information.5、简答What is a dictionary? What is the relationship between a dictionary and lexicology?A dictionary is a book which presents in alphabetical order the words of English,with information as to their spelling, pronunciation, meaning, usage, rules of grammar, and in some, their etymology. It is closely related to lexicology because both deal with the same problems: the form, meaning, usage and origins of vocabulary units.。