Lecture 3-《英语词汇学》第三章教案

Lecture 3讲授题目：BasicConceptsofWordsandVocabulary所属章节：《现代英语词汇学概论》第1章计划学时：2periods教学方法：传统讲授法参考资料：《英语词汇学教程》、《英语词汇学》的分类等词的基本知识有了一定的了解。教学重点：1)Whatisaword?Therelationshipbetweenandmeaning.ClassificationofEnglishwords.教学难点：1)Thedefinitionofword.2)Classificationofwords.WhatisawordWhatisaword?Thisquestionhasoccupiedthe attention of linguists for ages. Although definitionshavebeensuggested,noneofthemseemtobeperfect.Scholarsdon‘tagreeonthedefinitionoftheword.Tosumup,thedefinitionofawordcomprisesthefollowingpoints:(1)aminimalfreeformofalanguage;(一门语言中最小的自由形式)(2)asoundunity;(一个声音统一体)(3)aunitofmeaning;(一个意义单位)(4)aformthatcanfunctionaloneinasentence.(在句子中能独立起作用的一个形式)Therefore,wecansaythatawordis―aminimalfreeformofalanguagethathasagivensoundandmeaningandsyntacticfunction‖.(词是一门语言中具有一定的声音、意义和句法功能的最小的自由形式。)※如果撇开能不能独立运用这一点，词就不是最小的有语义的单位。语言中最小的语音语义的结合体称为词素(morpheme)。SoundandMeaningAwordisasymbolthatstandsforsomethingelseintheworld.Eachofworld‘scultureshascometoagreethatcertainsoundswillrepresentcertainpersons,things,places,properties,processes and activities outside the language system. Thissymbolicconnectionisalmostarbitrary,andthereis‘nologicalrelationshipbetweenthesoundwhichstandsforathingoranandtheactualthingandidea itself’ (LodwigandBarrett1993).Introductionof自然派）andConventionalist（习惯派）Thedifferencebetweenthetwoschoolsliesinthebeliefthatsoundhasorhasn‘tdirectornecessaryconnectionwithmeaning.Thenaturaliststhinkthesoundmustbeanechoofthesense.（音必定成为义的回声）Theconventionalistsholdthatthereisnointrinsiclogicalconnectionorrelationshipbetweenthesoundandthemeaningexceptonomatopoeia（拟声词）.Onomatopoeia（拟声词）Gingle—铃声—铃 pat—轻拍声—轻拍Ping-pong——乒乓球Cuckoo——布谷鸟Drum—鼓声—鼓 bomb—爆炸—炸弹Crash----,,,垮台E.g.Thethundercrashedoverhead.雷声在头顶隆隆作响。Theboilingwatercrackedtheglass.滚烫的开水使玻璃杯炸裂了。OnomatopoeiaalsoexistsinChinese:两人都同时哦了一声。Forexample,a‘‘doialledadognotbecausethesoundandthethreelettersthatmake upthewordjustautomaticallysuggesttheanimalinquestion.Itisonlysymbolic.Therelationshipthem is conventional because people of the same speechcommunityhaveagreedtorefertotheanimalwiththisclusterofsounds.In different languages the same concept can berepresentedbydifferentsounds.Woman,forexample,becomesfrau‘inGerman,femme‘inFrenchandfùn ǔ‘inChinese.Ontheotherhand,thesamesound[mi:t]isusedtomeanmeet,meat,mete.Knightandnight,thoughdenotingentirelydifferentthings,havethesamesound.SoundandFormItisgenerallyagreedthatthewrittenformofanaturallanguageisthewrittenrecordoftheoralform.Naturallythewrittenformshouldagreewiththeoralform.Inotherwords,thesoundshouldbesimilartotheform.ThisisquitetrueofEnglishinitsearliest stage i.e. Old English. With the development of language,moreandmoredifferencesoccurbetweenthetwo.①TheinternalreasonforthisisthatEnglishalphabetwasadoptedfromtheRomans(Latinalphabet),whichdoesnothaveaseparatelettertorepresenteachsoundinthelanguage,sosomelettersmustdodoubledutyorworktogetherincombination.②Anotherreasonisthatthepronunciationhaschangedmorerapidlythanspellingovertheyears,andinsomecasestwohavedrawfarapart.Duringthelastfivehundredyears,thoughthesoundsofspeechhavechangedconsiderably,therehavebeennocorrespondingchangesofspelling.③Athirdreasonisthatsomeofthedifferenceswerecreatedby the early scribes. Beforethe printing press was broughttoEngland,everythingwaswrittenbyhand.Thosescribes,whomadealivingbywritingforotherpeople,oftenworkedinhastetomeetneedsoftheKing,Church,andmerchants.Oneproblemwasthatseveralletterswrittenwithshortverticalstrokes(短竖笔),suchasi.u.v.m.wandnlookedallalike.Consequently,theirhandwritingcausedmisunderstanding.Tosolvetheproblem,theychangedletterutoowhenitcamebeforem.n,orv.Thisishowsum,cum,wuman,wander,munkcametobewrittenassome,come,woman,wonder,monk.Atpoint,too,thescribesseemtohavedecidedthatnoEnglishwordshouldendinuorv.Thus,anewasaddedtosuchwordsaslive,have,dueandtruebutnotpronounced.④Finallycomestheborrowing,whichisanimportantchannelofenrichingtheEnglishvocabulary.WhenEnglishborrowedwordsfromotherlanguages,itborrowedspellingaswell.Theearlyborrowingswereassimilatedandthelaterones,donotconformtotherulesofEnglishpronunciationandspelling,e.g.stimulus(L),denouement(F),fiesta(Sp),eureka(Gr),kimono(Jap).ThewrittenformofEnglishis,therefore,animperfectrepresentationofthespokenform.Inspiteofthedifferences,atleast80%oftheEnglishwordsfitconsistentspellingpatterns.由此可见，英语书面形式并不完全代表口语形式。两者虽有差异，但80%以上的拼写在书面语和口语中还是统一的。VocabularyBroadly speaking, vocabulary can be defined as : ① acompleteinventoryofthewordsinalanguage‖.②Vocabularymeansthesumofallthewordsinthelanguage.Itismoreorlesssynonymouswithlexis‘andlexicon‘,withthefirstmore colloquial, the third more learned and technical, and thesecond situated half-way between the other two . The vocabulary‘isusedindifferentsenses.Notonlycanitrefertothetotalnumberofthewordsinalanguage,butitcanstandforallthewords used in a particular historical period, e.g. Old Englishvocabulary, Middle English vocabulary and ModernEnglishvocabulary.ClassificationofwordsTheEnglishvocabularycanbeclassifiedbydifferentcriteriaandfordifferentpurposes.Wordsmayfallintothebasicwordstockandnonbasicvocabularybyusefrequency,intocontentwordsandfunctionalwordsbynotion,andintonativewordsandborrowedwordsbyorigin.BasicWordStockandNonbasicVocabularyBasicwordstockisthefoundationofthevocabularyaccumulatedovercenturiesandformsthecommoncoreofthelanguage.ThoughwordsofthebasicwordstockconstituteasmallpercentageoftheEnglishvocabulary,itisthemostimportantpartofit.※Thesewordshaveobviouscharacteristics:①Allnationalcharacter.Wordsofthebasicwordstockdenotethemostcommonthingsandphenomenaoftheworldaroundus,whichareindispensabletoallpeople who speak the language. They include relatingtothefollowingrespects:Naturalphenomena:rain,snow,fire,water,sun,moon;Humanbodyandrelations:head,foot,hand,father,mother,sister,daughter,son;Namesofplantsandanimals:oak,pine,horse,cow,cat;Action,size,domain,state:come,go,eat,good,evil,young,hot,cold.;Numerals,pronouns,prepositions,conjunctions:one,hundred,I,you,your,in,out,under,and,but,till,as.※ThesewordscannotbeavoidedbyanyspeakerofEnglish,irrespectiveofclass,origin,education,profession,geographicalregions,culture,etc.②Stability.Wordsofthebasicwordstockhavebeeninuseforcenturies,e.g.man,fire, mountain,water,sun,moon.Astheydenotethecommonestthingsnecessarytolife,theyarelikelytoremainunchanged.Stability,however,isonlyrelative.Actually,thebasicwordstockhasbeenundergoingsomechanges. Wordslikearrow,bow,chariot,knight,whichwerecommoninthepast,havenowmovedoutofthewordstockwhereassuchwordsaselectricity,machine,car,plane,computer,television,whichdenotenewthingsandmodernwayoflife,haveenteredthestock.Butthischangeisslow.Therearemanymorewordsjoininginthandropping③Productivity.Wordsofthebasicstockaremostlyrootormonosyllabicwords.Theycaneachbeusedalone,andatthesametimecanformnewwordswithotherrootsandaffixes,e.g.foot:football,footpath,footer,footed,footloose,footing,footman,etc.Inthesameway,dog:doglike,doghood,dog-cheap,dog-fall,dogfight,dog-paddle,dogsleep,tonamejustafew.④Polysemy.Wordsbelongingtothebasicwordstockoftenpossessmorethanonemeaningbecausemostofthemhaveundergonesemanticchangesinthecourseofuseandbecomepolysemous.Theverbcut’(TheOxfordEnglishDictionary)中将近150个义项，《新英汉词典》把它产归纳为32个义项。多义词义与比喻意义。⑤Collocability.Manywordsofthebasicwordstockenterquiteanumberofsetexpressions,idiomaticusages,proverbialsayingsandthelike.Instancesarenumerous.Takeheartforexample:achangeofheart;afterone’saheartofgold;one‘sheart;cryone’sheartout;eatone’sheartout;andtakesth.toheart;heartandsoulsoon.Ofcourse,notallthewordsofthebasicwordstockhavethesecharacteristics.Pronounsandnumeralsenjoynation-wideuseandstability, but are semantically monosemous and have productivityandcollocability.Thereforeallnationalcharacter‘isthemostimportantofallfeatures.NonbasicVocabularyWords,voidofthestatedcharacteristics,donotbelongtothecommoncoreofthelanguage.Theyincludedthefollowing:①Terminology.Consistsoftechnicaltermsusedinparticulardisciplinesandacademicareasasinmedicine:photoscanning,penicillin;inmathematics:algebra,calculus;inmusic:symphony,sonata(奏鸣曲);ineducation:audiovisual,microteaching,etc.②Jargon.referstothespecializedvocabularybywitchmembersofparticulararts,sciences,tradesandprofessionscommunicateamongthemselvessuchas:bottomline--inescapableimplication,unavoidableresult;bargainingchips——;holdhimback——.hypo——皮下注射；Persona——人格面貌paranoid——n.adj.();holdhimin——;busterfor‗bomb‘——(炸) (军事行).Generallyspeaking,peopleoutsidethecirclehavedifficultyunderstandingsuchwords.③Slang.Belongstothesub-standardlanguage,acategorythatseemstostandbetweenthestandardgeneralwordsandin-groupwordslikecant,jargon,andargot,allofwhichareassociatedwith,ormostavailableto,specificgroupsofthepopulation.wordsarelabeled‗slang‘notbecauseoftheirappearanceorpronunciationbutbecauseoftheirusage.Inthesameway,themeaningof‗drunk‘canbeexpressedinasmanytermsasoverthreehundredsuchas:elevated,merry,jolly,comfortable,boiled,grassy,tight,knockedout,blue-eyed,paralyzed,pickled,stiff,stunned,etc.Slangenjoypopularuse.Almosteveryoneusessomeslang.Sometime,andsomepeopleusealotofslangoften.Thosewhodon‘tgotoofficesorseldomfindthemselvesinformalsituations,andthosewhospendmoretimewithclosefriendusethemostslang,becauseslangiscolorful,blunt,expressiveandimpressive.④Argot—generallyreferstothejargonofcriminals.Itsuseisconfinedtothesub–culturalgroups,andoutsiderscanhardlyunderstandit.e.g.can-opener→allpurposekey;dippick-pocket;persuader→dagger.⑤Dialectalwords——arewordsusedonlybyspeakersofthedialectinquestion.e.g. beauty(AustraliaEnglish:=excellent,great);chook(AusE=chicken)cocky(AusE=smallfarmer)Station(AusE=ranch)auld(scotE=Old);hame(ScotE=homelough(IrE=lake))boy(IrE=swamp)⑥Archaisms arewordsorformsthatwereonceincommonusebutarenowrestrictedonlytospecializedorlimiteduse.Theyarefoundmainlyinolderpoems,legaldocumentsandreligiouswriting or speech. e.g. thou——you; ye——①you ②thee——you (objective); wilt——will; brethren——brother;quoth——said;aught——anything;troth——pledgeNeologismsarenewly-createdwordsorexpressions.microelectronic——futurology——未来学；AIDS=acquiredimmunedeficiencysyndrome(2)ContentwordsandFunctionalwords Bynotion,wordscanbegroupedintocontentwordsandfunctionalwords.Contentwordsdenoteclearnotionsandthusareknownasnotionalwords.Theyincludenouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbsandnumerals.Functionalwordsdonothavenotionsoftheirown.Therefore,theyarealsocalledemptywords.Astheirchieffunctionistoexpresstherelationbetweennotions,therelationbetweenwordsaswellasbetweensentences,theyareknownasformwords.Prepositions,conjunctions,auxiliariesandarticlesbelongtothiscategory.(3)NativewordsandBorrowedWordsAsforastheoriginsofthewordsareconcerned,Englishwordscanbeclassifiedintonativewordsandborrowedwords.NativewordsarewordsbroughttoBritaininthefifthcenturybytheGermantribes:theAngles,theSaxons,andtheJutes,thusknownasAnglo-Saxonwords.WordsofAnglo-Saxonoriginaresmallinnumber,amountingtoroughly50,000to60,000,buttheyformthemainstreamofthebasicwordstockandstandatthecoreofthelanguage.Therefore,whatistrueofthebasicwordstockisalsotrueofnativewords.Apartfromthecharacteristicsmentionedofthebasicwordstock,incontrasttoborrowedwords,nativewordshavetwootherfeatures:① Neutralinstyle.Sincenativewordsdenotethecommonestthingsinhumansociety,theyareusedbyallpeople,inallplaces,onalloccasions,andatalltimes.Therefore,theyarenotstylisticallyspecific.Thiscanbeillustratedbyacomparisonbetweensynonyms.Nativewords Borrowedwordsbegin —— commence(F)brotherly—— fraternal(F)kingly—— royal(F)——regal(L)Rise —— mount(F) ——ascend(L)Stylistically,nativewordsareneitherformalnorinformalwhereasthewordsborrowedformFrenchorLatinareliteraryandlearned,thusappropriateinformalstyle.②Frequentinuse.Nativewordsaremostfrequentlyusedineverydayspeechandwriting.Theproportionofitsuseinrelationtoborrowingsisperhapsjusttheoppositeofitsnumber.Thepercentageofnativewordsinuseusuallyashighas70to90percent.Wordstakenoverfromforeignlanguagesareknownasborrowedwordsorloanwordsorborrowingsinsimpleterms.ItisestimatedthatEnglishborrowingsconstitute80percentofthemodernEnglishvocabulary.Accordingtothedegreeofassimilationandmannerofborrowing,wecanbringtheloan-wordsunderfourclasses..①DenizensarewordsborrowedearlyinthepastandnowarewellassimilatedintoEnglishlanguage.Wordsofthisgroupareearlyborrowings