Chapter 1 The Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary
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1、The Definition of a Word
Lexicology focus on the study of meanings and origins of words.
According to manticists（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, meaning
and syntactic function（句法功能）.
2、 Vocabulary
All the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary.
3、 Sound and Meaning
The relationship between sound and meaning is no logic
4、 Sound and Form
There was more agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English.
With the development of the language, more and more differences aro between sound and
form.
5、 Classification of Words
No. | Classification | Example | Notes |
1 | By u frequency | Basic Word Stock （基本词汇） | The basic word stock forms the common core（共合）of the language. Pronouns（代词） and numerals are mantically monomous（单一的） and fairly limited in the respect of productivity（多产性）and collocability（搭配性）. The most important feature of the basic word stock is all national character. |
Nonbasic Vocabulary | Archaisms（古词语）：thou Neologisms（新词）：AIDS Argot（黑话）：persuader( means dagger) Technical Terms | |
2 | By notion （有无实义） | Content Words（实义词） |
Functional Words |
3 | powermanagementBy Origin | Native Words | | | kds
Borrowed Words | Denizens（同代词）：port、shirt Aliens（非同代词）：décor Translation Loans（译借词）: lama（喇嘛） | |
4 | By Morphology （形态） | Simple Words jeremy lin |
Compounds and Derived Words |
| | | | 我比任何人都爱你 |
6、简答
（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 different
languages, the same concept can be shown by different sounds. “Woman”, for example,
becomes “Frau独立主格” in German, “Femme” in French and “fu nv” in Chine. On the other
hand, the same sound [mi:t] is ud to mean “meet, meat, mete”, denoting different
things.
（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 letters
in English. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than
spelling over the years. The third reasons that some of the differences more created by
the early scribes. The fourth reason is the borrowing.
（3）、How are words classified in the cour book?
Words can be classified by different criteria and for different purpos. Words may fall
into: the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by u frequency; content words and
functional 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. The words are immediately recognizable as foreign
in origin.
Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary
1、The Indo-European Language Family
The prehistoric Indo-European parent language, thought to be a highly inflected （内部曲折
语）language.
Group | Classification | Including |
Easter Set (东支) | Balto-Slavic | Prussian、Lithuanina（立陶宛语）、Czech（捷克语） |
Indo-Iranian | Persian、Bengali（孟加拉）、Hindi、Romany |
Western Set （西支） | Celtic | Scottish、Irish、Welsh |
Hellenic | Greek |
Italic | Five Romance languages: Portugue、Spanish、French、Italian、Romanian |
Germanic | Four Northern European Languages (Scandinavian languages): Norwegian（挪威语）、Icelandic（冰岛语）、timeoutDanish、Swedish 优路教育 |
German、Dutch（荷兰语）、Flemish（佛兰芒语）、English |
| | |
2、 Three Phas of the Historical Development
The first peoples who inhabited the land were Celts.
The cond 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 the
Middle English period.
The most important fact of the Middle English period was the steady erosion of the
inflectional systems of Old English.
endpoint（3）、Modern English（1500-prent）
In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient
Greek and Roman classics.
It is estimated that about one fourth of modern English vocabulary has come from French.
3、 Foreign Elements in the English Vocabulary
In 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 Development
Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, mantic change（旧
词新义）and borrowing.
赛思外语Creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.
