3英语词汇学2

Chapter2BasicConceptsofWordsandVocabularyWhatislexicology?Lexicologyisabranchoflinguisticsconcernedwiththestudyofthevocabularyofagivenlanguage.Itdealswithwords,theirorigin,development,structure,formation,meaningandusage.Inshort,itisthestudyofthesignificationandapplicationofwords.WhatIsaWord?Awordisaminimalfreeformofalanguagethathasagivensound,meaningandsyntacticfunction.词是具有一定的声音、意义和语法功能，能独立运用的最小的语言单位。Whatisvocabulary?Thetotalnumberofthewordsinalanguage.Allthewordsusedinaparticularhistoricalperiod.Allthewordsofagivendialect,agivenbook,agivendisciplineandthewordspossessedbyanindividualperson.VocabularySizeSpeakingvocabulary----activevocabularywritingvocabulary------activevocabularyreadingvocabulary------passivevocabularyguessvocabulary--------passivevocabularyLanguagecanbedefinedas“anarbitraryvocalsystemusedforhumancommunication”.Bysystemwemeanthattheelementsinalanguagearearrangedaccordingtocertainrules,butnotatrandom.Elementsatalowerlevelarecombinedaccordingtocertainrulestoformelementsatahigherlevel.Specially,Languagepresentsitselfasahierarchyindifferentaspects.Asisshowninthefollowinghierarchicalrankscale,languagerisesformmorphemeatthebottomuptothesentenceatthetopintermsoflexicography.(词典编纂)2.1Morpheme1.Whatisamorpheme(词素)?Themorphemeisthesmallestfunctioningunitinthecompositionofwords,notdivisibleoranalyzableintosmallerforms.WhatisusuallyconsideredasinglewordinEnglishmaybecomposedofoneormoremorphemes:Onemorpheme---nationTwomorphemes---nation-alThreemorphemes---nation-al-izeFourmorphemes---de-nation-al-ize（使…非国有化）Morethanfourmorphemes---de-nation-al-iz-ationSowecandefinemorphemeinthisway:thesmallestunitintermsofrelationshipbetweenexpressionandcontent,aunitwhichcannotbedividedwithoutdestroyingordrasticallyalteringthemeaning,whetheritislexicalorgrammatical.■Amorphemeisatwo-facetlanguageunitinthatitpossessesbothsoundandmeaning.Amorphemevs.AwordMorphemesoccurinspeechonlyasconstituentpartsofwords.Theycannotbeusedindependently,althoughawordmayconsistofasinglemorpheme.Noraremorphemesdivisibleintosmallermeaningfulunits.Thatiswhythemorphememaybedefinedastheminimummeaningfullanguageunit.2.Allomorph(形位变体，词[语]素变体）Sometimesamorphememayhavetwoormoredifferentmorphologicalformsorphoneticforms,dependingonthecontextinwhichitoccurs.Forexample,theprefixsubcanberealizedassubasinsubway,supasinsupportandsuppress,sucasinsucceed,andsusasinsustain.Thatis,whensuboccursbeforearootbeginningwiththesound/p/itisrealizedassupandwhenitisaddedarootwithabeginningsound/k/andabeginninglettercitisrealizedassuc.Thesedifferentmorphologicalorphoneticformsofamorphemeareallomorphsofthemorpheme.Allomorphs（词素变体）:Anallomorphisanyofthevariantformsofamorphemeasconditionedbypositionoradjoiningsounds.Forexampleion/-tion/-sion/-ationarethepositionalvariantsofthesamesuffix.Verbsendingwiththesound/t/usuallytake–ion(asininvent,invention);verdsendingwithconsonantsotherthan/t/take–tion(asindescribe,description);verbsendingin–ifyand–izetake–ation(asinjustify,justification;modernize,modernization);verbsendingin–d,-de,or–mit,take–sion(asinexpansion,decision,omission);thereareexceptions:attend,attention;convert,conversion,etc.Allomorphsalsooccuramongprefixes.Theirformthendependsonthefirstletteroftheverbtowhichtheywillbeadded.e.g.im-beforep,b,orm,imperfect,imbalance,immobile;ir-beforer,irresponsible,irregular;il-beforel,illegal,illogical;in-beforeallotherconsonantsandvowels,inflexible,inexcusable;im-,ir-,andil-arethusallomorphsofthemorpheme,in-.2.2ClassificationofMorpheme1.FreemorphemesandboundmorphemesFreemorphemes(自由词素）：Morphemeswhichareindependentofothermorphemesareconsideredtobefree.Freemorphemeshavecompletemeaningsinthemselvesandcanbeusedasfreegrammaticalunitsinsentences.Afreemorphemeisonethatmayconstituteaword(freeform)byitself,inthetraditionalsense.e.g.man,faith,read,write,redBoundmorphemes(粘附词素):morphemesthatcannotoccurasseparatewords.Itcannotstandbyitselfasacompleteutterance;itmustappearwithatleastoneothermorpheme,freeorbound.Unlikefreemorphemes,theydonothaveindependentsemanticmeaning;instead,theyhaveattachedmeaningorgrammaticalmeaning.e.g.-ly,re-,-ed,-sBoundmorphemecanchangethemeaningorwordclassofaword,e.g.fitandunfit,broadandbraoden;Itcanalsohavegrammaticalfunction,e.g.bookandbooks.2.RootandaffixAlternatively,morphemesmaybedividedintoroots(orrootmorphemes)andaffixes(oraffixationalmorphemes).1).Root(orrootmorphemes):thebasicunchangeablepartofaword,andcoversthemainlexicalmeaningoftheword.Thatistosay,itisthepartofthewordleft,whetherfreeorbound,whenalltheaffixesareremoved.Itcarriesthemaincomponentofmeaninginaword.e.g.work,workable,worker,worked,working--semanticallyrelatedwordsRootsare,therefore,thecoresofEnglishwords.Historically,therootistheearliestformofaword.Rootsareeitherfreeorbound:a.Freeroot:InEnglishmanyrootsarefreemorphemes,suchasboy,moon,walk,black(i.e.theycanstandaloneaswords).Awordconsistingofonefreeroot(oronemorpheme)isasimplewords.Freeroots,justlikesimplewords,belongtothebasicword-stock,andhavethefundamentalfeaturesof