英语词汇学第11讲

EnglishLexicologyReadingsTaskXCheck•Chapter9&12ofASurveyofEnglishLexicology•KeypointsinthebookwillbediscussednextweekReviewofLectureXSemanticRelationship1.Polysemy2.Homonymy3.Synonymy4.Antonymy5.HyponymyLectureXIEnglishIdioms&VarietiesLectureXIEnglishIdioms&Varieties1.Englishidioms2.FeaturesofEnglishidiomsStabilityIdiomaticitySyntacticInseparabilityNationalInCharacter3.Thegloballanguage4.RegionalVarietiesBritishEnglishvariantsanddialectsAmericanEnglishvariantsanddialectsOthervariants5.AmericanEnglish6.DifferencesbetweenBritishE.&AmericanE.EnglishIdiomsEnglishidiomsaredifficultofinterpretationandconstituteoneofthechiefstumblingblockstoforeignstudentsintheirstudyofEnglish.ThenumberofidiomaticexpressionsknownbyaculturedEnglishmanisover5,000(notcountingprepositionalidioms).EnglishIdiomsMovie:MadMoneyReleasedate:Jan.2008Thethreewomen:DianeKeatonQueenLatifahKatieHolmesFeaturesofEnglishIdiomsEnglishidiomshavetheirownpeculiarfeatures,whichenhancetheirinseparability,cohesionandconstancy.FeaturesofEnglishIdioms1.AnEnglishidiomhasanestablishedform,onethathasbeenacceptedbytraditionalusage.NoelementcanbechangedinEnglishidiomswithoutdestroyingthesenseasawhole.Inotherwords,Englishidiomshavetheirstability,theirfixedandready-madenature.Itisgenerallyacceptedthatwhenanalyzedstructurally,themostimportantcharacteristicofidiomsisstability.FeaturesofEnglishIdioms2.Theterm“idioms”generallyimpliesthattheessentialfeatureofthelinguisticunitunderconsiderationisidiomaticityorlackofmotivation.Thememberwordsofanidiomdonotpossessanylexicalmeaningoutsidetheintegralmeaningofthewhole.Bylackofmotivationwemeanbeingsemanticallynon-motivated,i.e.thespecialmeaningofanidiomcannotbededucedfromtheliteralmeaningofitsmember-words.FeaturesofEnglishidioms3.Englishidiomshavethecharacteristicsofsyntacticinseparability.Thatis,theyshouldbeusedgrammaticallyasawhole.Englishidiomshavetheirstylisticvalue,namely,terseness,vividnessandforcibleness.FeaturesofEnglishidioms4.Englishidiomsareessentiallynationalincharacter,i.e.theircomponentsaremostlynativeelements.Buttheyalsocontainalargedepositofidiomaticexpressionsofforeignorigin.MostEnglishidioms,whetherofnativeorofforeignorigin,arecolloquialinstyle.Ithasbeenoftenpointedoutthatmanyidiomsaredistinctlyrhythmical,containingalliteration,rhyme,etc.TheGlobalLanguageEnglishasanativelanguage:Britain,theUnitedStates,Ireland,Australia,NewZealand,Canada,theWestIndiesandSouthAfrica.TheGlobalLanguageESL:India,Pakistan,Nigeria,Kenya,andmanyothercountries.EFL:LargenumbersofpeopleintheworldspeakandwriteEnglishasaforeignlanguageforthepurposeofscience,technology,andinternationalcommunication.Ithasbecomeauniversallanguageofinternationalcommunication.VarietiesofEnglishTwomajorvarietiesofEnglish:BritishEnglish(BrE)andAmericanEnglish(AmE)Thesetwovarietiesdifferincertaindetails,butthereisnoessentialdifferencebetweenthembecauseofthesimilaritiesofthebasicwordstock,thebasicgrammarandthebasicphoneticsystem.Thereisnosuperiorityorinferiority.VarietiesofEnglishRegionalVarietiesoftheEnglishLanguage:BritishEnglishvariantsanddialectsAmericanEnglishvariantsanddialectsCanadian,Australian,NewZealand,South-AfricanvariantsBritishEnglishVariants&DialectsStandardEnglishistheofficiallanguageofGreatBritaintaughtatschoolsanduniversities,usedbythepress,theradioandthetelevisionandspokenbyeducatedpeople.ItmaybedefinedasthatformofEnglishwhichiscurrentandliterary,substantiallyuniformandrecognizedasacceptablewhereverEnglishisspokenorunderstood.Regionalvarietiespossessingaliteraryformarecalledvariants.InGreatBritaintherearetwovariants,ScottishEnglishandIrishEnglish,andfivemaingroupsofdialects:Northern,Midland,Eastern,WesternandSouthern.Eachgroupcontainsseveral(uptoten)dialects.LocaldialectsarevarietiesoftheEnglishlanguagepeculiartosomedistrictsandhavingnonormalizedliteraryform.BritishEnglishVariants&DialectsThevarietyofEnglishusedinU.S.A.hasreceivedthenameofAmericanEnglish.LocaldialectsinU.S.A.arerelativelysmall.AmericanEnglishVariants&DialectsOtherVariantsCanadianEnglishisinfluencedbothbyBritishandAmericanEnglishbutitalsohassomecharacteristicfeaturesofitsown.OtherVariantsAustralianVariantisundoubtedlythedominantformofEnglishintheAntipodesandbyreasonofAustralia’sincreasedwealth,populationandinfluenceinworldaffairsisexertinganinfluenceinthenorthernhemisphere,particularlyinBritain.OtherVariantsNewZealandvariantismorelikeBritishEnglishthananyothernon-Europeanvariety.IthasadoptedanumberofwordsfromindigenousMaoris.OtherVariantsInspellingandgrammartheSouthAfricanEnglishvariantineducateduseisidenticalwithBritishEnglish.Ratherconsiderabledifferencesinvocabularyhavedeveloped,largelyundertheinfluenceoftheotherofficiallanguageofthecountry.AmericanEnglishColonialAmericaTheestablishmentin1607ofthesettlementwhichtheexplorerscalledJamestownmarkedthebeginningofBritishcolonizationinAmerica.By1732theoriginal13stateshadbeensetup.ThelanguagetheearlyimmigrantsbroughtwiththemwasElizabethanEnglish,thelanguagespokenbyShakespeare,MiltonandBunyan,whichbelongedtotheearlystageofMo