Words--meaning-and-vocabulary7

Words,meaningandvocabulary:AnintroductiontomodernEnglishlexicology7Investigatingvocabulary7.InvestigatingvocabularyThechaptercovers:methodsusedforinvestigatingwordsandvocabularyresourcesthatalexicologistmightuse–dictionariesandcorporaelectronictoolsforstudyingwords–concordancers(检索工具)waysofstoringinformationaboutwords–dictionariesanddatabasesusefulwebsitesforvocabularystudents7.1Whatmightwewanttofindout?Whatistheextentofthecurrentvocabularyofalanguageis?Orwhatconstitutedthevocabularyofthelanguageatsomepointinthepast?Whatnewwordsorexpressionsthatarebeingcoinedandwhatword-formationprocessesarecurrentlyproductiveinthelanguage(Chapter4)?Howextensiveisthecurrencyofanewwordis,whetheritisacceptedandusedbyawidespectrumofspeakersorwhetheritisrestrictedinitsusetoparticularsubgroupsofspeakersNewwords:spellingandpronunciation.E.g.manyofthewordswith‘ae’intheirspelling(mediaeval,encyclopaedia)arenowmoreroutinelyspeltsimplywith‘e’(medieval,encyclopedia);somewordswith‘ju:/intheirpronunciationhavedroppedthe/j/(lute,suit)andothersarecontinuingthechange(news,student)Restrictedvocabularyusedbyspecialsocialgroups,agegroups,sub-culturesoroccupations.Theoriginandhistoryofwords,andinthebirthanddeathorwordsandtheoccasionsthatgiverisetoneologism(新语)Themeaningofwords,thelexicalenvironmentsinwhichtheytypicallyoccur,thegrammaticalstructurestheyareabletoenter,andsituationscontextstowhichtheymayberestrictedorinwhichtheymaybetypicallyfound.(semantics,grammarandpragmaticsofwords7.2Howdowefindout?Linguistsgenerally,includinglexicologists,haverecoursetothreesourcesoflinguisticdata(JacksonandStockwell1996:9):introspection,elicitation,andcorporaa.Introspectionoccurswhenlexicologistsusetheirownknowledgeofalanguageasthedatafordescribingwords,meaningandvocabulary.Linguistsusethemethodofelicitationwhentheyhavequitespecificdatatocollectaboutsomeaspectoflanguage.Acorpus(theprimarysource)isa‘body’ofmaterial,fromwhichlinguistscanextractthedatatheyrequire.Thecorpusmayconsistofadictionary;ormorelikelyacollectionofdictionaries;orofacitationcollection,orofacollectionoftexts,oritmayconsistofsomecombinationofthese.Dictionaries:printedorelectronicformCollectedpainstakinglyoveryearsandstoredonslipsofpaper(inthepast)e.g.OxfordEnglishDictionary(OED)byJamesMurrayandothereditorsinthesecondhalfofthenineteenthcentury(1977),andstillbeingaddedto.Corpora,whethergeneralorspecialists,formthebedrockofthelexicologist’sdata.Exercise7/2Withoutconsultinganysources,writedownwhatyouknowabouttheusageofthefollowingwords:dependent,dependentAskthreeorfourfriendstoexplainthedifferenceinusagebetweenthesewordstoyou,andnotetheirrepliesNowconsultoneormoredictionariesand,ifyouhaveaccesstoone,acomputercorpus,andcheckyourinformationfroma)andb)Otherpairsofwordsyoucouldtrythiswithare:complement/compliment,militate/mitigate,principal/principle,stationary/stationery,statue/statute7.3ElectronicresourcesElectronicdictionariesTextcorpora7.3.1ElectronicdictionariesCD-ROMformat20-volumeOED(2ndedition)Single-volumedeskandconcisedictionariessuchasCollinsEnglishDictionaryandConciseOxfordEnglishDictionaryOxfordAdvancedLearner’sDictionaryLongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglishCambridgeAdvancedLearner’sDictionaryAdvantages:A.Itallowsmoresophisticatedsearching.E.g.etymologyB.Thedefinition‘field’ofanelectronicdictionarycanbesearchedforallmannerofinformation.E.g.asearchfor‘prosody’,whichisasubjectlabelintheConciseOxfordDictionary(9thed),finds46itemsbelongingtothislexicalitemsinalexicalfieldbysearchingforthe‘genus’terminthedefinitionfield.C.talsoallowssomeextensiveandrapidsearchingofthedictionarytext,andtheyyieldmuchinformationthatisofusetoalexicologist.D.Norestriction.Wordscouldbestoredalphabeticallyorbylexicalfield,withappropriatecross-referencingandhyper-links.Disadvantage:Thereisnocertaintythattheinformationobtainediscomprehensiveandreliable.(someinconsistency,notmodified)7.3.2TextcorporaComputercorporaoftextsrepresentafundamentalsourceofdataforthelexicologistthesedays(RundellandStock1992)Someexamples:BrownCorpus,firstrecognizedcomputercorpusin1960satBrownUniversityintheUSA.Includingnewspaperreports,editorialsandreviews;essaysandarticlesfromavarietyofnon-fictionsources;governmentdocuments,academicwriting;andanassortmentoffictionalwriting.(onemillionwords)(Tobecontinued)LOB(theLancaster-Oslo/Bergen)Corpus(onemillionwords)InternationalCorpusofEnglish(ICE)project(willencompass21-million-wordcorporaofdifferentvarietiesofEnglishformaroundtheworld.COBUILDprojectattheUniversityofBirminghaminthe1980s.Itsaimiswasanadvancedlearner’sdictionarybasedentirelyonevidencefromatextextracts.TheCOBUILDDictionary----theBankofEnglishTheOALDandtheLDOCE---BritishNationalCorpusProblems:balanceandrepresentative(e.g.ifaparticularsenseofaworddoesnotoccurina7.3-million-wordcorpus?)Exercise7/3Ifyouhaveanelectronicdictionaryonyourcomputer,whatinformationcanyousearchfor,apartfromtheheadword?Ifitallowsyoutosearchdefinitionsorlabels,findallthewordsbelongingtospecialistvocabulary,suchas‘music’or‘genet