Word and Vocabulary

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Word and Vocabulary

1.1 What is a word?

Four characteristics of a word: (1) a minimal free form of a language; (2) a sound unit; (3) a unit of meaning; (4) a form that can function alone in a

sentence.

1.1 What is a word?

Definition: A word is a minimal free form of a

language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function.

1.1 What is a word? Simple words: sun, book, fine, eat, well Complex words: internationalization (inter + nation + al + iz[e] + ation) national international nationalize internationalize nationalization internationalization

1.1 What is a word?

internationalization de-internatinalization 废除国际化 non-internatinalization 非国际化

1.2 Sound and Meaning A word is a symbol that stands for

something else in the world. dog woman bird tree The connection is arbitrary and conventional.

1.2 Sound and Meaning

arbitrary: no logical explanation conventional: People of the

same speech community have agreed to use the sound to refer to the entity.


English Chinese dog /dכg/ /g u/ə woman /`wum n/ə /fùnǚ/ bird /b :d/ə /niau/ tree /tri:/ /shu:/


Same sound: /s٨n/ son sun /flauə/ flower flour

1.3 Sound and Form

Form = written record of the oral form

The two forms of a language should agree with each other, such as Russian, German, Old English.

1.3 Sound and Form

In modern English, sound (pronunciation) and form (spelling) have a lot of differences.

Indication: phonetic transcription to show the pronunciation of each word

What are the reasons?

1.3 Sound and Form

1. More phonemes than letters Not enough letters to represent

phonemes phonemes ≥ letters

1.3 Sound and Form

2. Quicker change of sound than spelling

Sound and spelling do not change simultaneously.

Printing stabilized spelling while sound continued to change.

1.3 Sound and Form

3. Spelling affected by scribes i u v m w n made handwriting diffi

cult to recognize and the scribes changed spelling forms.

sum cum wuman wunder munk some come woman wonder monk

1.3 Sound and Form 4. Un-assimilated borrowings A large proportion of them are not

assimilated yet: stimulus (L) dénouement (F) fiesta (Sp) eureka (Gr) kimono (Jap)

1.4 Vocabulary

All the words in a language make up its vocabulary.

vocabulary of a book vocabulary of a period: Old English V. personal vocabulary: 5000-8000-

10000 active vocabulary: 3000-3500 passive vocabulary: 10000-?

1.5 Classification of Words

Criteria for classification: 1. use frequency: basic word stock & non-basic V. 2. notion: content words & functional

words 3. origin: native words & borrowed words

1.5.1 Basic and non-basic vocabulary

Basic word stock = common core 1. All national character snow, fire, water, sun hand, face, father, mother apple, tree; horse, cow eat, hear, good, old, I, you, in, out


2. Stability man, fire, mountain, water, sun, moo

n BUT bow, chariot, knight, rickshaw (out of common use) plane, computer, internet, cellphone (in common use)


3. Productivity dog: doglike, doghood, dogcart, dog- c

heap, dog-ear, dog-fall, dog-fight, doghole, dog paddle, dogsleep


4. Polysemy Most words have plural meanings. get go give


5. Collocability 搭配力强 able to form collocations a change of heart 改变主意 after one‘s heart 正中下怀 a heart of gold 金子般的心 at heart 在心底


at heart 在心底 break one‘s heart 令人心碎 cross one‘s heart 上帝保佑 ; 祈祷 cry one‘s heart out 痛哭 eat one‘s heart out 因伤心而消瘦 have one's heart in one's mouth 忐忑不安 ; 紧张万分


heart and hand 全心全意 heart and soul 全心全意 One‘s heart sinks within one 心寒 take something to heart 把……放在心上 ;

在意 wear one‘s heart upon one’s sleeve

流露感情 with all one‘s heart 诚心诚意


BUT Not all the words of the basic word stoc

k have these characteristics. pronouns, numerals: monosemous non-productive “All national character” is the most i

mportant of all characteristics.


Non-basic vocabulary 1. Terminology photoscanning 扫描 audiovisual 视听 indigestion 消化不良


2. Jargon = shop talk 行话 hypo = hypodermic syringe 皮下注射 buster = bomb


3. Slang （ sub-standard ） dough, bread = money smoky, bear = police drunk = elevated, merry, jolly,

comfortable, boiled, grassy, tight, knocked out, blue-eyed, fried, paralyzed, pickled, stiff, stunned


4. Argot (language of the in-groups or criminals) 隐语 , 黑话

can-opener = all-purpose key 万能钥匙

persuader = dagger 匕首


5. Dialectal words station (AusE ） = ranch auld (ScotE ） = old bluid (ScotE ） = blood


6. Archaisms 古旧词 words now restricted in use such as in

older poems, legal documents and religious writing or speech

thou = you ye = you (plural) thee = you (objective case) therefrom = from that or there


7. Neologisms 新词 pm2.5 = 微颗粒 2.5 e-fiction = 网络小说 on-line education = 网上教育 netizen = 网民


7. Neologisms 新词水饺睡觉 sleep 秒杀 seckill 白金汉 elite bachelor (with high qualification

s, high income and good taste) 单贵女 single woman noble (smart, success

ful with good income) 考碗族 people obsessed with tests for a a

government position 拼爹 compete by means of powerful fathers

1.5.2 Content words

By notion content words = notional words noun, verb, adjective, adverb functional words = form/empty

words prep, article, pronoun, conjunction,

etc.

1.5.2 Content words

Characteristics: Content Functional numerous small in numbe

r changing/growing stable less frequent more frequent Eg. It is certain that they have forgotten

the address.

1.5.3 Native and foreign words

By Origin Native words Foreign words


Native words Words of Anglo-Saxon origin

(Germanic tribes) 50,000 to 60,000 : 1,000,000 5% BUT form the mainstream of the basic

word stock


Characteristics: 1. all national character 2. stability 3. productivity 4. polysemy 5. collocability 6. neutrality in style 7. higher frequency in use


neutrality in style begin ( E) — commence (F) brotherly (E) — fraternal (F) kingly (E) — royal (F) — regal (L) rise (E) — mount (F) — ascend (L)


higher frequency in use (See statistics on page 11)


Borrowed words/borrowings/loan words

constituting 80% of modern English V. Criteria of classification: 1. Degree of assimilation 2. Manner of borrowing


1. Degree of assimilation (1) denizens = fully assimilated portus (L) port skipta (ON) shift


(2) Aliens = unassimilated words décor (F) blitzkrieg (G ) kowtow (CH ) bazaar (Per ) intermezzo (IT) emir (Arab )


2. Manner of borrowing (3) Translation loans translated according to sound teachin

awoktof

uwonton

yen


translated according to meaning long time no see lose face paper tiger four modernizations one country two systems


(4) Semantic loan = meanings borrowed for the existing forms

young pioneer = 少先队员 (Russian) dumb = ①unable to speak ②stupid (from dumm [G]) Summary

Word and Vocabulary

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