Chapter 1 The Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary 1
1.1 The Definition of a Word 1
1.2 Vocabulary 2
1.3 Sound and Meaning 3
1.4 Sound and Form 3
1.5 Classification of Words 5
1.Basic Word Stock and Nonbasic Vocabulary 5
2.Content Words and Functional Words 10
3.Native Words and Borrowed Words 10
Questions and Tasks 14
Chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary 16
2.1 The Indo-European Language Family 16
2.2 Three Phases of the Historical Development 18
1.Old English (450—1150) 18
2.Middle English (1150—1500) 19
3.Modern English (1500 up to the present) 22
2.3 General Characteristics 23
1.Receptivity, Adaptability and Heterogeneity 23
2.Simplicity of Inflection 23
3.Relatively Fixed Word-order 24
2.4 Foreign Elements in the English Vocabulary 24
1.Latin 25
2.Greek 27
3.French 28
4.Scandinavian 31
5.Other Foreign Elements 32
2.5 Growth of Contemporary English Vocabulary 36
2.6 Modes of Vocabulary Development 37
Questions and Tasks 38
Chapter 3 Morphological Structure of English Words 43
3.1 Morphemes 43
3.2 Morphs and Allomorphs 44
3.3 Classifying Morphemes 45
1.Free versus Bound Morphemes 46
2.Derivational versus Inflectional Morphemes 47
3.Content versus Grammatical Morphemes 48
3.4 Identifying Morphemes 48
3.5 Morpheme and Word-formation 49
1.Affix 49
2.Root, Stem, Base 50
Questions and Tasks 52
Chapter 4 Word Formation 54
4.1 Affixation 55
1.Prefixation 55
2.Suffixation 61
4.2 Compounding 67
1.Characteristics of Compounds 67
2.Formation of Compounds 69
4.3 Conversion 74
1.Conversion to Nouns 75
2.Conversion to Verbs 77
3.Conversion to Adjectives 80
4.4 Blending 82
4.5 Clipping 83
4.6 Acronymy 85
1.Initialisms 85
2.Acronyms 86
4.7 Back-formation 87
4.8 Sound Reduplication 88
4.9 Commonization of Proper Names 89
Questions and Tasks 93
Chapter 5 Word Meaning and Componential Analysis 99
5.1 Word Meaning 99
1.Reference 99
2.Concept 100
3.Sense 101
5.2 Motivation 101
1.Onomatopoeic Motivation 101
2.Morphological Motivation 102
3.Semantic Motivation 102
4.Etymological Motivation 102
5.3 Types of Meaning 103
1.Grammatical Meaning and Lexical Meaning 103
2.Conceptual Meaning and Associative Meaning 104
5.4 Componential Analysis 108
Questions and Tasks 112
Chapter 6 Sense Relations 115
6.1 Polysemy 115
1.Two Approaches to Polysemy 116
2.Two Processes of Development 118
6.2 Homonymy 119
1.Types of Homonyms 120
2.Origins of Homonyms 121
3.Differentiation of Homonyms from Polysemants 122
4.Rhetoric Features of Homonyms 122
6.3 Synonymy 123
1.Definition of Synonyms 123
2.Types of Synonyms 124
3.Sources of Synonyms 125
4.Discrimination of Synonyms 127
6.4 Antonymy 131
1.Types of Antonyms 131
2.Some of the Characteristics of Antonyms 133
3.The Use of Antonyms 135
6.5 Hyponymy 137
6.6 Semantic Field 139
Questions and Tasks 142
Chapter 7 Changes in Word Meaning 151
7.1 Types of Change 152
1.Extension of Meaning 152
2.Narrowing of Meaning 153
3.Elevation of Meaning 155
4.Degradation of Meaning 155
5.Transference of Meaning 156
6.Euphemism 158
7.2 Mechanism of Change 159
7.3 Causes of Change 162
1.Extra-linguistic Factors 162
2.Linguistic Factors 164
Questions and Tasks 166
Chapter 8 Meaning and Context 169
8.1 Types of Context 169
1.Extra-linguistic Context 170
2.Linguistic Context 172
8.2 The Role of Context 174
1.Elimination of Ambiguity 174
2.Indication of Referents 175
3.Provision of Clues for Inference of Word-meaning 175
Questions and Tasks 178
Chapter 9 English Idioms 181
9.1 Characteristics of Idioms 181
1.Semantic Unity 181
2.Structural Stability 182
9.2 Classification of Idioms 183
1.Idioms Nominal in Nature 184
2.Idioms Adjectival in Nature 185
3.Idioms Verbal in Nature 185
4.Idioms Adverbial in Nature 186
5.Sentence Idioms 187
9.3 Use of Idioms 187
1.Stylistic Features 188
2.Rhetorical Features 190
3.Variations of Idioms 194
Questions and Tasks 197
Chapter 10 English Dictionaries 201
10.1 The Development of the Dictionary 201
1.Early Glossaries and Word Books 201
2.Modern English Dictionaries 202
3.American Dictionaries 204
10.2 Types of Dictionaries 205
1.Monolingual and Bilingual Dictionaries 205
2.Linguistic and Encyclopaedic Dictionaries 206
3.General Purpose Dictionaries 210
4.Specialized Dictionaries 210
10.3 Using the Dictionary 213
1.Choice of Dictionaries 213
2.Making Full Use of the Dictionary 216
10.4 Recommending Four Dictionaries 219
1.Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary(1997) 219
2.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English—English-Chinese(2001) 222
3.Collins COBUILD English Dictionary (2000) 224
4.LongmanLanguage Activator (1997) 227
Questions and Tasks 229
Chapter 11 Aspects of Vocabulary Learning 231
11.1 Vocabulary Storage 231
11.2 Schematic Learning 233
11.3 Learning by Lexical Phrases 234
11.4 Learning Words in Discourse 234
1.Cohesion 234
2.Discourse Markers and Organizers 237
Questions and Tasks 241
REFERENCES 242
词汇学术语英汉对照表 248