Unit One: An Introduction to the Course

1 Nature and Scope of Lexicology

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics" title="n.语言学">linguisticsconcerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, history, structure, meaning and application. It is correlated with a number of academic disciplines such as morphology, semantics, etymology, stylistics, lexicography and pragmatics. It is a theoretically-oriented and practical course.

2 Relationship between Lexicology and other Linguistic Subjects

Morphology is a subject which studies the structure and forms of words, primarily through the use of morphological structure (one of the major concerns of lexicology which discusses the inflections of words and word-formation and examines how morphemes are combined to form words).

Etymology mainly deals with the history of words and their origins, changes of forms and meanings in the course of development.(lexicology also studies the ways by which words change and develop in meanings, forms and usages)

Semantics works on meanings of different linguistic levels: morphs, lexis, syntax, utterance and discourse (lexicology only focuses on the lexical level. The types of meaning and sense relations such as polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, hypernymy, meronymy and semantic field all belong to the scope of semantic study and constitute an important part of lexicology).

Stylistics copes with the style of languages. It is concerned with the choice of the linguistic elements in a particular context for special effects. Its area of study covers lexis, phonology, syntax and graphology.(lexicology touches on lexis, exploring the stylistic values of words)

Lexicography shares with lexicology in the coverage of the forms, meanings, origins, pronunciations and usages of words, with its key tasks targeting at recording the words as they are used so as to present the genuine picture of words to readers, providing an authoritative reference.(lexicology aims at offering knowledge and information of lexis so as to increase people's lexical awareness and capacity of language use. There is a pragmatic difference between the two areas)

Pragmatics studies the process and roles of how language users amalgamate information of context with linguistic knowledge in the course of communication. (lexicology crosses with it in word usage exploration and meaning arrangement)

Terminology is a science studying the system of specialized words and expressions in a particular science, profession, activity, etc. which is entailed in lexicology

On the whole, lexicology has its own coverage of words in a different aspect and from different angles, and its task is definite and consistent.

3.Approaches

1) Synchronic: studies words at one point of time 2) Diachronic: studies words over a period of time Example: January (Syn) is a simple English word, the name of the first month of the year Eventful(Syn) is a derivative Fond(Syn) means 'affectionate' Diachronically, 'January' is a borrowed word from Latin 'Janua' meaning the door; 'eventful' '-ful' is an Old English suffix.

Unit Two: Basic Concept of Words and Vocabulary

1 Word Definition

A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning syntactic function and form with a linguistic marker.

2 Relationship between Sound and Meaning and Sound and Form

A word is a symbol standing for something or referring to something in the world. There is a symbolic connection between, which is always arbitrary and conventional; there is no logicalrelationship between the sound and the referent but people of the same speech community agree to the symbolic relationship.

The written form is the written record of the speech. There is a correspondinginternalrelationship between, but discrepancy also exists. Because, English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, which does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the language and so some letters have to do double work or work together in combination.

Pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling over the years. In early time, scribes were hired to engage writing. Some of their handwritings caused misunderstanding, and some of them deliberately changed letters with short vertical strokes such as I, u, v, m, w and n because they looked all alike. The late 1500 witnessed the establishment of printing system which helped freeze the spelling of words; The large scale of borrowing words from different languages complicated the situation. Some borrowings stay in their former form and pronunciation; some have their pronunciation or spelling assimilated but not quite confirming to the rules of English language

All in all, the written form of English is not a perfect representation of its spoken form.

3 Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to all the words in a language or the total number of words used in a given historical period, or that of a particular dialect, a specific book, a given discipline or the words possessed by a particular individual.

4 Classification of Words.

In English, there are over one million words and these words can be classified by different criteria and for different purposes stated class in pair / criteria reference / characteristics / example

According to frequency, distribution and connotation

1) basic: all national denoting common things stable in use for centuries productive football/print/path/wear/loose polysemic put/in order/French collocable easy on the eye/mind one's eye

2) non-basic:

a terminology, technical terms used in particular disciplines or academic areas penicillin/algebra b jargon, vocabularies by which members of particular arts, science, trades or professions communicate among themselves paranoid for suspicious c slang, a substandard language not acceptable in serious speech buck for dollar d argot, the jargon of criminals, a speech spoken and understood by people confined to subculture dip for pickpocket e vulgarisms, words used by rough uneducated people bloody showing no meaning f dialectal words, expressions used in a particular area beauty{Aus E for excellent} g archaisms/obsolete words, words that were once in common use but now restricted only to specialized or limited use thou for you/quoth for said h neologisms, newly coined words or words that are given new meaning to fit new situation, some of them are called vogue words futurology/E-mail/internet

According to function

2) content/notional notions noun/verb/adjective/adverb/numeral functional/form relationship preposition/conjunction/auxiliary/article

According to origin

3) native/origin neutral in style ask /question/ interrogate frequent in use 70% to 90% in use common in notion referring to daily life simple in structure mostly root words or monosyllabic

loan/borrowed complex and heterogeneous formal and polysyllabic

a denizen: borrowed words with transformed sound and spelling into native port from portus(L) b alien: borrowed words retaining their original pronunciation and spelling kowtow(CH) c translation loan: words or expressions formed from English material but modeled on the patterns taken from another language long time no see from haojiumeijian(CH) d semantic loan: words having acquired the new meaning without changing their forms gift meant 'the price of a wife from gipt of Scandinavian, but now it means present

According to level of usage 4) popular used for ordinary conversation lively learnt used more in formal style vivacious

According to word structure and meaning relationship 5) transparent/motivated meaning is explainable from structure booklet/review opaque meaning is unexplainable book/view

According to word structure 6) root/structure a root stays as a word pose derivative affixed word preview

According to word composition 7) simple single root or morpheme sea compound plural morphemes/roots solid/hyphenated/open

According to word sound structure 8) polysyllabic over one syllables solid monosyllabic one single syllable sun

According to word meaning possession 9) polysemic over one meaning take monosemic one single meaning mathematics

According to general property of word 10) abstract denoting concepts luck concrete denoting solid things book

According to potential conscription 11) open class accepting new comers content words closed class disallowing new membership functional and pronouns

Unit Three: Development of English Vocabulary

1 The Indo-European Language Family

Diagraph 1.Indo-European Language Family 6000 BC where some of world's 2769 languages have come from

1) BALTO-SLAVIC/SLAVONIC 1st c, AD; Prussian/Polish/Bulgarian/Slovenian/Russian

2)ALBANIAN 3) INDO-IRANIAN 2000 BC; Persian/Hindi

4) ARMENIAN 5) ITALIC/LATIN 1200BC; Portuguese/Spanish/Italian/Romanian/Spanish/French

6) CELTIC 1000 BC; Breton/Irish/Scots/Welsh

7) GERMANIC 300BC; Danish/Dutch German/Icelandic/Norwegian/Swedish/English Old E(Anglo-Saxon) 450-1150 Mid E (Anglo-French) 1150-1500 Mod 1500-now 8) HELLENIC 1500BC; Greek

2 The Development Of English Language

Chronicle Event Influence Characteristics

Before 55-54 BC Celts lived Celtic

6th Centuary Roman Legions Latin (second major)

55-54 BC-41 AD Roman occupation Latin

Early 5th C German tribes Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded and settled

450-1150 Old English with a vocabulary of 50000-60000 highly inflected, full endings

6th C St. Augustine introduced Christianity Latin influence in religious term eg. altar

9th C Norwegian and Danish Vikings conquest

A Danish king placed on the throne; Scandinavian words for daily life had their influence, many of which have been assimilated into native with estimated 900 words still in us

1150-1500 Middle English retained much fewer inflections leveled endings

1066 Norman invasion, English people were reduced to status of the inferior; political and social powers by French speaking people Latin had its popularity three languages co-exited

1250-1500 9000 French words came into English 3/4 still in use concerned with government, religion, social affairs military affairs food and fashion state/prince/judge/dress/roast

Late 13th C Wycliff translation of the Bible into English and writings by Chaucer and Langland helped English gain back and it became a respected literary medium

1500-present Modern English evolved from synthetic language to an analytic one, characterized by its lost endings

1500-1700 Early Modern English marked by the establishment of printing system in England and Renaissance; revival of classic Latin and Greek new entry 10000, 1/4 of modern English words come almost directly from classical languages

1700-present Late Modern English

1775 A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson started the era of standardization and purification of English language

Mid 17th C Bourgeois Revolution followed by Industrial Revolution brought Britain into a world power; colonization, commercial expansion, advance in science and technology, all have impact on English language.

3 Modes Of Vocabulary Development

1) Creation, the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, fixes and other elements There are affixation, compounding, conversion and etc.

2) Semantic Change, an old form takes on a new meaning to meet the need as dove (originally pigeon, a soft voiced bird) used to mean a person esp. a politician in favor of peace 3) Borrowing, adopting words from other languages for the use of its own

4) Reviving archaic or obsolete words: druggist for chemist/fall for autumn

5) By analogy, the form of words changed or derived according to the way other words have changed. Examples are as follows: Aphelion, a plant's greatest distance from the sun Perihelion, the least distance from the sun Apolune, a point in a lunar orbit farthest from the center of the moon Perilune, a point in a lunar orbit nearest to the center of the moon
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