1 Introduction： Word， Vocabulary and Lexicology 1
1.1 The notion of “word” 1
1.1.1 Do words exist？ 1
1.1.2 Bloomfield’ s definition of word 2
1.1.3 Characteristics of words 4
1.2 The organization of English vocabulary 5
1.2.1 The syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations 5
1.2.2 Word classes 7
1.2.3 Lexical fields 8
1.3 Lexicology and other levels of linguistic analysis 10
1.3.1 Lexicology and phonology 11
1.3.2 Lexis and grammar： two forms of patterning 12
1.3.3 Lexicology and semantics 14
1.4 Summary 15
Exercises 15
2 English Vocabulary： A Historical Perspective 17
2.1 The Indo-European language family 17
2.2 The English people and the English language 18
2.3 The development of English vocabulary 21
2.3.1 The Old English period 21
2.3.2 The Middle English period 23
2.3.3 Modern English period 25
2.4 Summary 28
Exercises 29
3 Borrowing as a Source of English Word-Stock 30
3.1 The size of English word-stock 30
3.2 The native words of the English language 31
3.3 Borrowing： an overview 33
3.4 Major sources of borrowing 34
3.4.1 Latin borrowings 34
3.4.2 Scandinavian influences 36
3.4.3 French loan words 37
3.4.4 Greek adoptions 38
3.5 Minor sources of borrowing 40
3.6 Influences of borrowing 41
3.7 Summary 42
Exercises 42
4 Major Processes of Word Formation 44
4.1 Morpheme， root and affix 44
4.2 Derivation and compounding 46
4.3 Prefixation 46
4.4 Suffixation 50
4.5 Compounding 53
4.5.1 Basic features of compounds 53
4.5.2 Classification of compounds 54
4.5.3 The syntax of compounds 56
4.6 Summary 58
Exercises 59
5 Minor Processes of Word Formation 60
5.1 Blending 60
5.2 Back-formation 62
5.3 Initialism 64
5.3.1 Abbreviation 64
5.3.2 Acronyms 65
5.4 Clipping 65
5.5 Aphesis 67
5.6 Analogy 67
5.6.1 Single words formed by analogy 68
5.6.2 Phrases formed by analogy 68
5.7 Reduplication 68
5.8 Words from proper names 69
5.8.1 Words from names of people 69
5.8.2 Words from names of places 70
5.8.3 Words from names of books 71
5.8.4 Words from trademarks 71
5.9 Summary 72
Exercises 73
6 Word Meaning and Meaning Relations 75
6.1 Conventionality versus motivation 75
6.2 Meanings of meaning 77
6.3 Four kinds of meaning 78
6.3.1 Denotation and reference 78
6.3.2 Denotation and sense 79
6.3.3 Denotation and connotation 80
6.4 Meaning relations 80
6.4.1 Synonymy 81
6.4.2 Antonymy 86
6.4.3 Hierarchical meaning relations — hyponymy and meronymy 89
6.5Semantic field and componential analysis 92
6.6Word meaning and context 93
6.6.1Types of context 93
6.6.2The role of context 95
6.7Summary 99
Exercises 99
7 Words in Use 101
7.1 Oed’ s account of words 101
7.2 Words used in different contexts 103
7.2.1 Geographical dimension 103
7.2.2 Occupational dimension 112
7.2.3 Social and cultural dimension 114
7.2.4 Contextual dimension 118
7.2.5 Other dimensions 123
7.3 Summary 123
Exercises 123
8 Multi-word Lexical Units： Collocation， Lexical Phrase and Idiom 125
8.1 The research tradition of prefabricated language 125
8.2 Collocations 127
8.2.1 Meaning by collocation 127
8.2.2 The typology of collocations 128
8.2.3 Investigating lexis ： corpus approach to collocations 129
8.3 Lexical phrases 131
8.3.1 The definition of lexical phrase 131
8.3.2 Functions of lexical phrases 131
8.3.3 Lexical phrases and language teaching 134
8.4 Idioms 134
8.4.1 The definition and main features of idioms 134
8.4.2 The categorization of idioms 135
8.4.3 The meaning of idioms 137
8.5 Implications of linguistic prefabrication 137
8.6 Summary 138
Exercises 139
9 Lexicology and Lexicography 141
9.1 Definitions of lexicology， lexicography and dictionary 141
9.2 Functions of dictionaries 143
9.3 The history of English dictionaries 144
9.4 Types of dictionaries 148
9.4.1 Linguistic dictionaries， encyclopedias and encyclopedic dictionaries 148
9.4.2 Monolingual， bilingual and multilingual dictionaries 150
9.4.3 General and specialized dictionaries 150
9.4.4 Unabridged， desk and pocket dictionaries 153
9.4.5 Synchronic and diachronic dictionaries 154
9.4.6 Distinctions of dictionaries by other features 154
9.5 Structures of English dictionaries 155
9.6 Use of English dictionaries 156
9.6.1 Choice of dictionaries 156
9.6.2 How to use a dictionary 157
9.7 Summary 160
Exercises 160
Appendix 1 Common Prefixes 161
Appendix 2 Common Suffixes 164
Appendix 3 Common Roots 166
Appendix 4 Lexicology Terms （English-Chinese） 170
Appendix 5 Vocabulary 173
Key to Exercises 186
References 194