Chapter 1 Lexicology and Words 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 What Is Lexicology? 1
1.2.1 Morphology and Semantics 1
1.2.2 Etymology and Lexicography 2
1.3 What Is a Word? 3
1.3.1 Difficulties in the Definition of the Word 3
1.3.2 Major Features of Words 5
1.4 Words in Linguistic Analysis 7
1.5 Word Classes 8
1.6 Lexical and Grammatical Words 9
1.7 Words and Semantic Fields 10
Exercises 13
Chapter 2 Some Basic Concepts and Word Meanings 15
2.1 Introduction 15
2.2 Morpheme,Lexeme and Morph 15
2.2.1 Morpheme 15
2.2.2 Lexeme 17
2.2.3 Morph 17
2.2.4 Types of Morphemes 19
2.3 Word Meanings 19
2.3.1 Denotation and Reference 20
2.3.2 Denotation and Sense 20
2.4 Seven types of Meaning 21
2.4.1 Conceptual Meaning 21
2.4.2 Connotative Meaning 21
2.4.3 Social and Affective Meanings 22
2.4.4 Reflected and Collocative Meanings 23
2.4.5 Thematic Meaning 23
2.5 Root and Stem 24
2.6 Polysemy 26
2.7 Homonymy 27
Exercises 29
Chapter 3 The Origins of English Words 31
3.1 Introduction 31
3.2 The Development of English 31
3.3 The Historical Periods of English 33
3.3.1 Old English Period(450-1066) 33
3.3.2 The Middle English Period(1066-1500) 35
3.3.3 Early Modern English Period(1500-1800) 37
3.3.4 The Modern English Period(1800-present) 39
3.4 American English 40
3.5 Native English Vocabulary 41
3.6 Major Influences on English 43
3.6.1 The Scandinavian Influence 43
3.6.2 The Norman Conquest 44
3.6.3 The Latin Influence 45
3.7 Borrowings in English 46
3.7.1 Latin words in English 47
3.7.2 Greek and French Loanwords 48
3.7.3 German,Dutch and Italian Loanwords 49
3.7.4 Loanwords from the East 50
3.7.5 Loanwords from Other Sources 50
3.8 The Size of English Vocabulary 51
3.9 Creation of New English Words 51
3.9.1 Root Creation 52
3.9.2 Onomatopoeic words and Ejaculations 52
3.9.3 Word formation 52
Exercises 53
Chapter 4 Word Formation in English 54
4.1 Introduction 54
4.2 Inflection and Derivation 55
4.2.1 Definition of Inflection 55
4.2.2 Functions of Inflection 56
4.2.3 Derivational Affix 57
4.2.4 Functions of Derivations 57
4.2.5 Types of Derivational Affix 58
4.3 Compounding 61
4.3.1 Definition of Compounding 62
4.3.2 Characteristics of Compounds 62
4.3.3 Common Patterns of compounds 64
4.4 Other Word-formation Processes 67
4.4.1 Conversion 67
4.4.2 Blending 68
4.4.3 Shortenings 70
4.5 Backformation 73
4.6 Words from Proper Names and Metanalysis 74
4.6.1 Words from Proper Names 74
4.6.2 Metanalysis 75
Exercises 76
Chapter 5 Sense Relations 78
5.1 Introduction 78
5.2 Characteristics of Sense Relations 78
5.3 Synonymy 79
5.3.1 Two Types of Synonymy 79
5.3.2 Difference Among Synonyms 80
5.4 Antonymy 82
5.4.1 Gradable Antonyms 83
5.4.2 Complementary Antonyms 84
5.4.3 Converse antonyms 84
5.5 Hyponymy 85
5.6 Meronymy 86
5.7 Collocation 86
5.7.1 Free and Fixed Combinations 87
5.7.2 Grammatical Collocations 87
5.7.3 Lexical Collocations 87
5.7.4 Other Features of Collocation 88
5.8 Metaphorical Extension 89
Exercises 89
Chapter 6 Idioms,Multiword Verbs and Proverbs 91
6.1 Introduction 91
6.2 Idioms 91
6.2.1 Classification of Idioms 92
6.2.2 Different Aspects of Idioms 93
6.3 Multiword verbs 95
6.4 Proverbs 97
Exercises 99
Chapter 7 English Dictionaries 100
7.1 Introduction 100
7.2 Organization of the Entry 100
7.2.1 Headword 101
7.2.2 Pronunciation 101
7.2.3 Grammatical Information 102
7.2.4 Etymology 102
7.2.5 Definition 103
7.2.6 Examples 104
7.2.7 Related Forms and Usage Labels 104
7.2.8 Illustrations 105
7.2.9 Supplementary Matter 105
7.3 Corpora 106
7.4 Dictionary Shelf-life 107
7.5 Types of Dictionaries 107
7.5.1 General and Specialized Dictionaries 107
7.5.2 Monolingual and Bilingual dictionaries 108
7.5.3 Electronic and Print Dictionaries 108
7.5.4 Unabridged Dictionaries 109
7.5.5 Learner's Dictionaries and Children's Dictionaries 109
7.5.6 Thesaurus 110
7.6 A Review of Some Dictionaries 110
7.6.1 The Oxford English Dictionary 110
7.6.2 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language 111
7.6.3 The Chambers Dictionary 112
7.6.4 Random House Webster's College Dictionary 112
7.6.5 Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 112
7.6.6 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 113
7.6.7 Collins COBUILD English Dictionary 114
7.6.8 Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners 115
7.6.9 A New English-Chinese Dictionary and the English-Chinese Dictionary 116
Exercises 116
Chapter 8 Words in Context 118
8.1 Introduction 118
8.2 Dialect 118
8.3 Register and Style 119
8.4 Taboo Words and Euphemisms 120
8.4.1 Taboo Words 120
8.4.2 Euphemisms 121
8.4.3 Classification of Euphemisms 122
8.4.4 The Use of Euphemisms 122
8.5 Slang 124
8.6 Jargon 126
8.7 Meaning Shifts 127
8.7.1 Broadening 127
8.7.2 Narrowing 127
8.7.3 Amelioration and Pejoration 128
Exercises 130
Chapter 9 English Words and Cognition 132
9.1 Introduction 132
9.2 The Mental Lexicon 132
9.3 Metaphor 133
9.3.1 Cognitive Interpretation of Metaphor 134
9.3.2 Cognitive Modeling of Metaphor 135
9.4 Spatial Terms and Spatial Relationships 136
9.4.1 The Flexibility of Spatial Terms 137
9.4.2 Cognitive Mappings of Spatial Terms 138
9.5 Prototype and Radial Categories 139
9.5.1 Radiality and the Meaning of the Suffix-able 140
9.5.2 Radiality in Attributes 141
Exercises 143
References 144