Chapter One．A General Survey of English Vocabulary 1
Ⅰ．Definition of a Word 1
Ⅱ．The Growing English Vocabulary 3
1．A Historical Review of English Vocabulary 3
2．The Recent Growth of English Vocabulary in the 20th Century 10
Chapter Two．Morphological Structure and Word-Formation 19
Ⅰ．The Concept of Morphemes and the Types of Morphemes 19
Ⅱ．The Three Major Processes of Word-Formation 22
1．Derivation/Affixation 23
2．Conversion 36
3．Compounding/Composition 43
Ⅲ．The Minor Processes of Word-Formation 53
1．Clipping 53
2．Blending 54
3．Acronymy：Initialisms and Acronyms 56
4．Back-Formation 60
5．Words from Proper Names 63
6．Miscellaneous 66
Chapter Three．Word Meaning,Polysemy and Homonymy 75
Ⅰ．Motivation 75
1．Phonetic Motivation 76
2．Morphological Motivation 77
3．Semantic Motivation 78
Ⅱ．Main Types of Word Meaning 79
A．Grammatical Meaning 79
B．Lexical Meaning 80
1．Denotative Meaning 80
2．Connotative Meaning 81
3．Social or Stylistic Meaning 83
4．Affective Meaning 84
5．Reflective Meaning 85
6．Collocative Meaning 86
7．Contextual Meaning 86
Ⅲ．Componential Analysis and Semantic Features 87
1．Componential Analysis on the Basis of Semantic Contrast 88
2．The Role of Componential Analysis in English Lexical Teaching 89
Ⅳ．Polysemy 91
Ⅴ．Homonymy 94
Chapter Four．Meaning Relations Between Words 108
Ⅰ．Synonymy 108
Ⅱ．Antonymy 116
Ⅲ．Hyponymy 123
Ⅳ．Semantic Field 126
Chapter Five．Changes in Word Meaning 139
Ⅰ．Causes of Changes in Word Meaning 139
1．Historical and Social Causes 139
2．Psychological Cause 140
3．Linguistic Cause 142
4．Foreign Influences 143
Ⅱ．Four Tendencies in Semantic Change 144
1．Extension of Meaning（Generalization） 144
2．Restriction of Meaning（Specialization） 147
3．Elevation of Meaning（Amelioration） 149
4．Degeneration of Meaning（Pejoration） 151
Ⅲ．Semantic Changes Resulting from the Figurative Use of Words 154
1．Metaphor 154
2．Synaesthesia 156
3．Metonymy 157
4．Synecdoche 158
Chapter Six．Meaning and Contexts 164
Ⅰ．Types of Contexts 164
1．Lexical Context 164
2．Grammatical Context 166
3．Textual/Discourse Context 167
4．Extra-linguistic Context/Context of Situation 169
Ⅱ．The Role of Context in Deciding Word Meaning 171
1．Eliminating Ambiguities 171
2．Specifying Referents and the Range of the Meaning 173
3．Conveying Emotional Overtones 175
Ⅲ．How to Guess Word Meaning from Context 177
1．Lexical Clues 178
2．Syntactical Restrictions 179
3．Semantic or Logical Connections 181
4．The Role of Topic Sentence 182
5．The Role of Background Knowledge 185
Chapter Seven．English Idioms 191
Ⅰ．Sources of English Idioms 191
1．Sources 191
2．Classification of the Sources 194
Ⅱ．Classification of English Idioms 204
1．Noun Phrases 204
2．Verbal Phrases 207
3．Adjectival Idiomatic Expressions 210
4．Adverbial and Prepositional Idiomatic Expressions 211
5．Proverbs 213
Ⅲ．Beware"Translation Traps" 215
Ⅳ．Syntactic,Structural and Stylistic Features of Idioms 221
1．Syntactic Function 221
2．Structural Features 225
3．Stylistic Features 227
Chapter Eight．American English 235
Ⅰ．Growth of American English 235
Ⅱ．Characteristics of American English 238
1．Conservatism and Innovation in American English 238
2．Heterogeneity 241
3．Relative Uniformity in Speech 243
4．Verbose and Plain Style in Writing 245
Ⅲ．Differences Between American and British English 247
1．Differences in Pronunciation 247
2．Differences in Spelling 250
3．Differences in Grammar and usage 253
4．Differences in Vocabulary 257