华中师范《词汇学》答疑库

词汇学答疑库

What is a word? (unit 1)

According to semanticists , a word is a unit of meaning. Grammarians , however, insist that a word be a free form that

can function in a sentence, etc. To sum up, the definition of a word comprises the following points:

(1) a minimal free form of a language;

(2) a sound unity;

(3) a unit of meaning;

(4) a form that can function alone in a sentence.

Therefore, we can say that 'a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and

syntactic function.'

2

．

What?s the relationship between sound and meaning? (unit 1)

Sound is the physical aspect of a word and meaning is what the sound refers to. Sound and meaning are not intrinsically

related

and

their

connection

is

arbitrary

and

conventional.

For

example,

tree

/tri:/

to

树

in

English

because

the

English-speaking people have agreed to do so just as Chinese people use /shu/ to refer to the same thing. This explains why

people of different languages use different sound to express the same concept. Even I the same language, the same sound

can have different meanings e.g. /rait/ can mean

right, rite

and

write.

3. How are English words generally classified? (unit 2)

V

ocabulary can be classified by different criteria into different types. By use frequency, words fall into the basic word stock

and non-basic vocabulary. Basic vocabulary is small in number but forms the core of the language and enjoys high frequency of

use.

Non-basic

vocabulary

contains

such

words

as

terminology,

jargon,

slang,

argot,

archaism,

neologism,

which

have

a

relatively

limited

use.

By

notion,

words

can

be

divided

into

content

words

and

functional

words.

Content

words

have

clear

notions such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs;

functional words cover prepositions, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, etc.,

whose major functions are to help make sentences. By origin, words can grouped into native words and foreign words. Native

words refer to the words of Anglo-Saxon origin, which are small in number but form the mainstream of the basic word stock.

Foreign words are borrowed from other languages and make up 80% of the whole English vocabulary. There are other ways too,

for example, by morphological structure, formality, emotionality, and so on.

4.

What?s the major modes o

f modern vocabulary development? (unit 3)

There are three major modes of modern modern vocabulary development: creation, semantic change and borrowing.

5. What?s the classification of morphemes? (unit 4)

6. What is affixation? How to subdivide it? (unit 5)

Affixation

is

generally

defined

as

the

formation

of

words

by

adding

word-forming

or

derivational

affixes to

stems.

This

process is also known as derivation, for new words created in this way are derived from old forms. The words formed in this

way

are

called

derivatives.

According

to

the

positions

which

affixes

occupy

in

words,

affixation

falls

into

two

subclasses:

prefixation, and suffixation.

7. What?s suffixation? What are the characteristics of suffixation?

How to classify suffixes? (unit 6)

Suffixation

is

the

formation

of

new

words

by

adding

suffixes

to

stems.

Unlike

prefixes

which

primarily

change

the

meaning of the stem, suffixes have only a small semantic role, their primary function being to change the grammatical function

of stems. In other words, they mainly change the word class. Therefore, we shall group suffixes on a grammatical basis into

noun

suffixes,

verb

suffixes,

adjective

suffixes,

etc.

By

noun

suffix

or

adjective

suffix,

we

mean

that

when

the

suffix

under

discussion is added to the stem, whatever class it belongs to, the result will be a noun or an adjective. For example,

-er

is treated

as a noun suffix because all the derived forms from it are nouns whether it is fixed at the end of a verb as in

employer

or of a

noun as in

villager

.

It can be subdivided into noun suffixes, adjective suffixes, adverb suffixes and verb suffixes.

8. In what way are compound verbs generally formed? (unit 7)

9. What is the difference between partial and full conversion? (unit 8)

When adjectives are converted into nouns, some are completely changed, thus known as full conversion, and others are

partially changed, thus known as partial conversion. Adjectives which are fully converted can achieve a full noun status, e.g.

having all the characteristics of nouns. That is they can take a/an or -s/-es to indicate singular or plural forms, e.g. a native, a

Republican, a pair of shorts, finals. Adjectives which are partially converted still keep adjective features. They should always be

used

with

the,

and

they

cannot

take

-s/-es

to

show

plural

forms.

Moreover,

the

words

can

have

comparative

or

superlative

degrees, e.g. the poor, the poorer, the young, the very unfortunate.

10. Explain the four types of blends with examples. (unit 9)

Blends fall into four groups according to their ways of formation:

head + tail: camcorder (camera + recorder)

head + head: sci-fi (science + fiction)

head + word: telediagnosis (television + diagnosis)

word + tail: nannygate (nanny + Watergate)

11. Explain the characteristics of clipping with examples. (unit 9)

Clipping is a way of making a new word by cutting a part of the original and using what remains instead, e.g. omnibus →

bus, aeroplane → plane, examination → exam, bicycle → bike

12. Both back-formation and back-clipping are ways of making words by moving the endings of words. How do you account

for the coexistence of the two? Can you explain the difference? (unit 10)

Back-formation is a method of creating words by memorizing supposed suffixes. Back clipping is to shorten a longer word

by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead, and what is cut off is not suffix in any way, e.g.

Back clipping:

discotheque→disco;

dormitory→dorm

Back-

formation: donation→donate;

television → televise

13. What are the types of words from proper names? (unit 11)

Modern English has a large number of words which come from proper nouns. They include names of people, names of

places, names of books and trade names

14. What is reference, concept and sense? (unit 12)

Reference

is

the

relationship

between

the

language

and

the

world, or

the

connection between

the

linguistic

symbol

and

what these symbols refer to in the objective world. Reference is also known as referential meaning.

Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind.

That is, it is the reflection of the objective world in the human mind, known as notion or idea. It is not affected by language.

The

same

concept

is

the

same

to

speakers

of

all

languages.

However,

speakers

of

different

languages

can

have

different

linguistic means to express the same concept.

Sense denotes the relationship inside the language. Every world that has meaning has sense. Sense is simply the meaning

of a word in a language.

15. What is motivation? Does this theory contradict the theory of 'arbitrariness' and 'conventionality' concerning the relationship

between linguistic symbols and their senses? (unit 12)

Motivation

accounts

for

the

connection

between

the

linguistic

symbols

and

their

meaning.

But

since

the

relationship

between the word-form and meaning is conventional and arbitrary, words should be non-motivated. Nevertheless, many words

are motivated to a certain extent in terms of sound, morphology, semantics, and etymology.

16. What is Grammatical Meaning?

(unit 13)

Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships

such as part of speech of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of

verbs

and

their

inflectional

forms

(

forget,

forgets,

forgot,

forgotten,

forgetting

).

Grammatical

meaning

of

a

word

becomes

important only when it is used in actual context. The following are all part of grammatical meaning:

--

singular

and plural meaning of nouns

--

tense

meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms

--

transitive

and intransitive

--

countable

and uncountable

--

agreement

in number and person

17. What is lexical meaning? (unit 13)

Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning make up the word-meaning. It is known that grammatical meaning surfaces

only in use. But lexical meaning is constant in all the content words within or without context as it is related to the notion that

the word conveys. Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.

Conceptual

meaning

(also

known

as

denotative

meaning)

is

the

meaning

given

in

the

dictionary

and

forms

the

core

of

word-meaning. Being constant and relatively stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as the same word

has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language. Take 'The sun rises in the east' for example. The

word sun here means 'a heavenly body which gives off light, heat, and energy', a concept which is understood by anyone who

speaks English.

Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual

meaning in that it is open- ended and indeterminate. It is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion,

geographical region, class background, education, etc. Associative meaning comprises four types: connotative

内涵

, stylistic

文

体

, affective

情感

, and collocative

搭配

.

18. What is the fundamental difference between the processes of ?radiation? and ?concatenation?? ( unit 14)

Radiation is

a

semantic

process

which

shows that

the primary

meaning

and

each

of

the derived

meanings

are

directly

connected, e.g. Neck:

1) that part of a man or animal joining the head to the body;

2) that part of the garment;

3) the neck of animal used as food;

4) a narrow part between the head and body or base of any object;

5) the narrowest part of anything.

Of

these

five

meanings,

1)

is

the

primary

meaning

and

all

the

rest

are

derived

but

each

of

the

other

four

is

directly

related to 1). Therefore, we can say neck has developed through the process of radiation. Concatenation is a semantic

process which shows that the primary meaning gives birth to a second meaning and this second meaning in turn give

birth to a third meaning and so on. Each of the derived meanings is directly related only to the preceding meaning and

there is no direct connection between the primary meaning to the latest developed meaning, e.g. Candidate:

1) white-robed;

2) office seeker in white gowns;

3) a person who seeks an office;

4) a person proposed for a place, award, etc.

Of

the

four

meanings,

1)

is

the

primary

meaning

and

the

other

three

are

derived,

but

each

of

the

derived

meanings

is

only

directly related to the preceding one and there is no direct connection between 1) and 4). Therefore, we can say candidate has

developed through the process of cancatenation.

19. How to differentiate homonyms from polysemants? (unit 15)

Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical with regard to spelling and pronunciation. This creates the problem

of

differentiation.

The

fundamental

difference

between

homonyms

and

polysemants

lies

in

the

fact

that

the

former

refers

to

different

words

which

happen

to

share

the

same

form

and

the

latter

is

the

same

word

which

has

several

distinguishable

meanings. One important criterion is to see their etymology, i.e. homonyms are from different sources whereas a polysemant is

from the same source which has acquired different meanings in the course of development. The second principal consideration

is semantic relatedness. The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected to one central meaning to a greater

or lesser degree, e.g.

neck

(See 5.1 Polysemy). On the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one

another. In dictionaries, a polysemant has its meanings all listed under one headword whereas homonyms are listed as separate

entries. Here are the characteristics of each:

polysemant: (1) same source, different meaning

(2) meanings related

homonyms: (1) different source, different meanings

(2) meanings not related

20.

How do you understand the statement that ?true synonymy is

non-

existent??

(unit 16)

Synonyms

can

be

classified

into

absolute

synonyms

and

relative

synonyms.

Absolute

synonyms

are

considered

to

be

identical in every aspect and are interchangeable in all situations. They are confined to technical terms like

word-formation,

word- building. But even technical terms like these might still have some slight difference, for example, one term may be more

used than the other or one term is preferable in some situation, etc. That is why we say

21. How to you distinguish synonyms? (unit 17)

We can distinguish synonyms in denotation, connotation and application.

1. Difference in denotation

1) Synonyms may differ in degree of intensity. For example, small and tiny both mean “small”, bu

t tiny is stronger than small.

The same is true of rich and wealthy. Wealthy is stronger than rich.

2) Synonyms differ in the range of meaning. For example, mend and patch are synonyms, we mend clothes, a bicycle, TV

, wall,

etc., but only patch clothes.

2. Difference in connotation

1) Synonyms differ in style. For example, agree and concur are similar in meaning, but concur is more formal than agree.

2) Synonyms differ in emotive meaning. For example, famous and notorious have the same conceptual meaning, but famous is

positive while notorious is negative.

3. Difference in application

1) Synonyms differ in collocation. For example, accuse and charge have the same conceptual meaning, but we say accuse sb. of

but charge sb. with.

2)

Synonyms

differ

in

u

se.

For example,

start

and

begin

are

synonymous,

we

“the

car

cannot

start”

but not

“the

car

cannot

begin” while “the world began” but not “the world cannot start”.

22. What are the characteristics of each of the three types of antonyms: contradictory terms, contrary terms, relative terms? (unit

18)

Contrary terms are antonyms which are mutually exclusive. The denial of one of the items means the assertion of

the

other

or

vice

versa.

Take

man- woman,

present-absent

for

example.

If

the

adult

is

a

man

,

the

adult

cannot

be

a

woman

and vice versa. If one is not

present

, one must be

absent

, and there is no other possibility.

Contrary

terms

are

gradable

antonyms.

Each

pair

represents

two

extremes

and

there

are

often

intermediate

members in between. Take

poor-rich, hot- cold

for example. Between poor and rich, there is

well-to-do

, and between

hot and cold there are

warm

and

cool

. Moreover, we can say one is

poor

, the other is

poorer

, and the third is extremely

poor

.

Relative

terms

are

relational

opposites

and

they

show

an

interdependence

between

them.

Take

borrow-lend,

send- receive

for example. If one

borrow

something from another, the other

lends

it to him or vice versa. If one sends a

letter to another, the other

receives

it from him. Without the first, the other cannot exist.

23. What is the difference between superordinates and subordinates? Explain it with examples.

(unit 19)

Superordinates

are

words

denoting

genus,

thus

being

general,

and

subordinates

are

words

denoting

species,

thus

being

specific. Superordinates are cover terms which include the concept of subordinates whereas subordinates are specific and their

meanings are included in the sense of superordiantes. Take flower-rose, furniture-cupboard, fruit-apple for example. In each pair,

the former is the superordinate and the latter subordinate.

24. How do you account for the semantic change in living languages? (unit 21)

Changes

in

meaning

make

up

the

main

character

of

any

living

language.

As

language

is

the

tool

of

human

communication, changes are natural in language because people need these to express the changes in our daily life and

in society as new concepts, new ideas and new things emerge continuously. Once the changes in language stop, the

language is dead.

25. Explain elevation and degradation with examples. (unit 22)

Elevation

is

a

process

of

semantic

change

from

pejorative

to

appreciative

meaning,

from

negative

to

positive

meaning, from unimportant to important meaning, from negative to neutral meaning. For example, governor originally

was a

English it denotes the head of the ministry-a high-ranking officer.

Degradation

is

a

change of

meaning

from

appreciative

to pejorative

from

positive

to negative,

from

important

to

unimportant,

from

neutral

to

negative.

Take

silly

and

villain

for

example.

Silly

used

to

mean

but

now

wicked person

26.

What is transfer /transference? (unit 23)

Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced the

process of semantic transfer. It includes:1. Associate transfer

There is associated transfer, for example, the lip of a wound; the tongue of a bell; the nose of a plane, in which

the meaning is transferred through association. Purse for 'money', dish for 'food', glass for 'cup' etc. are all instances of

associated transfer. Look at more examples:

2. Transfer between abstract and concrete

Transfer

may

also

occur

between

abstract

and

concrete

meanings.

For

instance,

aftermath

used

to

refer

to

a

'second

crop

of

grass

after

mowing',

a

concrete

meaning,

but

it

has

now

acquired

another

abstract

meaning

'consequence'

or

'result'.

Conversely,

hope,

which

has

an

abstract

meaning,

can

be

used

in

a

concrete

sense

as

in

'Clinton is the

hope

of the family.'

3. Transfer between subjective and objective meaning

Another

transfer

that

occurs

between

subjective

and

objective

meanings

is

noteworthy.

For

example,

pitiful

originally

meant

'full

of

pity',

but

now

has

changed to

'deserving

pity'.

If

a

person

is

full

of

pity,

he

shows pity

on

others, thus being subjective. A person who deserves pity is one on whom others show pity, so being objective. Other

examples are

dreadful

and

hateful

, which have transferred from a subjective meaning to an objective meaning.

4. Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a transfer of sensation from sense to another sense, for example,

clear- sounding

(from sight to

hearing),

loud colours

(from hearing to sight),

sweet music

(from taste to hearing) etc.

27. What are the causes of semantic change? (unit 24)

Changes

in

meaning

are

caused

by

both

extra-linguistic

factors

and

linguistic

factors.

Extra-linguistic

factors

include

historical,

class,

and

psychological

reasons.

Historically,

the

language

reflects

the

changes

in

the

human

perception of the objective world. For example,

atom

originally meant

many much smaller particles, and the meaning of

atom

has changed to

formerly meant

of words is affected by the users. Usually, people assign their subjective attitude to the words denoting the referents.

For example, words like

hussy, villain

originally working people, became negative because the

them as such. Thirdly, many words changed their meaning to meet the psychological needs. For example,

policeman

has many negative nicknames such as pig, smoky bear because criminals and the like use such words to show their

hatred.

Internally, words change their meanings resulting from shortening, as

private

for

gas

for

gas

deer

for

鹿

hound

for

猎犬

dog were borrowed, etc.

28. What are the types of context? (unit 25)

Context is used in different senses. In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word

appears. This is known as linguistic context which can be further divided into lexical context and grammatical context.

It may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter and even the entire book. In a broad sense, it includes the physical situation

as well. This is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place, and even the

whole cultural background.