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Unit 1
Check Your
Understanding
State whether each of the
following statements is TRUE or FALSE.
a. F
b. F
c. F
d. F
e. T
In-Class Activities
1.
The
word
“
wor
d”
is
diverse
in
terms
of
its
meaning.
Consider
its
usages
in
the
following
contexts:
a.
May
I say a word about that?
b.
Actions speak louder than
words.
c.
She has
kept her word.
d.
Finally the general gave the word to
retreat.
e.
Let
me know if you get word of my wife.
f.
Word has it
they
’
re
divorcing.
ASK:
(1) What does
“
word
”
mean in each of the contexts?
a.
Something he would talk about
b. things
that are said, contrasted with things that are
done
c. the promise one has
made
d. spoken command or signal
e. information
f. piece of news; message
(2) Do you know of any other usages the
word
“
word
”
has?
2.
ASK:
(1) Can you summarize
the five criteria introduced by David Crystal
here?
Potential pause
:The
pause , which happens when you say a sentence,
will tend to fall
between words, and
not within words.
Indivisibility:
The extra
items will be added between the words and not
within them.
Minimal free
forms:
the smallest units of speech
that can
meaningfully
stand
on their
own.
Phonetic boundaries
: It is
sometimes possible to tell from the sound of a
word where it begins or
ends.
Semantic
units:
each word in a sentence has a
clear meaning.
(2)
Do
you
think
these
criteria
are
questionable
in
any
way?
Can
they
be
applied
to
the
identification of
zi
, the rough Chinese
equivalent of the English
“
w
ord
”
?
No,
as the above analysis explained. No , they cannot.
For example,
流连
and
蹒跚，
they
are
danchuci
(
单纯词
)
which cannot be analyzed independently.
3.
ASK:
(1) Suppose we want to
know what are the ten most frequently used English
words. What are they,
as far as you can
tell? How about Chinese?
The, of ,to, and, a, in, is, it, you,
that
的、一、是、在、了、不、和、有、大、着
(2)
Are
there
any
similarities
and
differences
between
the
ten
most
frequently
used
words
in
English and those in Chinese?
They
are
basically
functional
words.
Both
have
possessive
word,(of,
的
)
number
words(a,
一
),
copula
words(is,
是
),
conjunctions(and,
和
)
and
localizers(in,
在
).;
English
has
the
definite
article
the
and
several pronouns,
you , that and it
which are absent in Chinese.
4. According to
Ferdinand de Saussure, there is no intrinsic
relation between the form of a word
and
what
it
stands
for.
In
other
words,
words
are
arbitrary
(i.e.
not
motivated)
in
terms
of
meaning
designation. However, there seem to be abundant
cases in natural languages that defy
this generalization. For example,
onomatopoeic words seem to exist in all the
languages known
to
us.
To
a
lesser
degree,
the
meaning
of
some
words
can
be
partly
deduced
from
their
components. For example,
“
sl-
“
is highly suggestive of the meaning of the words
that contain it,
such as
“
slide
”
,
“
slip
”
, and
“
slush
”
.
ASK:
(1)
Babble, bang,
grunt,
splash;
噼啪、嗡嗡、滴滴哒、吱嘎吱
No,
these words are only a small part of English or
Chinese vocabulary
(2)
Football and handball
concern the body part which take the ball from one
place to another, and
basketball is
named after a basket into which the ball is put in
the begging stage of the game.
(3)
People
have
bodily
embedded
knowledge
to
infer
these
motivations
of
such
usage.
The
first
example concerns the
metaphor and second metonymy
(4) Do you
know other types of words or usages that are
motivated in one way or another?
Some
figurative
usages
are
also
highly
motivated.
For
example:
Necessity
is
the
mother
of
invention.
5.
British
English
(BE for short) and
American English
(AE for
short) are two major varieties of
the
English
language.
Though
they
have
fundamental
similarities
in
terms
of
grammar
and
vocabulary,
they
also
differ
substantially
in
many
ways.
On
the
vocabulary
level,
several
distinct distinctions are found. First,
there are differences in the pronunciation of some
words,
mostly in the vowel sounds, as
illustrated in the following table:
Some consonants are also pronounced
differently. Particularly, in
BE
，
the letter
r
before a
consonant is not pronounced, but that
at the end of a word is pronounced if the next
word begins
with a vowel, e.g.,
cart /k: t/, door
/d
?
:/
, but
a member of /
?
?
memb
?
?
f /
; in AE, the
letter
r
is
pronounced in all positions.
Secondly,
BE
and
AE
differ
in
the
spelling
of
some
words.
Usually,
the
AE
variants
are
simpler than their British
counterparts, as manifested below.
A further noticeable
difference relates to the lexical meaning of some
words. For
instance,
“
bill
”
means
“
bank
note
”
in AE but
“
a demand for payment of a
debt
”
in BE.
ASK:
(1) Can you supply more
words that are pronounced differently in British
English and American
English
half,
advance, advantage, after, answer, ask, glance,
glass, grasp
(2) Do you know of any
grammatical differences between British English
and American English?
In
American
English
we
say
“
graduate
from
school
”
;
while
in
British
English,
we
say
“
leave
school
”
. In
American English, it has
“
put up
price
”
, while in British
English, it is
“
raise
price
”
(3) Are
there special words for which AE and BE have very
distinctive spellings?
For
Chinese characters
“
博览会
”
, British English has
“
fair
”
while American English usees trade
show.
“
Life and
elevator
”
, and
“
autumn and
fall
”
are more examples.
(4) Can you find more
examples of the same words with different meanings
in AE and BE?
one billion/
first floor/ pants
one billion
(Brit) the number 1
万亿之数
(US) the
number 1000000000
十亿之数
first floor
In British
English the floor of a building at street level is
the ground floor and the floor above that
is the first floor.
In US
English the street-level floor is the first floor
and the one above is the second floor
Pants
(Brit) men's
underpants; women's or children's knickers
(US) trousers
6.
The
following
excerpt
comes
from
Barack
Obama
’
s
speech
on
Father
’
s
Day,
June
15,
2008.
Read it carefully, and
pay special attention to his choice of words.
The first is setting an
example of excellence for our children
—
because if we want
to
set
high
expectations
for
them,
we’ve
got
to
set
high
expectations
for
ourselves.
It’
s
great if you have a job;
it’
s even better if you have a college
degree. It’
s a wonderful thing
if you are married and living in a home
with your children, but don’t just sit in the
house
and watch “Sports Center” all
weekend long. That’
s why so many
children are growing
up in front of the
televisio
n. As fathers and parents,
we’ve got to spend more time with
them,
and
help
them
with
their
homework,
and
replace
the
video
game
or
the
remote
control with a book
once in a
while. That’
s how
we build that foundation…
..
The second thing we need to do as
fathers is pass along the value of empathy to
our children. Not sympathy, but empathy
—
the ability to
stand in somebody else’
s shoes;
to look at the world through their
eyes. Sometimes it’
s so easy to get
caught up in “us,”
that we forget about
our obligatio
ns to one another.
There’
s a culture in our society that
says remembering these obligations is
somehow soft
—
that we can’t show weakness, and
so therefore we can’t show kindness……
And the final lesson we
must learn as fathers is also the greatest gift we
can pass
on to our children
—
and that is the
gift of hope.…
I’m not
talking about an idle hope
that’
s little more than
blind optimism or willful ignorance of the
problems we face. I’m
talking about
hope as that spirit inside us that insists,
despite all evidence to the contrary,
that something better is waiting for us
if we’re willing to work for it and fight for it.
If we
are willing to
believe.
ASK:
(1) How does Obama distinguish
< br>“
empathy
”
from
“
sympathy
”
?
Empathy means Identification with
and understanding of another's situation,
feelings.
The ability to stand in
somebody else’
s shoes
Sympathy is defined as feeling of pity
and sorrow (for sb.)
(2)
Why does Obama bother to define
“
hope
”
–
a familiar word to all?
Hope, according to Obama, is something
b
etter is waiting for us if we’re
willing to work for it
and
fight
for
it.
If
we
are
willing
to
believe.
He
differentiates
hope
from
what
is
blind
optimism or willful
ignorance of the problems we face
(3)
What other lexical choices impress you deeply as
well?
“As fathers and
parents”
, why not as fathers and
mothers,
Open to discussion
Post-Class Tasks
1.
What
characteristics
do
functional
words
have
？
Read
the
following
excerpt
from
George
W.
Bush
’
s Farewell
Address in 2009 and underline the functional words
used in it.
Like
all
who
have held
this
office
before me,
I
have
experienced
setbacks. There
are things I would do differently if
given the chance. Yet I have always acted with the
best
interests of our country
in
mind. I have followed my
conscience and done what I thought
was
right. You may not agree with some tough decisions
I have made. But I hope you can
agree
that I was willing to make the tough decisions.
2. How do you understand
receptive and productive lexical knowledge? Use
your own examples
to illustrate their
differences. Which type of vocabulary is probably
the largest for a language
user,
reading
vocabulary,
writing
vocabulary,
listening
vocabulary,
or
speaking
vocabulary?
Give one reason
that convinces you most.
For
example,
we
learn
that
“
word
”
can
be
used
to
refer
to
“
rumor
”
,
and
we
know
it
means
“
rumor
”
in
the sentence
“
The word is that he's left
the country.(
据说他已经离开这个国家了
).<
/p>
”
But actually, we
will not write the sentence, esp., say the
sentence in daily conversations. By this
example,
we
show
that
receptive
lexical
knowledge
concerns
what
you
learned
and
productive
lexical
knowledge
concerns
what
you
would
put
into
practice.
Reading
vocabulary
may
be
the
largest type of
vocabulary, because you may recognize the meaning
of a word without using it in
daily
exchanges or in academic writing.
3. Is lexical competence
the same thing as productive lexical knowledge?
How do you understand
the two concepts
on the basis of the discussion in Pre-Class
Reading?
No, lexical competence covers
a larger scope that that of productive lexical
knowledge.
4. Can we say
lexicology is the scientific study of the words in
a language? How important is the
notion
of word equivalent? Read the following excerpt
from Barrack Obama
’
s Victory
Speech
in 2008 and underline the word
equivalents. What types of word equivalents are
contained in
this passage?
So let us summon a new spirit of
patriotism, of responsibility, where each of
us resolves to pitch in and work harder
and look after not only ourselves but each
other.
Let us remember that,
if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's
that we
cannot have a thriving Wall
Street while Main Street suffers.
In
this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as
one people. Let's resist the
temptation
to fall back on the same partisanship and
pettiness and immaturity that
has
poisoned our politics for so long.
Let's remember that it was a man from
this state who first carried the banner
of
the
Republican
Party
to
the
White
House,
a
party
founded
on
the
values
of
self-reliance and individual liberty
and national unity.
Those are values
that we all share. And while the Democratic Party
has won
a great victory tonight, we do
so with a measure of humility and determination to
heal the divides that have held back
our progress.
Language
is
composed
of
not
just
individual
words,
but
also
word
equivalents,
such
as
word
groups (or compound words), chunks such
as idioms, formulaic sequences, and so. The latter
is
attracting
more
and
more
scholarly
attention
these
days.
Thus,
lexicology
is
more
precisely
defined as the scientific study of the
words and word equivalents in a language.
5. Identical systems of
stress and rhythm are used by BE and AE. There
are, however, a few words
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