完全版英语词汇学名词解释

第一章 word

令狐采学

1.Word A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic funtion.

第三章 formation 1

1. Morpheme A morpheme is the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words.

2. Allomorph Some morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are know as allomorphs.

3. Free morphemes (Free root) They are morphemes which are independent of other morphemes.

4. Bound Morphemes They are morphemes which cannot occur as separate words.

5. Bound root A bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a free root, it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words.

6. Affixes Affixes are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function.

7. Inflectional affixes Affixes attaches to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are known as inflectional morphemes.

8. Derivational affixes Derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words.

9. Prefixes Prefixes are affixes that come before the word.

10. Suffixes suffixes are affixes that come after the word.

11. Root A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analysed without total loss of identity.

12. Stem a stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added.

第四章formation 2 1. Affixation affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding wordforming or derivational affixes to stems.

2. Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems.

Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems.

3. Compounding（Compositon） is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems.

4. Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class.

5. Blending is the formation of new words by combined by parts of two words or a word plus a plus a part of another word.

6. Clipping is the formation of new words by shortening a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remain instead.

7. Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special

noun phrases and technical terms.

8. Backformation is a process of wordformation by which a word is created by the deletion of a supposed affix. E.g. editor entered the language before edit.

第五章 meaning

1. Reference the relationship between language and the world.

2. Concept which beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the

objective world in the human mind.

3.Sense– denotes the relationship inside the language.

4. Motivationaccounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.

5. Onomatopoeic MotivationThese words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises.

6. Morphological MotivationCompounds and derived words are

multimorphemic words and the meaning of many are the sum total of the morphemes combined.

7. Semantic Motivationrefers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word.

8. Etymological MotivationThe history of the word explains the meaning of the word

9 .Grammatical meaning – refer to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates gramma tical concept or relationships.

10 .Lexical meaningis constant in all the words within or without cont ext related to the notion that the word conveys.

11.Conceptual meaning （denotative meaning）– the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of wordmeani ng

12.Associative meaning –

the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It

is openended and indeterminate

13.Connotative meaning the overtones or association suggested by th

e conceptual meaning

14.Stylistic meaning –

stylistic features make the words appropriate for different contexts. 15. Affective meaning –

the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question.

第六章 Sense Relations and semantic Field

23. Abbreviation includes four types : I. Clipped words II. Initialisms III. Acronyms I. II. Initialismsare words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as letters. E.g. IMF/ai em ef/=International Monetary Fund.

III.IV. Blendsare words that are combined by parts of other word 12. Opaque WordsWords that are formed by one content morpheme only and cannot be analysed into parts are called opaque words, such

as axe, glove.

13. Transparent WordsWords that consist of more than one morphemes and can be segmented into parts are called transparent words: workable(work+able), doorman(door+man).

14. MorphsMorphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. They are actual spoken, minimal carriers of meaning.

15. AllomorpsSome morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs. For instance, the morpheme of plurality {s} has a number of allomorphs in different sound context, e.g. in cats /s/, in bags /z/, in match /iz/.

16. Derivation or AffixationAffixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding wordforming or derivational affixes to stems. This process is also known as derivation.

17. Polysemy — the word with more than one senses or which can be

used to express more meaning.

18. Diachronic approach– Diachronically， polysemy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of one and same word. This first meaning is the primary meaning. With the advance of time and the development of language，it took on more and more meanings. These latter meanings are called derived meanings.

19. Synchronic approach – synchronically， polysemy is viewed as the coexistent of various meaning of the same word in a certain historical period of time. The basic meaning of a word is the core of word meaning. The core of word meaning called the central meaning （secondary meaning）.

20. Radiation–a semantic process which shows that the primary meaning stands at the center and each of the derived meanings proceed out of in every direction like rays.

21. Concatenation–meaning “linking together”， is the semantic

process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts until， in many cases， there is not a sign of connection between the sense that is finally developed and that which the tern had at the begining.

22. Homonyms——are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling.

23. Perfect Homonyms——are words identical both in sound and spelling， but different in meaning.

24. Homographs——are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.

25. Homophones （most common）——are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.

26. Synonyms—are words different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning.

27. Absolute Synonyms——are words，which are identical in

meaning in all its aspects，i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning， including conceptual and associative meanings. 28. Relative synonyms——are similar or nearly the same in denotation but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.

29. Antonyms——are words which are opposite in meaning.Types of Antonyms （according to the semantic opposition ）

1） Contradictory terms – these antonyms are truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. They assertion of one is the denial of the other.

2） Contrary terms —— a scale running between two poles or extremes.

3） Relative terms – consist of relational oppositeness. The pairs of words indicate such a social relationship that one of them can

not be used without suggesting the other， the type is also reverse terms. The two words of each pair interdependent.

.Hyponymy——deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. That is， the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word.

These specific words are known as hyponyms（下义词）. For instance， tulip and rose are hyponyms of flower. The general word flower is the superordinate term（上义词） and the specific ones tulip and rose are the subordinate terms（下义词）.

第七章 changes in word meaning

1.Extension （generalization）——It is a process by which a word with a specialized sense is generalized to cover a broader or less definite concept.

2. Narrowing （specialization）——It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense.

3.Elevation or amelioration——refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance.

4. Degradation or pejoration of meaning ——It is a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or nonaffective words come to be used in derogatory sense.

5. Transfer ——It is a process by which a word denoting one thing changes to refer to different but related thing.

第八章context

The extralinguistic context may extend to embrace the entire culture background.

Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context

Lexical Context – refers to the words occur together with the word in question.

Grammatical context – The meanings of a word may be inflected by the structure in which it occurs.

第九章：idioms

1.Idiom—idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences，which are peculiar to the language in question and loaded with the native cultures and ideas.

2.Characteristics of idioms

a. Semantic unity Idioms each consist of more than one word，but each is a semantic unity. Though the various words which make up the idiom have their respective literal meanings， in the idiom they have lost their individual meaning. Their meanings are not often recognizable in the meaning of the whole idiom. The part of speech of each element in no longer important. Quite often the idiom functions as one word.

b. Structural Stability – the structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable.

True idioms – the meaning of the idiom cannot be deduced from those of the individual constituents.

Regular combination – the speaker of the regular collocations， the meaning of the idiom can be understood from the literal meaning of the constitute.

Semiidioms – the meanings are in a way related to the meanings of the constitute but are not themselves explicit.

1. Idioms nominal in nature （名词性）– have a noun as the key word and function as a noun.

2.Idioms adjective in nature （形容词性） function as adjectives but the constituents are not necessary adjectives.

3.Idioms verbal in nature（动词性）– this is the largest group.

Phrasal verbs – idioms which are composed of a verb plus a prep and/or a particle.

4. Idioms adverbial in nature （副词性）

5.Sentence Idioms – are mainly proverbs and sayings including colloquialisms and catchphrases. Each function as a sentence.

Figure of speech

1.Simile

2.Metaphor「n.隐喻」——is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison， in which a word or phase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another.

3.Metonymy「n.借代」——is the device in which we name something by one of its attributes， as in crown for king， the White House for the President. The kettle is boiling. （kettle for water in the kettle）

4.Synecdoche「n.提喻法」——means using a part for a whole， an individual for a class a material for a thing or the reverse of any of these.

5.Personification （拟人）

6.Euphemism （委婉）

Variation of idioms

1.Replacement – a constituent may be replaced by a word of the same part of speech， resulting in synonymous or antonymous idioms.

2.Addition or deletion – some constituent can be added or deleted without any change of meaning

3.Positionshifting – the position of certain constituent is some idioms can be shifted without any change of meaning

4.Shorting – in proverbs and sayings， where only a part of them is used instead of the whole

5.Dismembering – breaking up the idioms into pieces， an unusual case of idioms particular in literature or popular press to achieve special effect.