语言学chapter总结

Chapter 3 Lexicon

3.1 What is Word?

As different criteria may identity and define different phenomena, it is hard to define “word” scientifically. However, it is agreed that there are three ways of defining “word”, though they can’t cover everything

.3.11 Three Senses of “WORD”

reference:指称论（the relationship between symbols and the things in outside world that refers to）

Sense:词与词的关系（use other words to explain a word, just as we look up the dictionary to find the meaning of a word）

(1)A physical definable unit

Language is produced as a continuous stretch of speech or writing, but one can still pauses and blanks every now and then. Thus, word maybe seen as

a set of sound segments or writing letters between two pauses or blanks.

For example: It is wonderful.

Phonological: /it is wand?ful/

Orthographic: it’s wonderful

(2) Word both as a general term and as a specific term

Word may be used both as a general term (then boy and boys are just one word) and as specific terms ( boys and boy are two words). For example:

Write/writes/wtote/writing/written

(3) A grammatical unit

The grammar of a language contains a set of layers, and word is one of them. ( rank-----hierarchical scale 等级)

Clause complex---clause---phrase/ word group---word---morpheme 3.1.2 Identification of words

(1) Stability:A word can’t be rearranged, but a sentence can.

Word: nothingness **nessnothing(F)

Sentence: a. John is a clever boy

b. A clever boy John is

(2) Relative uninterruptibility:A word can’t be separates or inserted

with other elements, but a sentence can.

Word: disappointment *dis(#)appoint(#)ment

Sentence: Paul, (Jane) and Rebecca are my classmates.

(3) A minimum free form: Word is the smallest unit that can be used, by

itself, as a complete utterance.

Expression: ---Is Jane coming this evening?

--- Possibly

Exception: ----what is missing in a sentence such as ”Dog is

barking ”

----- A

3.1.3 Classification of Word

(1) Variable and invariable words

Word including①variable words (having inflective changes. E.g.

follow/follows/followed/following)

②invariable words (not having inflective changes.

E.g. since, when, hello)

(2) Grammatical words(虚词) and lexical words（实词）

①Grammatical words, known as FOUNCTION WORDS, mainly work

for constructing group, phrase, clause, clause, complex clause, such as

conj., prep, articles, pron..

②Lexical words, known as CONTENT WORDS, mainly work for

referring to substance, action and quality, such as noun, verb, adj., adv.

(3) Closed- class and opened-class words

①Closed-class word is one whose membership is fixed or limited, this

kind of words can’t easily odd or deduce a new member. such as

pronouns, prep, articles and others.

②Opened-class word is one whose membership is in principle or

unlimited. As noun, verb, adjective, adv.

③exception: auxiliary verbs some preposition(regarding, by means of)

(4) Word class

⑴9 word classes: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition,

conjunction, interjection, and article.

⑵other word classes:

①Particles(小品词，语助词): e.g. infinite marker “to”; negative marker “not”

②Auxiliaries(助词)：can，has, seems

③Pro-form(代动词)：pro-adj(so is mine); pro-v(did);

pro-adv(so);pro-locative(there)

④Determiners(限定词)：

a. Pre-determiners: all, both, half, twice

b. Central-determiners: this, those, every, no, either, your

c. Post-determiners: cardinal numerals(基数)，ordinal numerals(序数)，

general ordinals(next, last, other, several, little, a great deal of)

3.2 The Formation of Word

3.2.1 Morpheme and Morphology

①Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in language.

②Morphology is the study of morpheme and a branch of linguistics. It

studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are

formed.

3.2.2 Types of Morphemes

(1) Free morpheme and bound morpheme

①Free morpheme can make up words by itself.(dog, nation)

②Bound morpheme must appear with at least another morpheme. (-dis,

-ed)

(2) Root, affix, and stem

①Root is the base form of a word that cannot be further be analyed

without destroying its meaning

(NOTICES: a. Root can be free morpheme or bound morpheme.

b. I t can be bound morpheme, such as –ceive in

conceive and perceive; -mit in commit and permit.

c. I t can be both free morpheme and bound morpheme.

Child and child- in children))

②Affix is a collective term for the type of morpheme that can be used

only when added to another morpheme(the root or stem), including prefix(para-, mini-, un-,) , suffix(-ise, -tion),

infix(abso-bloomingly-lutely)

③Stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an

inflectional affix can be added. For example:

a.friend- in friends shows that a stem may be the same as a root

b.friendship- in friendships indicates that a stem may contain a root

and one, or more than one, derivational affix.

3) Inflective affix and derivational affix

The differences between inflective affix and derivational affix:

①.inflective affixes are generally less productive than derivational affixes;

②.inflective affixes do not change the word class of the word they attach to,

while derivational affixes often change the lexical lexical meaning;

③.inflective affixes are mostly suffixes, which are always word final(e.g.

-s). But derivational affixes can both be prefixes(e.g. sub-, de-) and

suffixes(e.g. -er, -able )

3.2.3 Inflection and word formation

To be more specific, there are two fields that morphology is concerned with: (ⅰ).The study of inflections( also called as INFLECTIONA MORPHOLOGY);

(ⅱ). The study of word formation( often referred to as LEICAL or DERIV ATIONAL MORPHONOLOGY)

⑴INFLECTION indicates grammatical relations by adding

inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and

case; and when inflectional affixes are added, the grammatical class

of the stem(to which they are attached) will not change. For

example,

(a)number: table/tables

(b)person: finiteness and aspect;

open/opens/opening/opened

(c)case: boy/boy’s

⑵Word formation

Word-formation, in its restricted sense, refers to the process of how words are formed.

Two sub-types: a. the compositional type(COMPOUND)

b. the derivational type(DEROV ATION)

ⅰ、Compound

⑴(a)NOUN COMPOUNDS(构成词是名词)e.g. day+brea k→daybreak

(b)VERB COMPOUNDS（构成词是动词）e.g. lip+rea d→lipread

(c)ADJECTIVE COMPOUNDS(构成词是形容词)e.g. dut y+free→

dutyfree

(b)PREPOSITION COMPOUNDS（构成词是介词）e.g. in+t o→into

⑵two kinds of compound: (a)endocentric compound(self-control)

(b)exocentric compound(breakthrough)

⑶the ways of written(a) as a single word(wardrobe, birdseed, bodyguard)

(b)joined with a hyphen”-”(rest-room, wedding-ring)

(c)with ordinary space between two words(washing

machine)

ⅱDerivation

Derivation shows a relationship between roots and affixes, and make the word class of the original word either changed (length--lengthen)or unchanged (non+smoker=nonsmoker)

3.2.4 Sememe & Morpheme and Phoneme & Morpheme

⑴Sememe vs. morpheme

Sememe is the smallest component of meaning, while morpheme is smallest unit of meaning

①one morpheme vs. one sememe

②one morpheme vs. more than one sememe

③one sememe vs. more than one morpheme

④morphemes that have no specific sememe

⑤function changes in both sememe and moepheme without morpheme

change

⑵Morpheme vs. phoneme

①a single phoneme vs. a single morpheme

②a single morpheme vs. multiple phoneme

③allomorph

④morphemic conditions

a. phonological conditioned

b. morphonologically conditioned

3.3 Lexical Change

3.3.1 Lexical change proper

⑴Invention: Coke, Nylon, granola

⑵Blending: transfer(initial)+resister(final)=transistor

. digital(initial)+computer(initial)=digicom

Another sort of blending is called FUSION, such as rippe(ripple+shuffle), stample(trample+stample), and spinwheels(pinwheel+spin)

(3) Abbreviatiom(also called CLIPPING)缩写词

e.g. advertisemen t→ad

bicylc e→bike

(4) Acronym(缩略词)

e.g. CI A→Central Intelligence Agency

(5) Back-formation: editor---edit

(6) Analogical creation: work→wrough t→worked; sla y→sle w→slayed

(7)Borrowing: a Loanwords: borrow both form and meaning(au pair from

French);

b .Loanblend: borrow the meaning, the form is

blended(china-town);

c Loanshift: meaning is borrowe

d and th

e form is

native(bridge); loan translation(翻译借词):：black humor 3.3.2 Morph-Syntactical Change(词素句法变化)

(1) Morphological change: third person; plural form, possessive case

(2) Syntactical changes:

--Split infinitive:

e.g.. I have tried to consciously stop, worrying about it

--Postponed Preposition:

e.g.The person is impossible to work with

--Objective case of relative pronoun

e.g. The girl who(m) he talked about is a violinist

3.3.3 Semantic change

(1) Broadening is a process to extend or elevate the meaning from its

originally specific sense to a relatively general one.

e.g. “holiday”→”holy day” in religious Englis h→”a day for rest”

(2) Narrowing is contrary to broadening: the original meaning of a word can

be narrowed or restricted to a specific sense.

e.g. meat→“food”→the edible flesh of mammals.

(3) Meaning shift here understood in its narrow sense, that is, the change of meaning has nothing to do with generalization or restriction as mentioned above.

e.g. “bead”→“the prayer bead”→“small, ball-shaped piece of glass,

metal or wood”

(4) class shift: By changing the word class one can change the meaning of a

word from a concrete or notion to a process or attribution. This process of word formation is also known as ZERO-DERIV ATION, or CONVERSION

e.g. hog→N(a pig)→V(to take and keep (all of something) for

oneself )

(5) folk stymology(民俗词源学) refers to the change of a word or phrase,

resulting from an incorrect popular notion of the origin or meaning

of the term, or from the influence of more familiar terms mistakenly

taken to be analogous.

e.g. Spanish cucaracha changed into English cokroach

3.3.4 Phonological change

(1) loss(省音)：temperature /’temp?r?t ?/----/’tempr?t /

(2) Addition(增音)：a(n) article

(3) Metathesis(换位)：is a process involving a change in the sequence of

sound.

e.g. They taxed him with his failures. (accused)

They took him to task for his failures. ( scolded)

(4) Assimilation: 同化cap----can

3.3.5 Orthographic change

a. The same day went Iesus(sun)out of the house, and sate by the

seaside.

b. And when the Sunne (sun) was up, they were scorched