论英语词义的变化（毕业设计论文doc）.doc

湖北省高等教育自学考试英语专业
毕业论文
题目:论英语词义的变化

武汉大学外语学院制

On the Meaning Change of English Words
Huang Liuyan
Tutor: Huang Li
October 2010
论文摘要
语义学是关于意义的学问,它旨在研究语言单位,特别是单词和句子的意义。词是语言中具有意义的,最小的能够独立运用的单位,所以关于词的意义(即词汇语义学)在语言学中占用重要的位置。单词一直处在不断的变化过程当中,形式上的或是内容上的,常常是后者发生变化。正像Quirk在1963年指出的那样,“…几乎我们现在使用的每一个词与其在一个世纪以前的意义稍有不同,而一个世纪以前的单词又和它在一个世纪之前的意义稍有差别”。宽泛的讲,意义的变化指的是现行词义的变化,或是对现行词语添加新的义项。这种变化随着时间的流逝而产生。本论文探究了英语词义变化的方式、类型及原因。希望本论文可以帮助英语专业的学生更好地学习英语词义。
关键词:词义; 变化; 方式; 类型; 原因
Abstract
The subject concerning the study of meaning is called semantics, which targets at the study of the meanings of linguistics units, such as words and sentences. A word is the minimum free form with certain meaning, thus the study of word meaning (lexical semantics) occupies an important position in linguistics study. Word has been constantly undergoing the process of changes,either in forms or in meanings, with the latter being more frequent. Just as Quirk said in 1963, “… almost every word we use today has a different meaning from the one it had a century ago, and a century ago it had a slight different meaning from the one it had a century before that”. Broadly speaking, meaning change refers to the alternation of the meaning of existing words, as well as the addition of new meaning to established words. This change occurs along with time. This thesis explores the approaches, modes, causes of word meaning change. Hopefully, it may help us English majors study English word meaning better.
Keywords: meaning;change;approach; mode; cause
Contents
I. Introduction 1
II. Approaches to meaning change of English words 2
extension approach 2
figurative approach 3
merger approach 3
III. Modes of meaning change of English words 4
generalization 5
specialization 6
elevation 7
degradation 7
IV. Causes of meaning change of English words 8
extra –linguistics factors 8
linguistics factors 10
V. Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12
On the Meaning Change of English