英语词汇学.ppt

Modern English Lexicology
Consider the following sentences:
I’ll mount the gee-gee tomorrow.
I’ll ride thefined as a fundamental unit of speech and a minimum free form, with a unity of sound and meaning, capable of performing a given syntactic funcion.
“词，今指语言组织中的基础单位，能独立运用，具有声音、意义和语法功能。”（《辞海》, 1984:375)
eg. He ran up the hill.
Development of English Vocabulary
1) English vocabulary as viewed in the historical perspective:
Old English(449-1100): about 85% of OE words are no longer in use. OE is characterized by the frequent use of compounds. Some compounds involving alliteration have survived in modern English, such as: might and main(全力地）, friend and foe（敌友）,etc.
Middle English(1100-1500): characterized by the strong influence of French following the Norman Conquest in 1066. The French loan words were found in every section of the vocabulary:
law and governmental administration(judge, jury, justice; parliament, state…); food(beef, mutton, pork…); clothing(coat,dress…); science(medicine, surgeon…), and so on.
At the same time, Latin words continued to come in, but in small numbers. The very core of the vocabulary , however, remained English.
Modern English(1500-the present): characterized by borrowing words from many other languages.
From Latin(chemist, education, theory); Greek(drama, comedy, tragedy); Italian(concert, duet, piano); Spanish(cigar, armada); Japanese(kimono, tycoon), etc.
In fact, English has adopted words from almost every known language in the course of its historical development.
The English language has vast any dictionary some 80% of the entries are borrowed.
All this made the English vocabulary extremely rich and heterogeneous. English is supposed to have the most copious vocabulary of all the languages in the world, estimated at more than a million is also noted for its wealth of synonyms and idoms.
rapid growth of present-day English vocabulary(especially after World W