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6. The name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo is extension.

7. There are generally two major factors that cause changes in meaning: Extra-linguistic Factors and Linguistic Factors.（非语言因素和语言因素）

8. The attitudes of classes have made inroads into lexical meaning in the case of elevation or degradation.

9. The changes of meaning may be caused by internal factors within the Language system.

10. The meanings of “lip” and “tongue”in “the lip of a wound”and “the tongue of a bell”have experienced associated transfer.（联想转移）

11. The so-called “King’s English” serves as a class reason（阶级原因） in word-meaning change.

12. The change of word-meaning is brought about by following internal factors: the influx of borrowing, shortening, analogy.

13. Generalization is a process by which a word that originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized.

14. The four major modes of semantic change are: extension（扩大）, narrowing（缩小）, elevation（升华） and degradation（降格）. 名词解释：

1.extension（词义的扩大）: It is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized. In other words,the term has extended to cover a broader and often less definite concept.

2.narrowing（词义的缩小）: it is the opposite of widening meaning. It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense. In other words, a word which used to have a more general meaning becomes restricted in its application and conveys a special meaning in present-day English.

3.elevation（升华）: Elevation or amelioration refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance. 4. degradation（降格）: Degradation or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation. It’s a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense.

5. transfer（转移）: Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced the process of semantic transfer. 论述问答题：

1.What are the linguistic factors(语言因素) that have caused the changing of meaning? Try to explain it.

答：Linguistic Factors that have caused the changing of meaning cover four:

1) One type of such change occurs when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of the whole。E.g. gold is used for ‘gold medal’

2) The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. E.g. Deer, Animal (L), Beast (F)

3) In addition, the competition of native words eventually resulted in the semantic division.E.g. bird／fowl dog／hound

4) Finally, the change of meaning is brought about by analogy. E.g. fruition: fruit

a pleasure obtained from using or possessing something

the bearing of fruit

2. Analyze and comment on the three causes of meaning change within the scope of extra-linguistic factors（非语言因素）. Each with example word(s) given below. pen, atom； churl； copperhead

答：The three causes of meaning change within the scope of the extra-linguistic factors are: Historical reason, Class reason, Psychological reason. 1) Historical reason（历史原因）：language is more conservative than civilization, material as well as moral. Objects, institutions, ideas, scientific concepts change in the course of time; yet in many cases the name is retained and thus helps to ensure a sense of tradition and continuity. Indeed, it often happens that a word is retained for a name though the meaning has changed because the referent has changed. Take “pen”for example. Originally, it denoted ?feather?, which was used in the West as pen in old times, hence the present meaning. Now, the time when ?feather? served as pen is long gone, and people are using ball-point pens and fountain pens, yet the name is still kept. Increased scientific knowledge and discovery are also important factors that account for the change of word meaning. For instance, the concept of “atom” has changed with the increase of scientific knowledge. The word is derived from the Greek form atomos, which means ?any of the indivisible particles?. Now science has proved that atom is not the smallest and can be divided into even smaller particles, hence the abandonment of the original meaning.

2) Class reason（阶级原因）: Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. Naturally, it records the speech and attitude of different social classes. As a result, different social varieties of Language have come into being, the word “Churl” as we already know was originally neutral in colour（中性词） but has down-graded as ‘ill-mannered or bad people’

3) Psychological reason（心理原因）: the associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc.are often due to psychological factors. Take Copperhead for example. This words designates a venomous snake in North America. During the American Civil War(美国内战) it was employed to refer to those northerners（北方佬） who were secretly aiding and abetting the South. It’s said that people in the North had a deep hatred and contempt for such people. The editor of one country newspaper was trying to find a suitable word. First he thought of ?rattlesnake?as it was the most poisonous but rejected the word because it makes noise by the rattle in its tail, unlike those informers. Consequently, copperhead was chosen and endowed with a new meaning.

3. What makes Shakespeare particularly difficult to read, old form of spelling, old ways of pronunciation or change of word meaning? How do you account for the semantic change in living Languages?

答：Because many of the words used in Shakespeare’s time had different senses from what they have now in contemporary dictionaries. Change of word-meaning makes Shakespeare particularly difficult to read. Take Hamlet（哈姆雷特） for example. “Rival”means “partner”as in “the rivals of my watch, bid them make haste”; “jump” means “just”as in “the twice before, and jump at this dead hour”; “fond”designates “foolish” as in “I will wipe away all trivial fond records”, and so on. Changing in word-meaning has never ceased since the Language came into being and will continue in the future. Semantic change occurs as society changes. People use the same word form to mean different things, which is a typical linguistic law. 4. What are the causes of semantic change? Illustrate your point.

答：There are many causes of semantic change. The main causes include extra-linguistic factors

and linguistic factors. In extra-linguistic factors. There are historical reasons, class reasons, and psychological reasons. In linguistic factors, there are shortening of phrases, influx of borrowings and analogy.

5. How do the historical and social causes account for changes in the meanings of words?

答：It often happens that a word is retained for a name though the meaning has changed because the referent has changed.

Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. Naturally it records the speech and attitude of diferent social classes. As a result, different social varieties of language have come into being. The attitudes of classes have also made inroads into lexical meaning in the case of elevation ordegradation.

Chapter 8 Meaning and Context

重点知识锦集：

1. Meaning lives in context (语境)and context defines meaning.

2. The extra-linguistic context （非语言语境）may extend to embrace the entire cultural background, which may also affect the meaning of words. 3. Linguistic context （语言语境）can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context.（词汇语境和语法语境）

4. Context has three major functions: elimination of ambiguity（消除歧义）, indication of referents（限定所指）, provision of clues for inferring word-meaning（提供线索以猜测词义）. 5. Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy.

6. When a word with multiple meanings is used in inadequate context, it crests ambiguity（歧义）. 7. Homonymy（同形同音异义） is another cause of ambiguity as two separate words share the same form.

8. Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity.

9. Context（语境） may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. 10.Linguistic context is also known as verbal context.

11.When a word with more than one meaning is used in unclear context, it creates ambiguity. 12. Context is very important for the understanding of word-meaning. 13. “Do”in “do a museum” means visit.

14. Hints given in a context are known as clues.

15. “I like Mary better than Jean”. In this sentence, grammatical structure（语法结构） leads to ambiguity.

16. Grammatical context refers to syntactic structure in which a word is used.

17. Physical situation or environment relating to the use of words is non-linguistic（非语言） context.

名词解释： 1. linguistic context（语言语境）: Context is used in different senses. In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences, in which a word appears. This is known as linguistic context, which may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter, and even the entire book.

2. extra-linguistic context（非语言语境）: in a broad sense, it includes the physical situation as well. This is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place, and even the whole cultural background.

3. lexical context(词汇语境): This context refers to the words that occur together with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring words.

4. grammatical context(语法语境): In some cases, the meanings of a word may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. This is what we call grammatical context. 论述问答题：

1. What are the three major roles or functions of context? 答：1). Elimination of Ambiguity（消除歧义）: Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy. When a word with multiple meanings is used in inadequate context, lt creats ambiguity.

2). Indication of referents（限定所指）: English has a large number of words, which are often used to refer directly to people, time, place, etc. without clear context, the reference can be very confusing.

3). Provision of clues for inferring Word-meaning（提供线索以猜测词义）: Context may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. In many cases, when a new word appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints which might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea.

2. How does context provide clues for inferring word-meaning? Try to explain them. Context clues vary a great deal but can be summed up as follows:

1). Definition. Often we find that the author gives formal definition immediately after the new term.

2). Explaination. If the concept is complicated and must involve technical terms in its definition, the author might explain the idea in simple words. That is,he might make a restatement in known words.

3). Example. In some cases, instead of giving a formal definition or explaination, the author may cite an example which is sufficient to throw light on the meaning of the term.

4). Synonymy. Synonymy or synonymous expressions are freguently employed by authors to explain new words.

5). Antonymy. Contrasting words or statements are also commonly used to explain unknown words.

6). Hyponymy. Superordinates and subordinates often define and explain each other, thus forming an important context clue.

7). Relevant details（相关细节）. In some contexts, the author provides details relating to the unknown word, such as the functions, characteristics, and nature, etc, of the referent.

8). Word structure. The morphemic structure of words, especially compounds and derived words offers clues for inferring the meanings of unknown words.

3. Study the following sentences. If you find anything wrong, please explain why and then improve the sentence.

The boy ran after the girl with the flowers. 答：1). It’s ambiguous

2). Ambiguity caused by the structure. 3). This sentence can be understood as:

① The boy who carried the flowers ran after the girl. ② The boy ran after the girl who carried the flowers. 4).improvement:

① After he bought some flowers, the boy ran after the girl with the flowers.

② The boy ran after the girl with the flowers, because she had stolen his flowers.

Chapter 9 English Idioms

重点知识锦集：

1. 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. Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meaning of individual elements.

3. Being phrases or sentences, idioms each consist of more than one word, but each is a semantic unity(语义的整体性).

4. Quite often the idiom functions as one word.

5. The semantic unity of idioms is also reflected in the illogical relationship between the literal meaning of each word and the meaning of the idiom.

6. Unlike free phrases, the structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable. 7. Many idioms are grammatically unanalysable（不可分析的）.

8. The idiomaticity of idioms is gradable and may best be thought in terms of a scale, with the true idioms established at the upper end and regular combinations at the bottom. In between are the semi-idioms.

9. The fixity of idioms depends on the idiomaticity. The more idiomatic the idioms, the more fixed the structure.

10. By the criterion of grammatical functions,(语法功能) idioms can be classified into five groups.

11. “Brain trust” is an idiom nominal（名词性） in nature.

12. Idioms verbal in nature（动词性习语） is the largest group of all.

13. Idioms verbal in nature can be subdivided into phrasal verbs（短语性动词） and other verb phrases（动词短语）.

14. In terms of complexity sentence idioms can be further divided into simple, compound and complex sentences.

15. It should be pointed out that forms and functions of idioms are not necessarily identical.

16. The study of idioms is to understand them correctly in actual context and use them properly in production.

17. Idioms are generally felt to be informal（非正式） and some are colloquialisms and slang, therefore inappropriate for formal style.

18. The stylistic features of idioms include: coloquialisms, slang, literary expressions. 19. Idioms in the course book are used in a broad sense.

20. Idioms verbal in nature are verb phrases, phrasal verbs, verb idioms 21. The idiom “new brooms sweep clean” was created probably by housewives. 22. The idiom “Jack of all trades” results from shortening（缩略法）. 23. Metonymy(换喻) is used in the idiom “live by one’s pen”.

24. If two main constituents of an idiom share the initial sound, it’s called alliteration(头韵法). 25. Rhetorical features（修辞特征） are shown in such respects of phonetic and lexical manipulation as well as figures of speech（修辞手法）.