Chapter 1
Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary
閲嶇偣鐭ヨ瘑閿﹂泦锛?/p>
1. According to semanticists
锛堟剰涔夊瀹讹級
, a word is a unit of meaning.
2. This symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary, and there is 鈥榥o logical relationships
between the sound which stands
for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself鈥?
3. Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency.
4. Words may fall into content words and functional words by notion.
5. Words may fall into native words and borrowed words by origin.
6. The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and
forms the common core of the language.
7.
鈥?/p>
all national character
鈥?/p>
锛堝叏姘戞�э級
is the most important of all features that may differentiate
words of common use from all others.
8. Content
words
denote
clear
notions
and
thus
are known
as
notional
words. They
include
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals.
9. Functional words do not have notions of their own. Therefore, they are also called empty
words.
9.
The
English
language
is
noted
for
the
remarkable
complexity
and
heterogeneity
of
its
vocabulary because of its extensive borrowings.
10.
According
to
the
degree
of
assimilation
and
manner
of
borrowing,
we
can
bring
the
loan-words under four classes: Denizens, Aliens, Translation-loans, Semantic-loans.
11. The differences between sound and form are due to innovations made by linguists.
12.
Of
all
the
five
characteristics
listed
for
the
basic
word
stock,
the
most
important
is
all
national character.
锛堝叏姘戞�э級
13. Content words are changing all the time whereas functional words are stable.
14. In Old English there was more agreement between sound and form.
15. A word is a symbol that represents something else in the world.
16.
Some
words
in
the
basic
words
stock
are
said
to
be
stable
because
they
refer
to
the
commonest things in life.
17.
In
different
language,
the
same
concept
can
be
represented
by
different
sounds
and
the
same sound can show different meanings.
18.
The
internal
reason
for
the
difference
between
sound
and
form
is
the
fact
of
more
phonemes than letters in English.
19. Native words are neutral in style and frequent in use.
20.
The
expression
of
鈥渓ong
time
no
see鈥漣s
translation
-loan
among
the
four
classes
of
borrowings.
鍚嶈瘝瑙ｉ噴锛?/p>
1. word(
璇?/p>
): A word is a minimal free form of a Language that has a given sound and meaning
and syntactic function.
2. vocabulary
锛堣瘝姹囷級
: The term
鈥?/p>
vocabulary
鈥?/p>
is used in different senses. Not only can it refer
to
the
total
number
of
the
words
in
a
language,
but
it
can
stand
for
all
the
words
used
in
a
particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of a given dialect, a given book,
a given disicipline and the words possessed by an individual person.
3. Jargon
锛堜笓闂ㄦ湳璇級
: It refers to the specialized vocabularies by which members of particular