chapter 1 英语词汇学.ppt

Chapter 1 ;Language, linguistics lexicology ;Generally speaking, linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of language. To be more exact, linguistics studies the general principles upon which languages are constructed and operate as systems of human communication.;Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, structure, formation, meaning and usage. In short, it is the study of the signification and application of words.;The significance of the course:;Aims of the course:;The total number of the words in a language. All the words used in a particular historical period. All the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed by an individual person. ;speaking vocabulary---active vocabulary writing vocabulary---active vocabulary reading vocabulary---passive vocabulary guess vocabulary---passive vocabulary ;What Is a Word? ;Definition in Chinese: 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页，上海辞书出版社）;Sound and meaning;● Arbitrary A word is a symbol that stands for something else in the world. The symbolic connection is always arbitrary, and there is no logical relationship between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and the idea itself. e.g. dog, book;What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet. ---Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) In Shakespeare’s opinion, if we use another word instead of the word “rose”. This kind of 玫瑰花 smells sweet, too. ;● Conventional The relationship between sound and meaning is conventional. In different languages, on the one hand, the same concept can be represented by different sounds. e.g. woman, frau(Ger), femme(F), fùnǚ (妇女) on the other hand, the same sound can be used to denote different things in one language. e.g. [mi:t] meet, meat, mete ;Sound and form;● The