Chapter 1 Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary
1. What is a word?/ The definition of word.（名词解释）
A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic
function.
2. The relationship between sound and meaning.（填空或简答）
The relationship between sound and meaning are arbitrary and conventional. （这两个单词要会拼写）
3. Why are there differences between sound and form?/ Explain the reasons that sound is
different from form.（简答）
1） The internal reason for this is that the English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, which
does not have a separate letter to represent each sound in the language so that some letters
must do double duty or work together in combination.
2） Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling over the
years
3） A third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes.
Chapter 1 Basic concepts of words and vocabulary
1.1 A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and
syntactic function.
1.2 - Vocabulary: refers to all the words in a language, and all the words of a particular
historical period, a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline and the words possessed
by an individual person. The general estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is
over 1 million words.
1.3 - Sound and Meaning: symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary and conventional.
A dog is called a dog not because the sound and the three letters that make up the word
just automatically suggest the animal in question.
1.4 Sound and Form
English Phonetic language表音文字 - ChineseIdeographic language 表意文字
The reasons for the inconsistency between sound and form
English Lexicology(英语词汇学)
Lexicology: is a branch of linguistics, inquiring into the
origins and meanings of words.
Chapter 1--Basic concepts of words and vocabulary
Word: A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a
given sound and meaning and syntactic function. (1)a minimal
free form of a language (2)a sound unity (3)a unit of meaning
(4)a form that can function alone in a sentence
Sound and meaning: almost arbitrary, “no logical relationship
between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the
actual thing and idea itself”
Sound and form:不统一的四个原因
（1）the English alphabet was adopted from the Romans, which
does not have a separate letter to represent each other
（2）the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling
over the years
（3）some of the difference were creates by the early scribes
1 《英语词汇学教程》参考答案 Chapter 1 1. 1. The The three three definitions definitions agree agree that that lexicology lexicology studies studies words. words. Yet, Yet, they they have have different different focuses. focuses. Definition 1 focuses on the meaning and uses of words, while definition 2 on the overall structure and history. Definition 3 regards lexicology as a branch of linguistics and focuses on the semantic structure of the lexicon. It is interesting to note that the three definitions use different names for the object of study. For Definition 1, it is words, for Definition 2 the vocabulary of a language, and for Definition 3 the lexicon. 2. (1) They can go into the room, and if they like, shut the door. (2) You boys are required to give in your homework before 10 o‘clock. (3) I watch the football match happily and find it very interesting. 3. (1) when it follows ‗when it follows ‗-t‘ and ‗-d‘, it is pronounced as [id]; (2) when it follows voiceless consonants, it is pronounced as [t]; (3) when it follows voiced consonants and vowels, it is pronounced as [d]. 4. (1)They are words that can be included in a semantic field of ―treetreeǁǁ. (2)They represent the forms of the verb ―flyflyǁǁ and have a common meaning. (3)They belong to a lexical field of ‗telephone communication‘. (4)They (4)They are are synonyms, synonyms, related related to to human human visual visual perception. perception. Specifically, Specifically, they they denote denote various various kinds of ―lookinglookingǁǁ. 5. (a) ‗blackboard: a board with a dark smooth surface, used in schools for writing with chalk (the primary stress in on black) ; ‗blackbird: a particular kind of bird, which may not necessarily be black in colour (the primary stress in on black); ‗greyhound: a slender, swift dog with keen sight (the primary stress in on black), ‗White House: the residence of the US President in Washington (the primary stress in on black). 0 (b) black ‗board: any board which is black in colour (both words receive primary stress); black ‗bird: bird: any any bird bird which which is is black black in in colour colour (both (both words words receive receive primary primary stress); stress); grey grey ‗‗hound: hound: any any hound that is grey in colour (both words receive primary stress); ‗white ‗house: any house that is painted white (both words receive primary stress). 6. There are 44 orthographic words, i.e. sequences of letters bounded by space. There are 24 open class words and 20 closed class words. 7. (a) The ‗bullbull‘‘ is literal, referring to a male bovine animal. (b) ‗Take the bull by the horn‘ is an idiom, meaning ‗(having the courage to) deal with someone or something directly. (c) (c) ‗‗Like Like a a bull bull in in a a china china shopshop‘‘ is is an an idiom, idiom, meaning meaning doing doing something something with with too too much much enthusiasm or too quickly or carelessly in a way that may damage things or upset someone. (d) A ‗bull market‘ is one where prices rise fast because there is a lot of buying of shares in anticipation of profits. 8. cup, mug, glass, tumbler, tankard, goblet, bowl, beaker, wineglass, beer glass, sherry glass They can be organized in a number of ways, for example, by the drinks the vessel is used for. Non-alcoholic: glass, tumbler, cup, mug, beaker, bowl Beer: beer glass, tankard Wine: wineglass, goblet Spirits: sherry glass
