《英语词汇学》简答题:1. What is the importance of basic word stock?The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and forms the common core of the language, which has five characteristics: all national character, stability, productivity, polysemy, collocability.2. What are neologisms? Give one example to illustrate them.Neologisms are newly-created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings. The examples go as follows:"They misunderestimated me." (George W. Bush, September 26, 2001)"We don't want to get dixie-chicked, or anything like that, out of the gate. We've invested tens of millions of dollars in the movie." (Dreamworks executive, 2003)dixie-chicked, to become the subject of ridicule and economic loss by alienating a constituency.sniglet: a term invented by comedian Rich Hall to characterize a "word that should be in the dictionary, but isn't." A few examples:doork, a person who always pushes on a door marked "pull" or vice versa.lotshock, the act of parking your car, walking away, and then watching it roll past you.pupkus, the moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it.daffynition: a pun coined by reinterpreting an existing word on the basis that it sounds like another word. Under the name Uxbridge English Dictionary, making up daffynitions is a game on the BBC Radio 4 comedy quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. A few examples:antelope, to run off with your mother’s sister.testicle, an exploratory tickle.boomerang, what you say to frighten a meringue.pasteurize, too far to see.For more than 20 years, columnist Bob Levey of The Washington Post has been inviting readers to submit new definitions for pre-existing words. Some memorable contributions:circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.Frisbeetarianism (n.), the belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.population (n.), that nice sensation you get when drinking soda.spatula (n.), a fight among vampires.testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.3. Why do we say" English is a heavy borrower?" Please justify it.English is a heavy borrower and has adopted words from all other major languages of the world. It is estimated that English borrowings constitute 80% of the modern English vocabulary. As is stated in Encyclopedia Americana ,"The English language has vast debts. In any dictionary some 80% of the entries are borrowed".eg. kowtou from Chinese, long time no see from haojiubujian (Chinese), the word "dream" originally meant "joy" and "music", its modern meaning was borrowed later from the Norse.4. In the Middle English Period, what made French a dominant language in England?In 1066, in the history of England, there was Norman Conquest. The French-speaking Normans were the ruling class. French was used for all state affairs and for most social and cultural matters. Therefore, those who in power spoke French, those who were literate read and wrote in French; and any young man who sought to earn his living as a scribe learned Latin or French because there was no market for such services in English. The Norman Conquest started a continual flow of French words into English.5. What happened in the mid-seventeenth century in England?England experienced the Bourgeois Revolution followed by the Industrial Revolution and rose to be a great economic power.6. What are the three main sources of new English words?Three main sources of new words are:the rapid development of modern science and technology;social, economic and political changes;the influence of other cultures and languages7. What are the differences between inflectional and derivational affixes?Affixes attaches to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. Modern English is an analytic language. Most endings are lost, leaving only a few inflectional affixes, such as plural forms of nouns-s(-es), and the comparative and superlative degree forms of adjectives: -er, -est. Derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words. Derivational affixes can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.8. What are the differences between root and stem? Explain with examples.A root is the basic form of a word, which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity.(What remains of a word after the removal of all affixes.) .e.g. ―internationalists‖ removing inter-, -al-, -ist, -s, leaves the root nation.A stem is a form to which affixes of any kind can be added. e.g. ―internationalists‖, nation is a root and a stem as well.A stem may consist of a single root or two roots and a root plus an affix.A stem can be a root or a form bigger than a root.9. How do you distinguish compounds from free phrases?Compounds differ from free phrases in the following three aspects.1) Phonetic features. In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first element whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally stressed if there is only one stess.2) Semantic features. Compounds are different from free phrases in semantic unity. Every compound should express a single idea just as one word.3) Grammatical features. A compound tends to play a single grammatical role in a sentence.10. How do you explain the difference between backformation and suffixation? Give example to illustrate your point.Back-formation is a process of word-formation by which a word is created by the deletion of a supposed affix. It is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. As we know, Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems, and back-formation is therefore the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. For example, -er is a noun suffix, it is added to noun base engine to produce a new word--engineer. however, people make can make verbs by dropping the endings such as -or in editor, and -er in butler. This is how we derive edit and butle. The removed suffixes are not true suffixes but inseparable pars of the words.11. What are the characteristics of associative meaning?Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning.It is open-ended and indeterminate. It is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education, etc.12. Tell briefly about Martin Joos' the Five Clocks?It suggests five degrees of formality: frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate.13. What is the difference between lexical meaning and grammatical meaning?Unlike lexical meaning, different lexical items, which have different lexical meanings, may have the same grammatical meaning. On the other hand, the same word may have different grammatical meanings. Functional words, though having little lexical meaning, possess strong grammatical meaning whereas content words have both meanings, and lexical meaning in partial. Lexical and grammatical meanings make up the word-meaning. It is known that grammatical meaning surfaces only in use. But lexical meaning is constant in all the content words within or without context as it is related to the notion that the word conveys.14. What is the difference between the process of radiation and concatenation?In radiation，the meanings are independent of one other, but can all be traced back to the central meaning. If we give a graphic description of the meanings of face, it would look very much like a wheel of the bicycle.In concatenation，the meaning reached by the first shift may be shifted a second time, and so on until in the end the original meaning is totally lost.15. How to differentiate homonyms from polysemics?The fundamental difference lies in the fact that the former refers to different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the one and the same word which has several distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see its etymology, the second is semantic relatedness.16. What are the 3 types of antonyms? Illustrate with examples.Antonyms--are words which are opposite in meaning.Types of Antonyms (according to the semantic opposition)1) Contradictory terms – these antonyms are truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. They assertion of one is the denial of the other.e.g. alive—dead, present—absent, male—female, boy—girl, true—false, same—different, imperfect—perfect2) Contrary terms---a scale running between two poles or extremes. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other.E.g. rich—(well-to-do)—poor; old—(middle-aged)—young, open—(ajar)—close, beautiful—(good-looking)—(plain)—ugly,3) Relative terms – consist of relational oppositeness. The pairs of words indicate such a social relationship that one of them can not be used without suggesting the other, the type is also reverse terms. The two words of each pair are interdependent.e.g. parent—child; husband—wife; predecessor—successor, employer—employee17. What are the extra-linguistic factors that cause changes in meaning?They are historical reason, class reason, and psychological reason.18. What are the linguistic factors that cause changes in meaning?Internal factors within the language system, and the influx of borrowing, analogy.19. Discuss the role of context in understanding word meaning.Context is a vital clue in understanding word meaning. Namely, it can eliminate ambiguity, indicate referents, and provide clues for inferring word meaning. First, a word or even a sentence without adequate context can be quite ambiguous. So it is hard to determine the exact meaning especially when the word is polysemic or the sentence structure has a different is interpretation. Second, some referents like pronouns, nouns may refer to anything or anybody, as for a pronoun or a noun, if we know what its exact meaning or referent is, we have to know it from its context. Third, context provides important clues in understanding unknown words, or inexact meanings, The clues can be: definition, explanation, example, synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, relevant details, word structure.20. In what way can cultural background affect the meaning of words?The extra-linguistic context may extend to embrace the entire cultural background, which also affect the meaning of words. Take the word landlord for example. In Chinese cultural, landlord is usually understood as referring to someone who owned a lot of land and collected money by renting land without working. It is used to be associated with "exploitation", naturally carrying a negative overtone. In contract, the term in western countries is denotationally different and affectively neutral. The most commonly used meaning of the word is "someone who rents house for money."21. What are the characteristics of English idioms?They are characterized by semantic unity, structural stability, idioms are characterized by terseness, expressiveness and vividness.22. What are phrasal verbs and verb phrases?Phrasal verbs are idioms which are composed of a verb plus a prep and/or a particle. Verb phrases are composed of verbs plus pron/plass+n/a/pron+n/a+n/conj+n/n+v/n+inf,etc./n structure, phrasal verbs and verb phrases are different from each other, but they share one thing: their meaning are all fixed. Therefore they are idioms.23. How to use English idioms appropriately?In using English idioms exactly and rightly, we need to pay attention to the following points:1) Stylistic features of idioms. Idioms are created by people in their different work, thus acquiring a lot of stylistic features. They are colloquialisms, slangs and literary expressions. That is to say, idioms of different stylistic features are used on different occasions, you should not misuse or abuse them.2) Rhetorical features of idioms. We use idioms to achieve vividness of description, for idioms can alliteration, rhyme, reiteration, repetition and juxtaposition of antonyms. Besides, there are also simile, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, personification and euphemism in idioms.24. Why is the study of the dictionary necessary in lexicology?A dictionary is a book which presents in alphabetical order the words of English, withinformation as to their spelling, pronunciation, meaning, usage, rules of grammar, and in some, their etymology. It is clearly related to lexicology, which deals with the sameproblem: the form, meaning, usage and origins of vocabulary units. So a good knowledge of dictionaries will certainly be of great help to us in the use of dictionaries and ultimately the use of English words.25. What are the four types of dictionaries?(1)Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries:A monolingual dictionary is a dictionary which is written in one language.A bilingual dictionary is one in which two languages are involved.(2) Linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries:A linguistic dictionary is one which aims at defining words and explaining their usage in the language.An encyclopedic dictionary is one in which encyclopedic information is provided along with the general information as in a linguistic dictionary.An encyclopedia is a dictionary, which only provides encyclopedic information concerning each headword.(3) Unabridged, desk and pocket, electronic dictionaries:An unabridged dictionary is an unshortened dictionary with at least 200,000 headwords that can supply a great quantity of basic information about a word.A desk dictionary is a medium-sized one containing words ranging from 50,000 to 150,000.It is the most popular one of all.A pocket dictionary is one which has about 50,000 entries or fewer.An e-dictionary is a small handheld computer with integrated reference materials.(4) Specialized dictionaries: Focus on a particular area of language or knowledge.26. What are the major differences between British and American dictionaries?American dictionaries contain more encyclopedic information in the main body than the British, for example, names of famous people, places of historical interest and the like whereas British dictionaries, especially learner’s dictionaries, include more grammatical information.Generally speaking, one may find British usage in an American dictionary. But as for American usage, users are advised to consult American dictionaries because chances are that such words are excluded from a general British one.27. What factors should be taken into consideration in choosing a dictionary?Four factors should be taken inti account:monolingual or bilingual; general or specialized; American or English; early or latest.28. What are the contents of the dictionary?The contents of the dictionary can be made up of spelling; pronunciation; definition; usage; grammar; usage notes and language notes; etymological information; supplementary matter. Which one is most helpful depends on your interests and needs.29. What are three good general dictionaries?(1) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE) New Edition (1987)This dictionary has 56,000 words and entries, covering both American and British English with special emphasis on new words. It contains 83,000 meanings of words and phrases with 75,000 realistic useful examples and additional 500 new helpful illustrations. Concentrates on three major classes of words: nouns, adjectives and verbs, the dictionary has clear grammar codes (arranged by using its own system of codes and put before the main body). Verbs, for example, are divided into intransitive, transitive and linking verbs. In the usage notes, we can find discrimination between synonyms and near-synonyms, explains difficult grammar and stylistic points, differences between British and American usages, etc. The definitions contain many synonyms and antonyms printed in capital letter.(2) Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (CCELD) (1987)The definitions are all in full sentences. Along with the definitions, there creates an extra column, where one can find part of speech, usage instructions, synonyms, antonyms, superordinates, verb patterns and so on, which is a miniature of a grammar book.(3) A Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition) (CED) (1995)30. How is a linguistic dictionary different from an encyclopedia?Linguistic dictionaries aim at defining words and explaining their usages in the language. They usually cover such areas as spelling, pronunciation, meaning, grammatical function, usage and etymology, etc.An encyclopedia is not concerned with the language per se but provides encyclopedia information concerning each headword. There, the reader can not find pronunciation or meanings or usages but other information.Encyclopedic dictionary have the characteristics of both linguistic dictionaries and encyclopedia, in such dictionaries you can find the general information as in a linguistic dictionary and limited encyclopedic information as well.。
