Word :a minimum free form of a language. With a unity of s ound and meaning(both lexical meaning and grammatical meaning),performing syntactic meaning
Criteria of words: by origin(native—old English )( and loan language—borrowed English),by level of usage(common words, literary ,colloquial, slang and technical words);by notions(function and content words)
Morpheme: smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not divisible or analyzable into smaller form. A morpheme is also two-facet language unit which possesses sound and meaning.
Classification of morphemes: free morpheme-utter alone with meaning(a free morpheme is a word in traditional sense); bound morpheme—must appear with one other morpheme, free or bound)
Root: the basic unchangeable part of the word, convey the main lexical meaning of the word. Either free or bound.(free roots and bound roots)
Affixes: ----inflectional affixes(have only particular grammatical meaning)and derivational affixes.(added morpheme to create new words.）---prefixes and suffixes
Word-formation
Three major processes : compounding(joining tow or more bases to form a new unit of compound words)
Derivation(forming a new word by addition of a word element)
Conversion(a word of certain word-class is shifted into another word-class without any affixes)
Eight minor processes :Acronymy (Initialisms –using the first letter from proper name ,phrase, technical words)A
initialism is pronounced letter by letter) and acronyms—from the initial letters of the name of an organization or scientific term)==are pronounced as words.
Clipping(deletion of one or more syllables from a word—usually a noun, which is also available in its full form)Classification—back clipping, front clipping ,front and back clipping and phrase clipping.)
Blending---formed by combining the meanings and sound of tow words.one of which is not full form or both of which are not full form. ）不完整拼缀
Back-formation（coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a longer form already present in the language.）Words from proper names(including names of scientists, names of politicians and statesman, names of places, trademark, literature)
Reduplication(a compound word is created by the repetition(1)of one word like go-go(2)almost identical words with a change in the vowel’s such as ping-pong.(3)of two almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants ,as in teenyweeny.
Neoclassical(new words are formed from elements derived from Latin and Greek)The majority of neoclassical formations are scientific and technical.
Miscellaneous
Word meaning and sense relations
1,conventionality—no way to explain why this or that sound-symbol and its sense.
2,motivation—phonetic ,morphological, sematic
3,main types of word meaning(interrelated and
interdependent)---class and inflectional
paradigm)and
meaning; connotative meaning—emotional association; social or stylistic meaning and affective meaning)
Binary opposites.二相对立
Polysemy—a term used in sematic analysis to refer to lexical item which has a range of meanings.)T wo approaches—diachronic and synchronic.---primary meaning and derived meaning, central meaning and secondary meaning(in some cases, the primary meaning and the central meaning coincide.)Two processes leading to polysemy---radiation(each of the secondary meanings may become a center of further radiation),concatenation(linking together, like the links of a chain.
Homonymy(---pronounced alike, spell alike, or both.)---types of homonyms(perfect homonyms—word identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning)(Homophones---identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning.)(Homographs—identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning.)
Polysemic and homonymous words are stylistically useful to achieve humour or irony, or to heighten dramatic effect. Synonymy(—identical in meaning but different in sound and spelling.)--- Complete synonyms(absolute),Relative synonyms.
Antonymy (--opppsiteness of meaning)---contrary, complementary and conversives ….Antonyms classified on the basis of morphological structure: root antonyms and derivational antonyms.
Marked and unmarked words---subsume.(Marked members can not be used to include unmarked member.) Hyponymy—(relationship which obtains specific and general lexical items)Superordinate term(an upper term),Subordinate terms(a lower term)===hierarchical system Sematic field---is not simply a listing of independent items, organized into areas or field.
Charateristic of the same sematic field.1),word frequency in the same semantic varies 2)these words are semantically interdepent.3) words in the same semantic field are likely to have a number of collocation on common. Changes in word meaning---1,causes:historical,social,foreign influence, linguistic and psychological .2, Four tendencies in sematic change---restriction, extension, degeneration, elevation (of meaning)具体化，普遍化，语义转贬，语义改良。
Metaphor隐喻
Metonymy借喻
English idioms 1）sources—English people’s daily life;
religious beliefs; literary words; Fable ,myth, or legends. Classification of idioms: phrase idioms, clause idioms, sentence idioms.。
