现代大学词汇学概论总结

1. Morpheme (词素)

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of

language ,not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms .

2. Allomorphs(词素变体)An allomorph is any of the variant forms

of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds .

3. Compounding (复合词)Composition or compounding is a

word-formation process consisting of joining two or more bases to

form a new unit, a compound word. It is a common device which

has been productive at every period of the English language. Today

the largest number of new words are formed by compounding.

4．Derivation (词源)A.The definition of prefixation(前缀)

Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to

stems.

Features: Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the

stem but only modify its meaning. The majority of prefixes are

characterized by their non-class-changing nature. Their chief

function is to change meanings of the stems.

B. The definition of suffixation(后缀)

Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to

stems. Unlike prefixes which primarily change the meaning of the

stem, suffixes have only a small semantic role, their primary

function being to change the grammatical function of stems. In

other words, they mainly change the word class. However, they may

also add attached meaning to the stem.

5. Conversion （转换） Conversion is a word-formation whereby a

word of a certain word-class is shifted into a word of another

without the addition of an affix. It is also called zero derivation(零位派生).

This is a method of turning words of one part of speech to those of

a different part of speech. These words are new only in a

grammatical sense. Since the words do not change in morphological

structure but in function, this process is also known as functional

shift.

6. Acronymy A. The definition of initialisms

Initialisms（首字母连写法）: a type of shortening, using the first

letters of words to form a proper name, a technical term, or a

phrase; an initialism is pronounced letter by letter.

B. The definition of acronyms

Acronyms（首字母拼音法）: words formed from the initial letters of

words and pronounced as words.

Acronyms differ from initialisms in that they are pronounced as

words rather than as sequences of letters.

7. Blending Blending（拼缀法）is a process of word-formation in

which a new word is formed by combining parts of two words. The

result of such a process is called a blend word. Blending is thus a

process of both compounding and abbreviation.

8. Clipping Clipping （截短语）is to shorten a longer word by

cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead. For

example, plane and exam are often used in place of aeroplane, and

examination respectively.

9. Back-formation Back-formation（逆成法） is a process of

word-formation by which a word is created by the deletion of a

supposed suffix. It is also known as a reverse derivation.

Look at the following words, think about what suffixes can be added

to it: care: careful, careless, carefully, carelessly, carelessness

friend: friendly, friendship

quick: quickly, quicken, quickish,quicky

10. Reduplication Reduplication（重叠法） is a minor type of

word-formation by which a compound word is created by the

repetition (1) of one word like so-so; (2) of two almost identical

words with a change in the vowels such as pingpong; (3) of two

almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants as in

teenyweeny.

11. Motivation （理据）Types of Word Meaning

11.1 Grammatical Meaning Grammatical meaning(语法意义)refers

to that part of meaning of the word which indicates grammatical

concept or relationships such as the word class, singular and plural

forms of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional

forms (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting).

11.2 Lexical meaning Lexical meaning(词汇意义) is the meaning

of an isolated word in a dictionary. This component of meaning is

identical in all the forms of the word.

E.g. ‘go, goes, went, gone, going’ possess different grammatical

meaning. But they have the same lexical meaning expressing the

process of movement.

Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning

and associative meaning.

11.3 Conceptual meaning Conceptual meaning(概念意义) (also

known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the

dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. Conceptual

meaning forms the basis for communication as the same word has

the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same

language.

Sun: a heavenly body which gives off light, heat,and energy

Mother: a female parent

11.4 Associative meaning Associative meaning(关联意义) is the