2022-03-31 01:01:36

chapter 1 Basic concepts of Words and Vocabulary

重点知识锦集：

1. According to semanticists（意义学家）, a word is a unit of meaning.

2. This symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary, and there is ?no logical relationships between the sound which stands for a thing or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself?. 3. Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency. 4. Words may fall into content words and functional words by notion. 5. Words may fall into native words and borrowed words by origin.

6. The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and forms the common core of the language. 7. ‘all national character’（全民性）is the most important of all features that may differentiate words of common use from all others.

8. content words denote clear notions and thus are known as notional words. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals.

9. Functional words do not have notions of their own. Therefore, they are also called empty words.

9. The English language is noted for the remarkable complexity and heterogeneity of its vocabulary because of its extensive borrowings.

10. According to the degree of assimilation and manner of borrowing, we can bring the loan-words under four classes: Denizens, Aliens, Translation-loans, Semantic-loans.

11. The differences between sound and form are due to innovations made by linguists.

12. of all the five characteristics listed for the basic word stock, the most important is all national character.（全民性）

13. content words are changing all the time whereas functional words are stable. 14. In old English there was more agreement between sound and form. 15. A word is a symbol that represents something else in the world.

16. Some words in the basic words stock are said to be stable because they refer to the commonest things in life.

17. In different language, the same concept can be represented by different sounds and the same sound can show different meanings.

18. The internal reason for the difference between sound and form is the fact of more phonemes than letters in English.

19. native words are neutral in style and frequent in use.

20. The expression of “long time no see”is translation-loan among the four classes of borrowings. 名词解释：

1. word(词): A word is a minimal free form of a Language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function. 2. vocabulary（词汇）: The term ‘vocabulary’is used in different senses. not only can it refer to the total number of the words in a language, but it can stand for all the words used in a particular historical period. We also use it to refer to all the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given disicipline and the words possessed by an individual person. 3. Jargon（专门术语）: It refers to the specialized vocabularies by which members of particular

arts, sciences, trades, and professions, communicate among themselves.

4.Archaisms（古语词）: Archaisms are words or forms that were once in common use but are now restricted only to specialized or limited use.

5. neologisms（新词语）: neologisms are newly created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings.

6. borrowed words（外来词）: Words taken over from foreign languages are known as borrowed words or loan words or borrowings in simple terms. 7. Deizens（同化词）: Deizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are all assimilated into the English Language.

8. Aliens（非同化词）: Aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling. These words are immediately recognisable as foreign in origin.

9. Translation-loans（译借词）: Translation-loans are words and expressions formed from the existing material in the English language but modelled on the patterns taken from another language.

10.Semantic-loans（借义词）: Words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the form. But their meanings are borrowed. In other words, English has borrowed a new meaning for an existing word in the language

11. argot（黑话）: It generally refers to the jargon of criminals.

12. content words（实词）: content words denote clear notions including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numerals.

13. terminology(术语): Terminology consists of technical terms used in particular disciplines and academic areas.

14. native words（本族语）: native words, also known as Anglo-Saxon words, are words brought to Britain in the 5th century by the German tribes. 论述问答题：

1. With the development of the Language, why do more and more differences occur between the Sound and Form?

答：It is generally agreed that the written form of a natural Language is the written record of the oral form. But with the development of the Language, more and more differences occur between them, the reasons are as follows:

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, and in some cases the two have drawn far apart.

③. A third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes.

④. Finally comes the borrowing, which is an important channel of enriching the English vocabulary. When English borrowed words from other Languages , it borrowed spelling as well. 2. What are the obvious characteristics of the words of the basic word stock（基本词汇）? ①. All national character.（全民性） ②. Stability（稳定性） ③. Productivity（多产性） ④. Polysemy（多义性） ⑤. collocability（搭配性）

of course, not all the words of the basic word stock have these characteristics. Pronouns and numerals enjoy nation-wide use and stability, but are semantically monosemous and have limited productivity and collocability. Therefore, ?all national character?is the most important of all features that may differentiate words of common use from all others.

3. Apart from the characteristics mentioned of the basic word stock, in contrast to borrowed words, native words have two other features, what are they?

答：①. neutral in style（文体上中性）. Since native words denote the commonest things in human society, they are used by all people, in all places, on all occasions, and at all times. Therefore, they are not stylistically specific.

②. Frequent in use（使用频繁）. native words are most frequently used in everyday speech and writing. The proportion of its use in relation to borrowings is perhaps just the opposite of its number.

4. Illustrate the relationship between sound and meaning with examples.

答：A word is phonetic symbol that stands for something in the world. This symbolic connection is almost always arbitrary, and there is ‘no logical relationships between the sound which stands for a things or an idea and the actual thing and idea itself’. For example, woman is represented by the sound Frau in German, femme in French, and funv in chinese. 5. Explain neologisms（新词语） with examples.

答：neologisms are newly created words or expressions, or words that have taken on new meanings. For example, “emil”(electronic mail, the sending of messages via computer systems) is a word newly coined against the background of rapid development in information technology. The word “mouse” might examplify the words taking on new meanings : now a mouse is indispensable for computer users.

6. How are English words generally classified? Elaborate on it.

答：Vocabulary can be classified by different criteria into different types.

① By use frequency（使用频率）, words may fall into the basic word stock（基本词汇） and nonbasic vocabulary（非基本词汇）. Basic vocabulary is small in number but forms the core of the language and enjoys the high frequency of use. nonbasic vocabulary contains such words as terminology, jargon, which have a relatively limited use；

② By notion（实义）, words can be divided into content words（实义词） and functional words（功能词即虚词）, content words have clear notions such as nouns, verbs. Functional words cover prepositions, articles, conjunctions, etc, whose major functions are to help make sentences； ③ By origin（起源）, words can be grouped into native words（本族语词） and borrowed words（外来语词）. native words refer to the words of Anglo-Saxon origin, which are small in number but form the main stream of basic word stock. Borrowed words are words taken over from other languages and make up 80%of the whole English vocabulary. These three criteria are the most widespread and popular. There are other ways too, for example, by morphological structure, formality, emotionality, and so on.

chapter 2 The Development of the English Vocabulary

重点知识锦集：

1. Indo-European Language is made up of most of the Languages of Europe, the near East, and India.

2. The Germanic family consists of the four northern European Languages：norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Swedish, which are generally known as Scandinavian Languages. 3. In the Western set, Greek is the modern language derived from Hellenic.

4. The surviving Languages show various of degrees of similarity to one another. The similarity bears a more or less direct relationship to their geographical distribution. 5. now people generally refer to Anglo-Saxon as old English（古英语）.

6. The introduction of christianity（基督教）at the end of the 6th century had a great impact on the English vocabulary.

7. old English （古英语）has a vocabulary of about 50,000 to 60,000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like modren German.

8. Until 1066, although there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly Germanic.

9. The norman conquest started a continual flow of French words into English.

10. During the Middle English period, Britain had trade relations with the low countries, especially Holland.

11. Middle English retained much fewer inflections. If we say that old English was a language of full endings, Middle English was one of leveled endings.

12. As a result, celtic made only a small contribution to the English vocabulary with such words as crag and bin and a number of place names like Avon, Kent, London, and Thames.

13. After the invading Germanic tribes settled down in Britain, their Language almost totally blotted out celtic .

14. old English is considered to be a highly-inflected Language.

15. During the Middle English period three languages—English, French and Latin（英语，法语和拉丁语）---- existed simultaneously for over a century. 16. Modern English（当代英语） began with the establishment of printing（印刷术） in England. 17. Since the beginning of this century, word-formation has become even more important for the expansion of English vocabulary.

18. Early Modern English refers to the language spoken from 1500 to 1700 .

19. The major factors that promote the growth of modern English are the growth of science and technology, economic and political changes, the influence of other cultures and Languages .

20. The four major foreign contributors to the English vocabulary in earlier times were French, Latin, Greek and Scandinavian .

21. Though still at work today , borrowing can hardly compare with what it was in the past.

22. It can be concluded that English has evolved from a synthetic Language(old English) to the present analytic Language.

23. Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, semantic change, borrowing.

24. The word of “recollection” is formed by creation.

25. The first people known to inhabit the British isles were celts. Their languages were celtic. 26. Besides French words, English also absorbed as many as 2,500 words of Dutch origin in the

Middle English period. 名词解释：

1. creation（创造新词）: creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. In Modern times, creation is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.

2. semantic change（旧词新意）: Semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new need.

3. borrowing（借用外来词语）: Borrowing has played a vital role in the development of vocabulary, particularly in earlier times.

4. old English（古英语）: It refers to the Language used from 450 to 1150.

5. Middle English（中世纪英语）: It refers to the Language used from 1150 to 1500.

6. Modern English（现代英语）: It refers to the Language used from 1500 up to the present. 论述问答题：

1. What are eight principal language in the Indo-European Language family（印欧语系）?

答：They are Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian, celtic, Italic, Hellenic and Germanic.

2. What are the causes of more new words appearing today?

答：the rapid development of modern science and technology.； Social, economic and political changes.；

The influences of other cultures and languages.； 3. What are three main modes of vocabulary developments? 答：creation creates new words by using existing materials.

Semantic change. An old form takes on a new meaning to meet the new need. Borrow words from other Languages.

chapter 3 Word Formation I

重点知识锦集：

1. It seems to be generally agreed that a word is the smallest unit of a Language that stands alone to communicate meaning.

2. In other words, the morpheme is ?the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words?. 3. Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech by discrete units known as morphs. 4. The morpheme to the morph what a phoneme is to a phone.

5. Allomorphs as such do not occur at random, but are phonetically conditioned and thus predictable.

6. Morphemes can be divided into free morphemes and bound morphemes. 7. Bound morphemes are chiefly found in derived words. 8. Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix.

9. According to the functions of affixes, we can put them into two groups: inflectional affixes and derivational affixes.（内部曲折词缀和派生词缀）

10. A monomorphemic word is a word that consists of a single free morpheme.

11. chiefly found in derived words, bound morphemes(黏着语素) include bound roots, inflectional affixes, derivational affixes.

12. The plural morpheme ?s? is realized by /s/ after the sounds /t, p, k/ and by /z/ after /d, b, g, l/ 13. In the Eastern Set, Albanian and Armenian are each the only modern language respectively. 名词解释：

1. morpheme（语素）: the minimal meaningful units are known as morphemes.

2. allomorphs（语素变体）: some morphemes, however, are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.

3. free morphemes（自由语素）: Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free. These morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences.

4. bound morphemes（黏着语素）: morphemes which can not occur as separate words are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words.

5. bound root（黏着词根）: a bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. It’s a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words.

6. affixes（词缀）: Affixes are forms that are attached to words or words elements to modify meaning or function.

7. inflectional affixes（曲折词缀）: Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional, thus known as inflectional morphemes. 8. derivational affixes（派生词缀）: As the term indicates, derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to creat new words. Derivational affixes can be further divided into prefixes and suffixes.

9. root（词根）: A root is the basic form of a word which can not be further analysed without total loss of identity. It is that part of a word form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been removed.

10. stem（词干）: A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added. 论述问答题：

1. What are the differences between root and stem?

答：① A root is the basic form of a word which can not be further analysed without total loss of identity. The root whether free or bound generally carries the main component of meaning in a word.

② A stem may consist of a single root morpheme as in “iron”or of two root morphemes as in a compound like “handcuff”. It can be a root morpheme plus one or more affixational morphemes as in “mouthful”. Therefore, a stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind cab be added.

2. Analyze the morphological structure of the following words in terms of free morpheme and bound morpheme, then explain the differences between the two kinds of morphemes. Unhappily Idealistic

答:①Each of two words consists of three morphemes:unhappily(un+happy+ly), idealistic(ideal+ist+ic).

②“happy” and “ideal” are free morphemes; un-, -ly, -ist and –ic are bound morphemes. ③free morphemes have complete meanings in themselves and can be used as free grammatical units in sentences. Bound morphemes must be bound to other morphemes to form words.

3. Analyze the morphological structures of the following words and point out types of the morphemes. recollection, nationalist, unearthly. 答：recollection, nationalist, unearthly

1) Each of the three words consists of three morphemes:recollection(re+collect+ion), nationalist(nation+al+ist), unearthly(un+earth+ly).

2) of the nine morphemes, only “collect” “nation” and “earth” are free morphemes as they can exist by themselves.

3) All the rest are bound morphemes as none of them can stand alone as words.

chapter 4 Word Formation II

重点知识锦集：

1. The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word-formation.

2. According to the positions which affixes occupy in words, affixes falls into two subclasses:prefixation and suffixation.（前缀和后缀） 3. Affixation is also known as derivation.

4. Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. 5. 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.

6. We shall group suffixes on a grammatical basis into noun suffixes, verb suffixes, adjective suffixes, etc.

7. compounds can be written solid, hyphenated and open.（连写的，加连字符号的，不连写的）

8. Most compounds consist of only two stems but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and the internal grammatical relationships within the words are considerably complex. 9. conversion is also known as functional shift.（功能转换）

10. Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

11. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs. 12. Unlike verbs, not all adjectives which are converted can achieve a full noun status. Some are completely converted, thus known as full conversion,（完全转换） others are only partially converted, hence partial conversion.（部分转换） 13. Blending（拼缀法） is a very productive process and many coinages resulting from blending have become well-established.

14. As far as the structure is concerned, blends fall into four major groups: head+tail, head+head, head+word, word+tail.

15. The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns.

16. Blends are mostly used in writing related to science and technology, and to newspapers and magazines.

17. There are four common types of clipping: front clipping, back clipping, front and back clipping, phrase clipping.

18. Both intialisms and acronyms have become very popular since the Second World War and thus extremely productive.

19. Words created through back-formation are mostly verbs.

20. Stylistically, back-formed words are largely informal and some of them have not gained public acceptance.

21. open compounds look like free phrases as the elements forming each word are written separately.

22. As a rule, the stress of compounds falls on the first element.

23. A compound functions as a single grammatical unit, so the internal structure can not be changed.

24. conversion（转换法） refers to the use of words of one class as that of a different class. 25. Partial conversion and full conversion are concerned with adjectives when converted to nouns.

名词解释：

1. affixation（词缀法）: Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to stems.

2. prefixation（前缀法）: Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems.

3. suffixation（后缀法）: Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. 4. compounding（合成法）: compounding, also called composition, is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems. Words formed in this way are called compounds. 5. conversion（转换法）: conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class.

6. blending（拼缀法）: Blending is the formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word. Words formed in this way are called blends or pormanteau words.

7. clipping（截短法）: Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping.

8. acronymy（首字母拼音法）: Acronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special noun phrases and technical terms.

9. initialisms（首字母缩略词）: Initialisms are words pronounced letter by letter. 10. acronyms（首字母拼音词）: Acronyms are words formed from initial letters but pronounced as a normal word.

11. back-formation（逆生法）: Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. It’s therefore the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. 论述问答题：

1. In what aspects do compounds differ from free phrases?

答：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 stress.

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, for example, a verb, a noun, or an adjective. 2. What is the best way to classify prefixes? Why?

答：Prefixes do not usually change the word-class of the stem but only modify lts meaning.

Although present-day English finds an increasing number of class-changing prefixes, they make up only an insignificant number in the huge contemporary vocabulary. It might be the best way to classify prefixes by their non-class-changing feature.

3. In what way are compound verbs generally formed? Give examples to illustrate your point. 答：compound verbs are created either through conversion or back-formation. This could be illustrated by two words, nickname and chain-smoker. nickname, which is originally a noun, can be used as a verb through conversion. chain-smoker, which is originally a noun, can turn into a verb through back-formation.

4. What is the difference between partial and full conversion? Explain them with examples. 答：When converted to nouns, not all adjectives can achieve a full noun status. Some are completely converted, thus known as full conversion, others are only partially converted, hence partial conversion. When a noun fully converted from an adjective has all the characteristics of a noun, it can take an indefinite article or-(e)s to indicate singular or plural number. For example, adjective “white”can be fully converted to a noun “white”, which can take indefinite article: a white. When a noun partially converted from adjectives do not possess all the qualities a noun does. They must be used together with the definite article, and they retain some of the adjective features. For example, the poor, the rich. 5. Both back-formation（逆生法） and back-clipping（截后留前） are ways of making words by removing the endings of words. How do you account for the coexistence of the two? can you explain the difference?

答：Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. It’s considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. For example, “loafer”may be assumed to derive from the verb “loaf”’on the analogy of known derivatives, such as “swimmer” from “swim” or “driver” from “drive”. By removing the supposed suffixes –er from “loafer”, a verb “loaf”?is coined. Majority of back-formed words are verbs. Back-clipping is different. The deletion occurs at the end of the word(usually a noun). Both the original long word and its short form remain in the same word class. In different context, one could be used in other?s place. 6. After he comes back, he oiled machine.

In above sentence, which word is the converted word? Explain the type of the conversion and the effect of the conversion.

答：In this sentence, the word “oil”is the converted word. It is converted from a noun to a verb. When it was used as a noun, the meaning of it is that “ 油”. But in this sentence, it was used as a verb, the meaning is “给?加油”; As is often the case, a noun can be converted to a verb without any change. The use of the verb converted is both economical and vivid.

chapter 5 Word Meaning

重点知识锦集：

1. Reference(所指关系) is the relationship between Language and the world.

2. The reference of a word to a thing outside the Language is arbitrary and conventional.（任意的和依照惯例的）

3. Although reference is a kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context, it can refer to

something specific.

4. Every word that has meaning has sense(not every word has reference).

5. Different lexical items, which have different lexical meanings, may have the same grammatical meaning.（语法意义）

6. Functional words, though having little lexical meaning, possess strong grammatical meaning.

7. Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.（概念意义和关联意义）

8. Associative meaning（关联意义） comprises four types: connotative, stylistic, affective, collocative.

9. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative or pejorative.（褒义词和贬义词）

10. To a large extent the affective meaning of the word depends on the context where the word is used.

11. Motivation（理据） explains why a particular form has a particular meaning. 12. Unlike conceptual meaning, associative meaning is unstable and indeterminate.

13. By etymological motivation, we mean that the meaning of a particular word is related to its origin.

14. The relationship between the linguistic sign and a referent is conventional.

15. content words have both meanings, and Lexical meaning（词汇意义） in particular. 16. The word “miniskirt”is morphologically motivated. 17. The word “laconic”is etymologically motivated.

18. In the phrase “the mouth of the river”, the word “mouth”is semantically motivated. 名词解释：

1. concept（概念）: concept, which is beyond Language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. It’s universal to all men alike regardless of culture, race, Language and so on.

2. sense（语义）: Sense denotes the relationship inside the Language. The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the Language.

3. motivation（理据）: Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.

4. onomatopoeic motivation（拟声理据）: In modern English one may find some words whose sounds suggest their meanings, for these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises. For example, bang, miaow, ha ha and the like are onomatopoetically motivated words. Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning.

5. morphological motivation（形态理据）: compounds and derived words are multi-morphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of the morphemes combined. Quite often, if one knows the meaning of each morpheme, one can figure out the meaning of the word. For instance, “airmail” means to ?mail by air?.

6. semantic motivation（语义理据）: Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word.

7. etymological motivation（词源学理据）: The meanings of many words often relate directly

to their origins. In other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word. 8. grammatical meaning（语法意义）: Grammatical meanings refer to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words, singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms.

9. conceptual meaning（概念意义）: conceptual meaning(also known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning.

10. associative meaning（关联意义）: Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is open-ended and indeterminate.

11. connotative meaning（内涵意义）: connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations.

12. stylistic meaning（文体意义）: Apart from their conceptual meanings, many words have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts. 13. affective meaning（情感意义）: Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question. 14. collocative meaning（搭配意义）: This meaning consists of the associations a word acquires in its collocation. In other words, it’s that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion. 论述问答题：.

1. cite one example to illustrate what grammatical meaning（语法意义） is.

答：Grammatical meanings refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words（nouns," verbs, adjectives, adverbs), singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms（forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting）.

2. What?s the difference between grammatical meaning and lexical meaning?

答：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 particular. Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning make up the word-meaning. It?s 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. 3. How many types of motivation（理据） are there in English? 答：There are four types of motivation:

1). onomatopoeical motivation. E.g.cuckoo, squeak, quack.etc. 2). Morphological motivation, e.g. airmail, reading-lamp, etc.

3). Semantic motivation, e.g. the mouth of the river, the foot of the mountain. 4). Etymological motivation, e.g. pen, laconic, etc.

4. The “pen” is mightier than the “sword”. Explain what “pen” and “sword”mean respectively using the theory of motivation.

答：1). Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.

2). Semantic motivation, one of the four major types of motivation, explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word.

3). In this sentence, “pen??reminds one of the tool to write with, thus suggesting writing; “sword” reminds one of the weapon to fight with, thus suggesting war. 5. ①.Women are flowers. ②. Women are tigers.

Study the above sentences. Analyze grammatical meaning of “women”, conceptual meaning and connotative meaning（内涵意义） in each sentence.

答：1). “Women” in the two sentences have same grammatical meanings and conceptual meanings. Their grammatical meanings are: they are all plural nouns and subjects in the sentences. Their conceptual meaning : adult female human being.

2). In sentence①, the connotative meaning of “women”: beautiful and lovely. In sentence②, the connotative meaning of “women”: fierce and malicious.

chapter 6 Sense Relations and Semantic Field

重点知识锦集：

1. A word which is related to other words is related to them in sense, hence sense relations.（语义关系）

2. Polysemy（多义关系） is a common feature peculiar to all natural Languages.

3. Two approaches to Polysemy are diachronic approach and synchronic approach.（历时角度和共时角度）

4. The development of word-meaning from monosemy to polysemy follows two courses, traditionally known as radiation and concatenation.（辐射型和连锁型）

5. Radiation describes a process where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the primary meaning.

6. concatenation describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the proceeding one like chains.

7. Radiation and concatenation are closely related, being different stages of the development leading to polysemy.

8. Based on the degree of similarity, hononyms fall into three classes: perfect homonyms（完全同形同音异义关系）, homographs（同形异义词） and homophones（同音异义词）.

9. of the three types: perfect homonyms, homographs, homophones, homopnones（同音异义词） constitute the largest number and are most common.

10. There are various sources of homonyms:change in sound and spelling, borrowing.

11. In dictionaries, a polysemant（多义词） has its meanings all listed under one headword whereas homonyms are listed as separate entries.

12. English as a highly developed language is known for its copious stock of synonyms. 13. Synonyms share a likeness in denotation as well as in part of speech.

14. Synonyms can be classified into two major groups: absolute synonyms and relative synonyms.（绝对同义词和相对同义词）

15. The most important source of synonyms is perhaps borrowing. 16. Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition.

17. There is an absolute opposition between contradictory terms.

18. In the case of relative terms, the opposition is only relational, what is applicable to contradictory terms may not be applicable to the relative terms.

19. Antonyms have various practical uses and have long proved helpful and valuable in defining the meanings of words.

20. Antonyms（反义词） are useful in enabling us to express economically the opposite of a particular thought, often for the sake of contrast. 21. In hyponymy, the general words the superordinate（上义词） terms and the more specific ones are the subordinate（下义词）terms.

22. In production, knowing the semantic features of the hyponyms and their superordinates can help us achieve vividness, exactness and concreteness（生动，准确，具体）.

23. According to Trier?s vision of fields, the whole vocabulary can be divided up into fields. Each semantic field consists many subfields.

24. Words in each field are semantically related and define one another.

25. It?s a general belief that the meaning does not exist in the word itself, but it rather spreads over the neighbouring words, because the neighbouring words identify the semantic field and help pin down the meaning. 26. The semantic field（语义场） of the same concept may not have the same members in different Languages.

27. The origins（起源） of the words are a key factor in distinguishing homonyms from polysemants. 名词解释：

1. diachronic approach（历时角度）: From the diachronic point of view, polysemy is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of one and same word.

2. synchronic approach（共时角度）: Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a certain historical period of time, say, Modern English. 3. radiation（辐射型）: Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rays. The meanings are independent of one another, but can all be traced back to the central meaning. 4. concatenation（连锁型）: concatenation, meaning ‘linking together’, is the semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts until, in many cases, there is not a sign of connection between the sense that is finally developed and that which the term had at the beginning.

5. homonymy（同形同音异义关系）: Homonyms are generally defined as words different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling. 6.perfect homonyms（同形同音异义词）: Perfect homonyms are words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning.

7. homographs（同形异义词）: Homographs are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.

8. homophones（同音异义词）: Homophones are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.

9. synonyms（同义词）: Synonyms can be defined as words different in sound and spelling but most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning.

10.absolute synonyms（绝对同义词）: Absolute synonyms also known as complete synonyms are words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects, both in grammatical meaning and lexical

meaning, including conceptual meaning and associative meanings.

11.relative synonyms（相对同义词）: Relatve synonyms also called near-synonyms are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.

12.antonymy（反义关系）: Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. 13.hyponymy（上下义关系）: Hyponymy deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. That is, the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word. These specific words are known as hyponyms. 论述问答题：

1. What?s the fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants? Try to explain it.

答：Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical with regard to spelling and pronunciation. This creats the problem of differentiation. The fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants lies in the fact that the former refers to the different words which happen to share the same form and the latter is the one and same word which has several distinguishable meanings. one important criterion is to see their etymology, i.e.homonyms are from different sources whereas a polysemant is from the same source which has acquired different meanings in the course of development. The second principal consideration is semantic relatedness. The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected to one central meaning to a greater or lesser degree. on the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have nothing to do with one another.

2. Try to point out the main sources of synonyms（同义词）. 1). Borrowing. The most important source is perhaps borrowing. 2). Dialects and regional English.

3). Figurative and euphemistic use of words. 4). coincidence with idiomatic expressions.

3. What’s the discrimination（区别） of synonyms?

答：The differences between synonyms boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and application.

1). Difference in denotation（外延意义上不同）. Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity of meaning. Some words have a wider range of meaning than others.

2). Difference in connotation（内涵意义上不同）. By connotation we mean the stylistic and emotive colouring of words. Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic appropriateness.

3). Difference in application（应用上不同）. Many words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage in simple terms. They form different collocations and fit into different sentence patterns.

4. Try to illustrate the three major types of Antonyms with examples.

答：1). contradictory terms（矛盾反义词）. These antonyms truly represent oppositeness of meaning. They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. The assertion of one is the denial of the other. In other words, if one of the pair is true, then the other cannot be. For example: dead and alive; boy and girl; present and absent. Another character of this category is that such antonyms are non-gradable. 2). contrary terms（对立反义词）. Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale

running between two poles or extremes. Antonyms such as: rich and poor; old and young; big and small represesnt two points at both ends of the pole. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other.

3). Relative terms（关系反义词）. This third type consists of relational opposites such as: parent and child; husband and wife; employer and employee. The pairs of words indicate such a reciprocal social relationship that one of them can not be used without suggesting the other. 5. can you point out some of the characteristics of Antonyms?

1). Antonyms are classified on the basis of semantic opposition. In a Language, there are a great many more synonyms than antonyms.

2). A word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym.

3). Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion. Pairs of antonyms are seen as marked and unmarked terms respectively. In many pairs we find that one member is more specific(marked terms) than the other and the meaning of the specific is included in that of the general(unmarked terms).

4). contrary terms are gradable antonyms, differing in degree of intensity, so each has its own corresponding opposite.

6. What’s the fundamental difference between the processes of radiation（辐射型） and concatenation（连锁型）? Illustrate your point.

答：Radiation describes a process where each of the derived meaning is directly connected to the primary meaning, concatenation describs a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the preceding one like chains. But the two are closely related , being different stages of the development leading to polysemy. Generally, radiation precedes concatenation. In many cases, the two processes work together, complementing each other.

7. Use examples to illustrate the similarity and difference between absolute synonyms(绝对同义词) and relative synonyms（相对同义词） 答：1). Absolute synonyms(complete synonyms) are words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects,i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual meaning and associative meanings. Synonyms of this type are interchangeable in every way. Absolute synonyms are rare in natural languages and restricted to highly specialized vocabulary, such as scarlet-fever/scarlatina in medicine.

2). Relative synonyms(near-synonyms) are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality. For example, to change a thing is to put another thing in lts place; to alter a thing is to make it different from which it was before.

chapter 7 changes in Word Meaning

重点知识锦集：

1. Extension(词义扩大) of meaning is also known as generalization. 2. narrowing of meaning is also called specialization.

3. of the modes of word-meaning change, extension and narrowing are by far the most common. 4. Degradation（降格） or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation.

5. The degraded meaning “sexual desire ”of the word “lust ”comes from its old meaning “ pleasure”.

6. The name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo is extension.

7. There are generally two major factors that cause changes in meaning: Extra-linguistic Factors and Linguistic Factors.（非语言因素和语言因素）

8. The attitudes of classes have made inroads into lexical meaning in the case of elevation or degradation.

9. The changes of meaning may be caused by internal factors within the Language system.

10. The meanings of “lip” and “tongue”in “the lip of a wound”and “the tongue of a bell”have experienced associated transfer.（联想转移）

11. The so-called “King’s English” serves as a class reason（阶级原因） in word-meaning change.

12. The change of word-meaning is brought about by following internal factors: the influx of borrowing, shortening, analogy.

13. Generalization is a process by which a word that originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized.

14. The four major modes of semantic change are: extension（扩大）, narrowing（缩小）, elevation（升华） and degradation（降格）. 名词解释：

1.extension（词义的扩大）: It is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized. In other words,the term has extended to cover a broader and often less definite concept.

2.narrowing（词义的缩小）: it is the opposite of widening meaning. It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense. In other words, a word which used to have a more general meaning becomes restricted in its application and conveys a special meaning in present-day English.

3.elevation（升华）: Elevation or amelioration refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance. 4. degradation（降格）: Degradation or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation. It’s a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense.

5. transfer（转移）: Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have experienced the process of semantic transfer. 论述问答题：

1.What are the linguistic factors(语言因素) that have caused the changing of meaning? Try to explain it.

答：Linguistic Factors that have caused the changing of meaning cover four:

1) one type of such change occurs when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of the whole。E.g. gold is used for ‘gold medal’

2) The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. E.g. Deer, Animal (L), Beast (F)

3) In addition, the competition of native words eventually resulted in the semantic division.E.g. bird／fowl dog／hound

4) Finally, the change of meaning is brought about by analogy. E.g. fruition: fruit

a pleasure obtained from using or possessing something

the bearing of fruit

2. Analyze and comment on the three causes of meaning change within the scope of extra-linguistic factors（非语言因素）. Each with example word(s) given below. pen, atom； churl； copperhead

答：The three causes of meaning change within the scope of the extra-linguistic factors are: Historical reason, class reason, Psychological reason. 1) Historical reason（历史原因）：language is more conservative than civilization, material as well as moral. objects, institutions, ideas, scientific concepts change in the course of time; yet in many cases the name is retained and thus helps to ensure a sense of tradition and continuity. Indeed, it often happens that a word is retained for a name though the meaning has changed because the referent has changed. Take “pen”for example. originally, it denoted ?feather?, which was used in the West as pen in old times, hence the present meaning. now, the time when ?feather? served as pen is long gone, and people are using ball-point pens and fountain pens, yet the name is still kept. Increased scientific knowledge and discovery are also important factors that account for the change of word meaning. For instance, the concept of “atom” has changed with the increase of scientific knowledge. The word is derived from the Greek form atomos, which means ?any of the indivisible particles?. now science has proved that atom is not the smallest and can be divided into even smaller particles, hence the abandonment of the original meaning.

2) class reason（阶级原因）: Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. naturally, it records the speech and attitude of different social classes. As a result, different social varieties of Language have come into being, the word “churl” as we already know was originally neutral in colour（中性词） but has down-graded as ‘ill-mannered or bad people’

3) Psychological reason（心理原因）: the associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc.are often due to psychological factors. Take copperhead for example. This words designates a venomous snake in north America. During the American civil War(美国内战) it was employed to refer to those northerners（北方佬） who were secretly aiding and abetting the South. It’s said that people in the north had a deep hatred and contempt for such people. The editor of one country newspaper was trying to find a suitable word. First he thought of ?rattlesnake?as it was the most poisonous but rejected the word because it makes noise by the rattle in its tail, unlike those informers. consequently, copperhead was chosen and endowed with a new meaning.

3. What makes Shakespeare particularly difficult to read, old form of spelling, old ways of pronunciation or change of word meaning? How do you account for the semantic change in living Languages?

答：Because many of the words used in Shakespeare’s time had different senses from what they have now in contemporary dictionaries. change of word-meaning makes Shakespeare particularly difficult to read. Take Hamlet（哈姆雷特） for example. “Rival”means “partner”as in “the rivals of my watch, bid them make haste”; “jump” means “just”as in “the twice before, and jump at this dead hour”; “fond”designates “foolish” as in “I will wipe away all trivial fond records”, and so on. changing in word-meaning has never ceased since the Language came into being and will continue in the future. Semantic change occurs as society changes. People use the same word form to mean different things, which is a typical linguistic law. 4. What are the causes of semantic change? Illustrate your point.

答：There are many causes of semantic change. The main causes include extra-linguistic factors

and linguistic factors. In extra-linguistic factors. There are historical reasons, class reasons, and psychological reasons. In linguistic factors, there are shortening of phrases, influx of borrowings and analogy.

5. How do the historical and social causes account for changes in the meanings of words?

答：It often happens that a word is retained for a name though the meaning has changed because the referent has changed.

Language is just like a mirror, reflecting everything that exists in human society. naturally it records the speech and attitude of diferent social classes. As a result, different social varieties of language have come into being. The attitudes of classes have also made inroads into lexical meaning in the case of elevation ordegradation.

chapter 8 Meaning and context

重点知识锦集：

1. Meaning lives in context (语境)and context defines meaning.

2. The extra-linguistic context （非语言语境）may extend to embrace the entire cultural background, which may also affect the meaning of words. 3. Linguistic context （语言语境）can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context.（词汇语境和语法语境）

4. context has three major functions: elimination of ambiguity（消除歧义）, indication of referents（限定所指）, provision of clues for inferring word-meaning（提供线索以猜测词义）. 5. Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy.

6. When a word with multiple meanings is used in inadequate context, it crests ambiguity（歧义）. 7. Homonymy（同形同音异义） is another cause of ambiguity as two separate words share the same form.

8. Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity.

9. context（语境） may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. 10.Linguistic context is also known as verbal context.

11.When a word with more than one meaning is used in unclear context, it creates ambiguity. 12. context is very important for the understanding of word-meaning. 13. “Do”in “do a museum” means visit.

14. Hints given in a context are known as clues.

15. “I like Mary better than Jean”. In this sentence, grammatical structure（语法结构） leads to ambiguity.

16. Grammatical context refers to syntactic structure in which a word is used.

17. Physical situation or environment relating to the use of words is non-linguistic（非语言） context.

名词解释： 1. linguistic context（语言语境）: context is used in different senses. In a narrow sense, it refers to the words, clauses, sentences, in which a word appears. This is known as linguistic context, which may cover a paragraph, a whole chapter, and even the entire book.

2. extra-linguistic context（非语言语境）: in a broad sense, it includes the physical situation as well. This is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place, and even the whole cultural background.

3. lexical context(词汇语境): This context refers to the words that occur together with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighbouring words.

4. grammatical context(语法语境): In some cases, the meanings of a word may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. This is what we call grammatical context. 论述问答题：

1. What are the three major roles or functions of context? 答：1). Elimination of Ambiguity（消除歧义）: Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy. When a word with multiple meanings is used in inadequate context, lt creats ambiguity.

2). Indication of referents（限定所指）: English has a large number of words, which are often used to refer directly to people, time, place, etc. without clear context, the reference can be very confusing.

3). Provision of clues for inferring Word-meaning（提供线索以猜测词义）: context may prove extremely valuable in guessing the meanings of new words. In many cases, when a new word appears for the first time, the author generally manages to give hints which might help the readers to grasp the concept or understand the idea.

2. How does context provide clues for inferring word-meaning? Try to explain them. context clues vary a great deal but can be summed up as follows:

1). Definition. often we find that the author gives formal definition immediately after the new term.

2). Explaination. If the concept is complicated and must involve technical terms in its definition, the author might explain the idea in simple words. That is,he might make a restatement in known words.

3). Example. In some cases, instead of giving a formal definition or explaination, the author may cite an example which is sufficient to throw light on the meaning of the term.

4). Synonymy. Synonymy or synonymous expressions are freguently employed by authors to explain new words.

5). Antonymy. contrasting words or statements are also commonly used to explain unknown words.

6). Hyponymy. Superordinates and subordinates often define and explain each other, thus forming an important context clue.

7). Relevant details（相关细节）. In some contexts, the author provides details relating to the unknown word, such as the functions, characteristics, and nature, etc, of the referent.

8). Word structure. The morphemic structure of words, especially compounds and derived words offers clues for inferring the meanings of unknown words.

3. Study the following sentences. If you find anything wrong, please explain why and then improve the sentence.

The boy ran after the girl with the flowers. 答：1). It’s ambiguous

2). Ambiguity caused by the structure. 3). This sentence can be understood as:

① The boy who carried the flowers ran after the girl. ② The boy ran after the girl who carried the flowers. 4).improvement:

① After he bought some flowers, the boy ran after the girl with the flowers.

② The boy ran after the girl with the flowers, because she had stolen his flowers.

chapter 9 English Idioms

重点知识锦集：

1. Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences, which are peculiar to the Language in question and loaded with the native cultures and ideas.

2. Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meaning of individual elements.

3. Being phrases or sentences, idioms each consist of more than one word, but each is a semantic unity(语义的整体性).

4. Quite often the idiom functions as one word.

5. The semantic unity of idioms is also reflected in the illogical relationship between the literal meaning of each word and the meaning of the idiom.

6. Unlike free phrases, the structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable. 7. Many idioms are grammatically unanalysable（不可分析的）.

8. The idiomaticity of idioms is gradable and may best be thought in terms of a scale, with the true idioms established at the upper end and regular combinations at the bottom. In between are the semi-idioms.

9. The fixity of idioms depends on the idiomaticity. The more idiomatic the idioms, the more fixed the structure.

10. By the criterion of grammatical functions,(语法功能) idioms can be classified into five groups.

11. “Brain trust” is an idiom nominal（名词性） in nature.

12. Idioms verbal in nature（动词性习语） is the largest group of all.

13. Idioms verbal in nature can be subdivided into phrasal verbs（短语性动词） and other verb phrases（动词短语）.

14. In terms of complexity sentence idioms can be further divided into simple, compound and complex sentences.

15. It should be pointed out that forms and functions of idioms are not necessarily identical.

16. The study of idioms is to understand them correctly in actual context and use them properly in production.

17. Idioms are generally felt to be informal（非正式） and some are colloquialisms and slang, therefore inappropriate for formal style.

18. The stylistic features of idioms include: coloquialisms, slang, literary expressions. 19. Idioms in the course book are used in a broad sense.

20. Idioms verbal in nature are verb phrases, phrasal verbs, verb idioms 21. The idiom “new brooms sweep clean” was created probably by housewives. 22. The idiom “Jack of all trades” results from shortening（缩略法）. 23. Metonymy(换喻) is used in the idiom “live by one’s pen”.

24. If two main constituents of an idiom share the initial sound, it’s called alliteration(头韵法). 25. Rhetorical features（修辞特征） are shown in such respects of phonetic and lexical manipulation as well as figures of speech（修辞手法）.

26. The advantage of classifying idioms according to grammatical functions is to use idioms correctly and appropriately.

27. The same idiom may show stylistic differences when it is used in different meanings include affective meaning. 名词解释：

1. metonymy（换喻）: This refers to idioms in which the name of one thing is used for that of another associated with it. 2. dismembering（肢解）: It is what I mean by breaking up the idioms into pieces, an unusual case of use of idioms particularly in literature or popular press to achieve special effect.

3. English idioms（英语习语）: Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meaning of individual elements. In a broad sense, idioms may include colloquialisms, catchphrases, slang expressions, proverbs, etc. they form an important part of the English vocabulary.

4. idioms nominal in nature（名词性习语）: Idioms of this class have a noun as the key word in each and function as a noun in sentences.

5. synecdoche（替代）: Synecdoche involves substituting part for the whole. 论述问答题：

1. What are the characteristics of Idioms? Try to explain it. 答：1). Semantic unity(语义的整体性)：being phrases or sentences, idioms each consists of mora than one word, but each is a semantic unity. Though the various words which make up the idom have their respective literal meanings, in the idiom they have lost their individual identity. 2). Structural stability(结构的稳定性): Unlike free phrases, the structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable. First, the constituents of idioms can not be replaced. Secondly, the word order can not be inverted or changed. Thirdly, the constituents of an idiom can not be deleted or added to, not even an article. Finally, many idioms are grammatically unanalysable.

2. According to the criterion of grammatical functions, how many types are idioms can be classified into, and what are they? Try to explain them.

答：By the criterion of grammatical functions, idioms may be classified into five groups. 1). Idioms nominal in nature（名词性习语）: idioms of this class have a noun as the key word in each and function as a noun in sentences. 2). Idioms adjectival in nature（形容词性习语）: they function as an adjective in sentences, but the constituents are not necessarily adjectives.

3) Idioms verbal in nature（动词性习语）: this is the largest group of all. The structures of such idioms are quite complex and thus can be subdivided into phrasal verbs and other verbal phrases. 4) Idioms adverbial in nature（副词性习语）This class contains numerous prepositional phrases. 5) Sentence idioms（句式习语）as the term suggests, all idioms of this category are complete sentences. They are mainly proverbs and sayings.

3. What are the differences between phrasal verbs and verb phrases?

答：A phrasal verb is a verb phrase consisting of a verb plus a article such as “bring up”, “get down”, “come up with”. A verb phrase is any phrase functioning as a verb, for example “call it a day”, “make both ends meet” “look after”. Verb phrase include pfrasal verbs. 4. What are the points that we must pay attention to in order to use idiomantic expression appropriately?

答：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 create alliteration, rhyme, reiteration, repetition and juxtaposition of antonyms. Besides, there are also simile, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, personification and euphemism in idioms.

5. Pick out the idioms used in the following sentences and explain its origin and the effect of using this form.

“well, it?s the old story of the stitch in time,” he said. 答：The idiom: “the stitch in time”. Its origin: “a stitch in time saves nine”. The effect of using this form:

1). Proverbs are concise, forcible and thought-provoking. 2). Using an old saying is more persuasive. 3). The short form saves time, more colloquial. 4). It indicates intimancy or close relationship.

chapter 10 English Dictionaries

重点知识锦集：

1. Monolingual(单语的)dictionaries are written in one language.

2. Linguistic dictionaries（语言词典） aim at defining words and explaining their usage in the language.

3. Encyclopedic dictionaries can be further divided into encyclopedia（百科全书） and encyclopedic dictionaries（百科词典）.

4. The best-known unabridged dictionary is Webster?s Third new International Dictionary. 5. Some of the most known American desk dictionaries are Webster?s new World Dictionary. 6. The advantages of pocket dictionaries（袖珍词典） are being inexpensive and easy to carry. 7. Longman Lexicon of contemporary English belongs to the Specialized dictionaries.

8. For beginners, and elementary and lower-intermediate learners, a bilingual dictionary(双语词典)is essential.

9. For the post intermediate and advanced learners, it?s advisable to use more of a monolingual one.

10. Specialized dictionaries(专门词典) are particularly good for language teachers and researchers.

11. new dictionaries keep appearing in order to keep up with the time.

12. A latest dictionary is supposed to include the latest changes and developments in terms of new words and new meanings.

14. Longman Dictionary of contemporary English（朗文当代英语词典）was noted for its wide

coverage of new words, new meanings and new new usages, for its simple and clear definitions. 15. The unique features of ccELD（科林斯英语词典） include definition, extra colum, usage examples.

16. Longman Lexicon of contemporary English is a specialized dictionary.

17.The headword or entries are defined in the same language in a monolingual dictionary. 18. LDcE is distinctive for its clear grammar codes，usage notes，language notes. 19. Both LDcE and ccELD are general dictionaries and monolingual dictionary. 名词解释：

1. monolingual dictionaries（单语词典）: Monolingual dictionaries are written in one language, that is the headword or entries are defined and illustrated in the same Language.

2. bilingual dictionaries（双语词典）: Bilingual dictionaries involve two Languages. The main entries are generally defined or explained in the same language with translation . 3. linguistic dictionaries（语言词典）: Linguistic dictionaries aim at defining words and explaining their usages and in the language. They usually cover such areas as spelling, pronunciation, meaning, grammatical function, usage and etymology, etc. these dictionaries can be monolingual and bilingual.

4. encyclopedic dictionaries（百科词典）: Encyclopedic dictionaries have the characteristics of both linguistic dictionaries and encyclopedia. In such dictionaries one can find the general information as in a linguistic dictionary and limited encyclopedic information as well.

5. unabridged dictionaries（大型词典）: As the name indicates, an unabridged dictionary is an unshortened one. Theoretically, it is a complete record of all the words in use. Such a dictionary is the most complete description of words available to us.

6. desk dictionaries（案头词典）: Desk dictionaries are medium-sized ones containing words ranging from 50,000 to 150,000.

7. pocket dictionaries（袖珍词典）: These dictionaries have about 50,000 entries or fewer. Such a dictionary provides only the spelling and pronunciation of each word with a few most common meanings.

8. specialized dictionaries（专用词典）: Special dictionaries concentrate on a particular area of language or konwledge. These dictionaries may not be very large in size, yet each contains much more detailed information on the subject than you can find in a general unabridged one. 9. General dictionaries（普通词典）：general dictionaries are meant for ordinary users for spelling, pronunciation, meaning and grammer.

10. dictionary（词典）: Dictionary is a book which presents in an alphabetical order the words of English with information as to their spelling, pronunciation, meaning, usage, rules of grammar, and in some, their etymology. 论述问答题：

1. What is the general difference between British and American Dictionaries?

答：The general difference between British and American dictionaries are as follows:

American dictionaries contain more encyclopedic information in the main body than the British, whereas the British Dictionaries, especially learner?s dictionaries, include more grammatical information. Generally speaking, one may find British usages in an American dictionary. But as for American usages, users are advised to consult American dictionaries because chances are that such words are excluded from a general British one. 2. What is the content of the Dictionary? Illustrate it.

答：1). Spelling. It gives the accepted spelling for all words.

2). Pronunciation. Just like spelling, British and American Dictionaries present their respective standard pronunciation.

3). Definition. The main body of a dictionary is its definitions of words. 4). Usage. Most desk dictionaries provide usage information.

5). Grammar. Apart from the usual coverage of word classes and inflections, dictionaries include various amounts of grammar information. 6). Usage notes and language notes.

7). Etymological information. Most American desk dictionaries and some British ones give information concerning the origins of words. 8). Supplementary matter.

3. What are the features for which A chinese-English Dictionary（英汉词典） was noted? Try to explain it.

答：1). It included catchphrases, sayings and proverbs. 2). The new edition revised some old entries.

3). The new edition keeps the previous alphabetical order of entries, which makes the dictionary easy to use.

4). The dictionary boasts of the quality of the English equivalents it provides for its chinese items.

4. What are the unique features of ccELD（科林斯英语词典）?

答：1). Definition（定义）, the definitions in this dictionary are all in full sentences.

2). Extra column（额外专栏）, the use of extra column to deal with grammar information.

3). Usage examples（用法举例）, in this dictionary, almost every meaning of a word has an example to show its meaning and usage, most in sentence form.

5. What factors should be taken into consideration in choosing a dictionary?

答：Generally speaking, we should consider whether the dictionary is monolingual or bilingual, general or specialized, British or American, early edition or late edition as well as their content in accordance with our own needs.

6. What are the advantages of using monolingual dictionary（单语词典）?

答：1). The use of a monolingual dictionary can increase exposure of language and avoid misunderstanding by translation.

2). Users think in English, understand meanings in terms of other English words, thus enlarging vocabulary and learn the precise meanings of words and usages through definition and examples. 3). The effective use of a monolingual dictionary will give learners a sense of satisfaction and self-sufficiency and greater confidence in their ability to solve language problems.