Chapter1thebasicconceptsofwordsandvocabulary.ppt

Chapter oneThe Basic Concepts of Words and Vocabulary Contents of this lecture Word and vocabulary Relationship between sound and meaning Relationship between sound and form Classification of English words 1.1 Word and vocabulary 1.1.1 Word To sum up, the definition of a word will cover the following points: A minimal free form of a language; A sound unity; A unit of meaning; A form that can function alone in a sentence. Definition: A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function. box E.g. management : manage, -ment Misfortune: mis- fortune Blackmail: black, mail Words in Chinese： 快，热，蝴蝶，踌躇 买卖，东西（可以作为词或者词组） 1.1.2 Vocabulary All the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary. The term “vocabulary” is used in different senses. 1.2 Sound and Meaning The problem of the relationship of sound and meaning is controversial. There are mainly two representative view points: (1)the Naturalists(自然派) The Naturalists think that there is an intrinsic correspondence between sound and meaning. (音和义之间有一种必然联系) (2) the Conventionalists(约定俗成派) The Conventionalists think that there is no intrinsic correspondence between sound and meaning. Saussure: the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning, even with onomatopoeic words: The dog barks wow wow in English but “汪汪汪” in Chinese. 1.3 Sound and Form Written form=orthographical record of the oral form Sound should be consistent with the form. (only true in Old English) 1.4 Classification of English Words -classified by different criteria and for different purposes. -criteria: by origin, by use frequency and by notion. 1.By use frequency: Basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary Basic word stock(基本词汇): The ～ is the foundation of the vocabulary and forms the common core of the language. Characteristics: 1)All National Ch