英语词汇学教程 张唯友 第二章.doc

第二章 1. The Indo-Europe Language Family is one of the most important language families in the world. It is made up of the languages of Europe , the Near East and India. English belongs to this family and the other members of the Indo-European Language Family have different degrees of influence on English vocabulary . A knowledge of the Indo-European Language Family will help us understand English words better and use them more appropriately. 2.Indo-European Language Family Balto-Slavic (Lithuanian,Prussian, Polish, Slavenian, Russian, Bulgarian) Indo-Iranian (Hindi, Perian) Celtic (Breton, Scottish, Irish) Italic(Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Roumanian) Hellenic(Greek) Germanic(English, Swedish, German, Norweigian, Icelangic, Danish, Dutch) 3.The vocabularies of the three periods differ greatly from one anther. Old English has (1) a small vocabulary (50 000—60 000), (2) a small number of borrowings from Latin and Scandinavian only and (3) the words full of endings. Middle English has (1) a comparatively large vocabulary, (2) a tremendous number of foreign words from French and Latin and (3) word endings leveled. Modern English has (1) a huge and heterogeneous vocabulary, (2) tremendous borrowings and (3) words with lost endings. Yes, we can divide the developments in other ways, for example, Old English period can be called Anglo-Saxon period. And Middle English might start from 1066, the time of Norman Conquest. But in doing so, the logical continuation of thee three phases of the original division is lost. 4. It is receptivity and adaptability of the English language that make it possible for English to borrow heavily from other major languages of the world, so that the English vocabulary eventually has become heterogeneous. 5. The popularity of English lies in the fact that English is ready to borrow from other languages and to adapt itself to new situations and new developments, that it has accepted elements from all other major languages a