考点 1：The Definition of the Word

 

A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function.

 

考点 2：The Relationships between the Sound and Meaning

 

A word is a symbol that stands for something else in the world. ① arbitrary ; ② conventional

考点 3：Principles of words classification

 

Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency, into content   words and functional words by notion, and into native words and borrowed words by origin.

考点 4：Characteristics of Basic Word Stock ★★★

 

1) All national character;    2) Stability;    3) Productivity;    4) Polysemy;    5) Collocability

考点 5：Nonbasic Vocabulary (非基本词汇) ★★★★

 

Terminology; ②    Jargon;   ③    Slang;   ④    Argot;   ⑤ Dialectal words;   ⑥    Archaisms; ⑦

Neologisms

 

考点 6：Borrowed Words

 

According to the degree of assimilation and manner of borrowing, we can bring the loan-words   under four classes: ① Denizens(同化词)② Aliens(外来语词)③ Translation-loans（译借词）④ Semantic-loans（借义词）

考点 7：The Indo-European Language Family ★★★★

 

The Indo-European parent language is thought to be a highly inflected language.

They fall into eight principal groups, which can be grouped into an Eastern set and a Western set.

考点 8：Main sources of new words

the rapid development of modern science and technology;

social, economic and political changes;

the influence of other cultures and languages.

考点 9：Three channels of modern English vocabulary ★★★

Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes

and other elements.

 

Semantic change means an old form which takes on a new meaning to meet the new need.

Borrowing has played a vital role in the development of vocabulary, particularly in earlier times.

考点 10：The Definition of Morphemes

These minimal meaningful units are known as morphemes.

考点 11：The Definition of Allomorphs

Some morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such

alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.

 

 

考点 12：Free Morphemes

Morphemes which are independent of other morphemes are considered to be free.

考点 13：Bound Morphemes

Morphemes which cannot occur as separate words are bound. They are so named because they are bound to other morphemes to form words. Bound morphemes include two types: bound root and affix.

考点 14：Root : The basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity.

 

考点 15：Stem: a form to which affixes of any kind can be added.

 

考点 16： Prefixation（前缀法）★★★★

Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems. Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning.

考点 17：Suffixation（后缀法）★★★★

Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Suffixes have only a small   semantic role, their primary function being to change the grammatical function of stems.

考点 18：The Definition of Conversion   ★★★

 

Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this process is also known as functional shift.

考点 19：The concept of blending（拼缀法的概念）★★★

 

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.

考点 20：Clipping

 

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.

考点 21：Acronymy

 

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. ① Initialisms are words pronounced letter by letter. ② Acronyms are words formed from initial letters but pronounced as a normal word.

考点 22: Back-formation

 

Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. Back-formation is therefore the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes.

 

考点 23：Definition of Reference

 

Reference is the relationship between language and the world.

 

考点 24：Concept

 

Concept which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind.

考点 25：Sense （语义）

 

‘Sense’ denotes the relationships inside the language. Every word that has meaning has sense.

 

考点 26：Motivation ★★★★

 

Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.

 

Types Motivation:(1) Onomatopoeic Motivation    (2) Morphological Motivation

 

(3) Semantic Motivation    (4) Etymological Motivation

 

考点 27：Conceptual meaning

 

Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary.

 

考点 28：Two Processes of word-meaning development ★★★

 

Radiation（辐射型）

Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the center and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rays.

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.

考点 29：Types of Homonyms★★★

 

① Perfect homonyms（完全同形同音异义词）

They are words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning.

② Homographs（同形异音异义词）

They are words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.

③ Homophones（同音异形异义词）

They are words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.

 

考点 30：Definition of Synonyms（同义词）

 

One of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning. In other words, synonyms share a likeness in denotation as well as in part of speech.

 

 

考点 31：Types of Synonyms

 

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. Absolute synonyms are rare in natural languages and restricted to highly specialized vocabulary.

Relative synonyms（相对同义词）

 

Relative 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.

 

考点 32：Discrimination of Synonyms 同义词的区别

 

Difference in denotation（外延上的区别）

 

Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity of meaning.

 

Difference in connotation（内涵上的区别）

 

By connotation we mean the stylistic and emotive colouring of words.

 

Difference in application（应用上的区别）

 

Many words are synonymous in meaning but different in usage in simple terms.

 

考点 33：Antonyms

 

Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. ① Contradictory terms; ② Contrary terms; ③ Relative terms.

 

考点 34：Types of Changes ★★★★

 

Extension（词义的扩大）

 

Extension of meaning, also known as generalization, is the name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo.

Narrowing（词义的缩小）

 

Narrowing of meaning, also called specialization, is the opposite of widening meaning.

 

Elevation（词义的升格）

 

Elevation refers to the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance.

考点 35：Degradation（词义的降格）

Degradation or pejoration of meaning is the opposite of semantic elevation. It is a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense.

考点 36：Transfer（词义的转移）

Words which were used to designate one thing but later changed to mean something else have

 

experienced the process of semantic transfer.

 

考点 37：Definition of Context（语境的定义）

 

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. 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.

考点 38：The Role of Context

 

Context has three major functions: elimination of ambiguity, indication of referents, provision of clues   for inferring word-meaning.

考点 39：Sources of ambiguity: 1. Polysemy; 2. Homonymy; 3. Grammatical structure

 

考点 40：Provision of Clues for Inferring Word Meaning ★★★

 

Definition    (2) Explanation    (3) Example    (4) Synonymy

(5) Antonymy    (6) Hyponymy    (7) Relevant details    (8) Word structure

 

考点 41：The Main Features of Idioms: semantic unity and structural stability.

 

考点 42：Classification of Idioms    ★★★

 

By the criterion of ‘grammatical functions’, idioms may be classified into five groups.

1. Idioms Nominal in Nature; 2. Idioms Adjectival in Nature;

3.Idioms Verbal in Nature; 4. Idioms Adverbial in Nature;    5. Sentence Idioms

考点 43：Unabridged, Desk and Pocket Dictionaries

Unabridged dictionaries（大型词典）: an unabridged dictionary is an unshortened one.

Desk dictionaries（案头字典）

 

Desk dictionaries are medium-sized ones containing words ranging from 50,000 to 150,000.

 

Pocket dictionaries（袖珍词典）: These dictionaries have about 50,000 entries or fewer.

 

考点 44：Longman Dictionary of contemporary English (LDCE) New Edition (1987)

 

①Clear grammar codes（明确的语法规则） ② Usage notes（用法注解） ③ Language notes（语言注释）

考点 45：Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (CCELD) (1987)

 

① Definition; ② Extra column（额外的专栏）;    ③ Usage examples（用法例证）

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