2012词汇学复习资料ThedevelopmentoftheEnglishVocabulary1.Indo-EuropeanLanguageFamilyTheIndo-EuropeanLanguageFamilyisconsideredasoneofthemostimportantlanguagefamilies.ItincludesmostlanguagesofEurope,theNearEast,andIndia.Thoselanguages,whicharebelievedtohaveoriginatedfromthislanguagefamilyanddevelopedalonedifferentlines,showvariousdegreesofsimilaritytooneanother.Theyfallintoeightprincipalgroups,whichcanbegroupedintoanEasternSet东部诸语族:Balto-Slavic波罗的-斯拉夫语,Indo-Iranian印度伊朗语族,Armenian亚美尼亚语族andAlbanian阿尔巴尼亚语族;aWesternSet:西部诸语族Celtic凯尔特语族,Italic意大利语族,Hellenic希腊语族,Germanic日尔曼语族.AllthelanguagesinbothsetsshedsomeinfluenceonEnglishtoagreaterorlesserextentbecauseeachhaslentwordsintotheEnglishvocabulary.Prussian普鲁士语Lithuanian立陶宛语Polish波兰语Balto-Slavic波罗的-斯拉夫语Czech捷克斯洛伐克语Bulgarian保加利亚语Slovenian斯洛文尼亚语RussianAlbanian阿尔巴尼亚Persian波斯语Hindi北印度语Indo-Iranian印度伊朗语系Bengali孟加拉语Romany，吉卜赛语Armenian亚美尼亚语PortugueseSpanishItalic意大利语族ItalianRoumanian罗马尼亚语FrenchIndo-EuropeanLanguageFamilyIrishCeltic凯尔特语BretonScottishNorwegian挪威语Icelandic，冰岛语Danish丹麦语GermanicSwedish瑞典语日尔曼语言EnglishDutchFlemishGermanHellenic，古希腊语-GreekChapter1AGeneralSurveyofAWordTheDefinitionofWord•Awordis(1)Aminimalfreeformofalanguage;(2)asoundunity;(3)aunityofmeaning;(4)aformthatcanfunctionaloneinasentence.Awordisaminimalfreeformthathasagivensoundandmeaningandsyntacticfunction.Awordisasmallestunitofalanguage.1.ThedevelopmentofEnglishvocabularyThehistoryofEnglishlanguagecanbedividedinto3periods:a/OldEnglishperiod(449—1100)Theformerinhabitants,theCeltic,theGermanictribescalledAngles,SaxonsandJutesAnglo-SaxonasOldEnglish,OldEnglishcontains50-60thousandwords,whichconsistsofthebasicwordstock.b/MiddleEnglishperiod(1100-1500)characterizedbythestronginfluenceofFrenchfollowingtheNormanConquestin1066.TheFrenchloanwordswerefoundinlawandgovernmentaladministration(judge,justice)c/ModernEnglishperiod(1500--)theearlystageofthisperiod(includingtheyearsbetween1500-1700),theRenaissancebroughtgreatchangestothevocabulary.borrowingfromLatin,Latinwerenowmostlyconnectedwithscienceandabstractideas.Greekborrowingsweremostlyliterary,technicalandscientificwords2.ClassificationofEnglishWordsAccordingtoDifferentCriteriaA.ByOrigin:nativewordsandloan(borrowed)wordsInEnglishlanguage,mostnativewordsinModernEnglisharemonosyllabic.TheyformthegreatmajorityofthebasicwordstockofEnglishlanguage.Thefundamentalfeaturesofthebasicwordstockare:1.Nationalcharacter;2.Stability;3.Word-formingability;4.AbilitytoformcollocationsSincethegreatmajorityofthebasicwordstockarenativewords,theyarenaturallytheonesusedmostfrequentlyineverydayspeechandwriting.B.Bylevelofusage1.Commonwords(P11wordsconnectedwithordinarythingsoractivitiesnecessarytoeverydaylife:“Therepeatedtelephonecallsonlyannoyedmebutmademysisterveryangry.”)2.Literarywords(P12wordsarechieflyusedinwriting,formalspeeches,e.g.Feelingfatigued,Tomretiredearly.):a.Archaicwords;b.PoeticalwordsSeeP133.Colloquialwords:WordsusedmainlyinspokenEnglish,inconversationamongfriendsandcolleagues,e.g.“Johnwasfiredforpettythieving”4.SlangwordsC.Bynotion:functionwordsandcontent(P17)functionwordsareshortwordssuchasdeterminers,conjunctions,prepositions,auxiliaries,andsoon,theyservegramma...
