名词解释

1.English lexicology
English lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the vocabulary of the English language in respect to words and word equivalents.

2.word
A word may be defined as a fundamental unit of speech and a minimum free form ; with a unity of sound and meaning (both lexical and grammatical meaning), capable of performing a given syntactic function.

3. vocabularv
All the words in a language together constitute what is known as its vocabulary.

4. Native words.    
Words of Anglo-Saxon origin or of Old English are called native words.

5. loan words
words borrowed from other languages are called loan words. They are also called foreign words and borrowed words.

6. common words
Common words are also called popular words. They are words connected with the ordinary things or activities necessary to everyday life. Common words are neutral in style.

7. literary words
Literary words are words chiefly used in writing, especially in books written in a more elevated style, in official documents, or in formal speeches. Literary words are formal in style.

8. Archaic words
Archaic words are words no longer in common use, although retained for special purpose.

9 poetical words
Poetical words are words that are traditionally used only in poetry.

10. colloquial words
Colloquial words are words or expressions mainly used in spoken English and informal writings.

11. slang words
Slang words are language, words or phrases of a vigorous, colorful, facetious, or taboo nature, invented for specific occasions, or uses, or derived from the unconventional use of the standard vocabulary.

12. Technical words
Technical words are words used in various special fields.

13. Function words,.
Function words are usually short words such as determiners conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliaries and so forth , which serve grammatically than anything else.

14. content Words
Content words are words which. Are used to name.objects,. Qualities, actions. processes or states, and have independent lexical meaning

15.basic word stock

the basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and forms the common core of the language. These words have four obvious characteristics national character, stability, word-forming ability and ability to form collocations. they are words which are most frequently used and which are essential to the construction of sentences and to life.

16. Neologism
Neologisms are new words or new meanings for established words.

17. obsolete words
Obsolete words are words completely out of current use.

18.Morpheme
The morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit of language, not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms.

19. Allomorph
An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds.

20. Free morpheme
A. free morpheme is one which can be uttered alone with meaning, It can exist on its own without a bound morpheme. A free morpheme is a word, in the traditional sense.

21.bound morpheme
A bound morpheme is one which cannot stand by itself as a complete utterance; it must appear with at least one other morpheme, free or bound.

22root
A root is the basic unchangeable part of a word, and it conveys the main lexical meaning of the word.

23. Free root
Free roots are free morphemes. They belong to the basic word-stock and provide the English
language with a basis for the formation of new words.

24. Bound root
Bound root is that part of the word that carries the fundamental meaning just like a free root. Unlike a free root , it is a bound form and has to combine with other morphemes to make words. They were once words, yet in Modem English they are not words. They cannot exit on their own. Nor can they be used to form new words.

25. Affix
Affix is a"collective term for the type of formative that can be used only when added to
another morpheme."They are considered bound morphemes.

26. Inflectional affix
Affixes attached to the end of words to indicate such grammatical relationships as plurality, tense, and the comparative or superlative degree are inflectional affixes.

27. Derivational affix
Derivational affixes are affixes added to other morphemes to create new words.

28. prefix
In derivation, the affix added before the base is called prefrx.

29. suffix
In derivation, the affix added after the base is called suffix.

30. Hybrid
A hybrid is a word made up of elements from two or more different languages.

31. simple word
A simple word is a word consisting of one free root (or one morpheme).

32. word-formation rules
Word-formation rules are the rules which define the scope and methods whereby speakers of a language may create new words.

33. stem
A stem is the part of the word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed.

34. Base
A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added; it may also be defined as"a form to which a rule of word-formation is applied.”

35.compounding
compounding or composition is a word formation process consisting of joining two or more bases to form a new word.

36. compound
Words formed through compounding are called compounds.

36. string compound
when the first element of a noun compound is itself a compound, such a compound is called a string compound.

37. Derivation
Derivation or affixation is a process of forming new words by addition of a word element such as a prefix, suffix or combining form to an already existing word.

38. combining form
A combining form is a bound morpheme, which was originally a full word in Latin or Greek but which now occurs only in derivatives.

39. prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding a prefix or combining form to the base.

40. suffixation
Suffixation is the formation of a new word by adding a suffix or a combining form to the base, and usually changing the word-class of the base.

41. Differentiating suffixes
Differentiating suffixes are those suffixes which convey subtle nuances of meaning.

42. conversion
Conversion is a word-formation process whereby a word of a certain word-class is shifted into a word of another word-lass without the addition of an affix.

43. Functional shift
Since in conversion the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, conversion is called by some linguists"functional shift ".

44. Derivation by zero suffix
Since the relationship between a base of one word-class and a corresponding derived word of
another by suffixation is parallel to a shift of the same base from one word-class to another without suffixation, conversion is called by some linguists"derivation by zero suffix".

45. partial conversion
some adjectives are used as nouns when preceded by the definite article, yet these converted nouns take on only some of the features of the noun. Therefore, such adjective → noun conversion is partial conversion.

46. 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.

47. Initialism
Initialism is a type of shortening, using the first letter of words to form a proper name, a technical term, or a phrase; an initialism is pronounced letter by letter.

48. Acronym
Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of the name of an organization or a scientific term, etc. Acronyms are pronounced as words.

49. clipping
Clipping is a process of forming new words by the deletion of one or more syllables from a word (usually a noun), which is also available in its full form.

50. Blending
Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining the meanings and sounds of two words, one of which is not in its full form or both of which are not in their full forms.

51. portmanteau word
me result of blending is called a blend, or portmanteau word.

52. Back-formation
Back-formation is a term used to refer to a type of word-formation by which a shorter word is
coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a longer form already present in the language.

53. reduplication
Reduplication is a minor type of word-formation by which a compound word is created by
the repetition (l) of one word (2) of two almost identical words with a change in 1he vowels; (3) of two almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants.

54. words from proper names
They refer to words which come from such proper nouns as names of people, names of places, names of books and trade names.

55. Neoclassical formation
Neoclassical formation denotes the process by which new words are formed from elements derived from Latin and Greek.

56. conventionality
Most English words are conventional, arbitrary symbols ; consequently, there is no intrinsic relation between the sound-symbol and its sense. There is no way ta explain why this or that
sound-symbol has this or that meaning beyond the fact that the people of a given community have agreed to use one to designate the other. such a relationship between the linguistic symbol and its meaning is called conventionality.

57. Motivation
Motivation refers to the connection between word symbol and its sense.

58. phonetic motivation
In modem English, some words have sounds that suggest their meaning, for these words were created by imitating natural sounds or noise. Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning. Such a kind of connection between the word symbol and its sense is called phonetic motivation.

59. Morphological motivation
Compounds and derived words are multi-morphemic words and the meanings of some are the sum of the morphemes combined. If one knows the meaning of each morpheme, one can figure out the meaning of the word. Such a kind of connection between the word symbol and its sense is called morphological motivation.

60. semantic motivation
Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and the figurative sense of the word.

61. Echoic word/onomatopoeic word
Words motivated phonetically are called echoic words or onomatopoeic words, whose pronunciation suggests the meaning.

62. Grammatical meaning
Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as word-class, singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms.

63. Inflectional paradigm
When used in actual speech, words appear in different forms. The set of grammatical forms of a words is called its inflectional paradigm.

64. lexical meaning
Lexical meaning is the notion that the word conveys. It is constant in all the content words within or without context.

65.Denotative meaning is sometimes called the conceptual meaning. It is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning. Being constant and relatively stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all speakers of 'the same language.


66. connotative meaning
Connotative meaning refers to the emotional association which a word or a phrase suggests in one's mind; it is the supplementary value which is added to the purely denotative meaning of a word.

67. social or stylistic meaning
Social meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.

68. Affective meaning
Affective meaning indicates the speaker's feeling and attitude towards the person or thing in question.

69. purr words
Purr words are those used not as a mere statement of fact, but to express the speaker's approval of the person or thing he is talking about.

70. snarl words
Snarl words are those words which always show disapproval or contempt on the part of the speaker.

71. componential analysis,
Componential analysis is the process of breaking down the sense of a word into its minimal components.

72. semantic features/sense components
the analysis of word meanings is often seen as a process of breaking down the sense of a word into its minimal components, which are known as semantic features or sense components

73. polysemy
Polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. There are words that have two or three senses, and the most commonly used ones can have as many as over a hundred.However, when a word is first coined, it is always monosemic. But in the course of development, the same symbol must be used to express more meanings, the result is polysemy within or without context.

74. primary meaning
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. At the time when the word was created, it was endowed with only one meaning. This is the primary meaning.

75.central meaning
Synchronically polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a certain historical period of time. The central meaning of a word can be considered the most frequently occurring meaning.

76. Radiation
Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning or central meaning stands at the center while secondary meanings radiate from it in every direction like rays.

77. concatenation
Concatenation, meaning"linking together'', is a semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts, like the links of a chain, until there is no connection between the sense that is finally developed and the primary meaning.

78. Homonymy
Homonymy is the linguistic phenomenon that pairs or groups of words, though different in meaning, are pronounced alike, or spelled alike, or both.

79. Homonym
Homonyms are generally defined as words different in meaning, but are pronounced alike, or spelled alike, or both.

80. perfect homonym
perfect homonyms are words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning.

81. Homophone
Words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning are called homophones.

82. Homograph
Homographs are words identical in spelling but diMrent in sound and mieaning.

83. synonymy
Synonymy is the semantic relation of similarity.


84. Synonym
A synonym can be defined as one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning.

85.complete synonym
Complete synonym, also known as absolute synonyms, are words which are identical in meaning in all its aspects, i.e.both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning,including conceptual, associative meaning,etc..synonyms of this type are interchangeable in every way.

56.Relative synonym
Relative synonyms,or more accurately quasi-synonymous words, are words similar or nearly the same in denotation, but embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality, or differences in affective meaning, in stylistic meaning or in collocation and distribution.

87. The double scale pattern of synonyms
There are in English countless pairs of synonyms in which a native. Term exists side by side with the one borrowed from French, Latin, or Greek. This is called the double scale pattern of synonyms.

88. The triple scale pattern of synonyms
The triple scale pattern of synonyms refers to a group of synonyms in which native, French and Latin or Greek words co-cexist.

89. Antonymy
Antonymy is the semantic relation of oppositeness.

90. Antonym
Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning.

91. contraries
Contraries or contrary terms are antonyms which can be handled in terms of gradability, that is, in terms of degrees of the quality involved. Antonyms of this kind form part of scale of values between two poles and can accommodate a middle ground belonging neither to one pole nor to the other.

92. complementaries
Complementaries or contradictories are antonyms which represent a type of binary semantic opposition. 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. Another distinctive feature of this category is that such antonyms are non-gradable.

93, conversives
Conversives, also called relative terms, consist of relational opposites. The pairs of antonyms
indicate such a reciprocal social relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other. This type also includes reverse terms, which comprise adjectives and adverbs signifying a quality or verbs and nouns signifying an act or state that reverse the quality, action or state of the other.

94. Root antonyms
Antonyms with different roots are called root antonyms.

95. Derivational antonyms
Derivational antonyms are words with the same roots having negative affixes.

96. Marked member in an antonymous pair
In some antonymous pairs, one member is used more widely and can frequently be used to subsume the other but not vise versa. This member always carries a certain implication of' distinctiveness. It is called the marked member.

97. unmarked member in an antonymous pair
In some antonymous pairs, one member is used less frequently and is subsumed by the other. This member carries no particular implication. It is called the unmarked member.

98. Hyponymy
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.

99. Hyponym/subordinate
When two words have the relationship of semantic inclusion, the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of a more general word. This specific word is known as hyponym or subordinate.

100. superordinate term/upper term
When two words have the relationship of semantic inclusion, the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of a more general word. This general word is known as superordinate
term or upper term.

101. semantic field
According to Jost Trie, the whole vocabulary of a given language is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organized meaning areas. These meaning areas are called semantic fields. words in each field are semantically related and define one another.

102. context
Context is used in different senses. In its narrowest sense, context refers to the lexical items that come immediately before and after any word in an act of communication. In a broad sense, it may cover the whole passage and sometimes the whole book in which a word occurs, and in some cases even the entire social or cultural setting.

103. linguistic context
The lexical, grammatical, and verbal context in its broad sense are called linguistic context.