Word Meaning 英语词汇学.pptVIP

Background Knowledge and the Topic 1) The nature of word in the perspective of word formation What is a word? In terms of syntax, a word is a language unit; In terms of spoken language, a word is a minimum free form, i.e. a word is the smallest syntactical unit in a sentence or a discourse; In terms of semantics, a word is a unit of meaning; In terms of grammar, a word is a free form that can function in a sentence. 1) The nature of word in the perspective of word formation Word formation In terms of semantics, morpheme means “the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words” (Crystal, 1985). And words are made of morphemes. Morphemes can be roughly categorized into two types: 1) The nature of word in the perspective of word formation ? Content morphemes are the basis of words’ meanings. Sometimes they can be used independently. For example, “teach” in “teacher” and “hope” in “hopeful” carry the basic meanings of the two words and they can also be used independently. In this case, some scholars call them free morphemes, which imply that they can exist freely and function as the basic units of a sentence. They are also considered roots. 1) The nature of word in the perspective of word formation ? Grammatical morphemes are the additional meanings or grammatical meanings and are attached to content morphemes, and then form words. In this case, some scholars call them bound morphemes. For example, “un-” in “unkind” and “-full” in “hopeful” are grammatical morphemes and cannot be used independently. In fact, they are affixes. 1) The nature of word in the perspective of word formation - The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word formation. There is a variety of means being at work now. The most productive are affixation, compounding and conversion. According to Pyles and Algeo (1982), words produced through affixation constitute 30% to 40% of the total number of new words; compounding yields 28% to 30% of all the new words; c