英语词汇学简介

Lexicology (Chapter One)

2011. 9.1 The Basic Concepts of W ords and Vocabulary

1.The definition of a word

To sum up, the definition of a word will cover the following points:

(1)a minimal free form of a language

(2)a sound unity

(3) a unit of meaning

(4) a form that can function alone in a sentence.

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

2.Sound and meaning

The relations between sound and meaning are conventional and arbitrary(任意的). 音与义不是同一的东西，两者之间没有必然的联系。某个词的意义用一定的语音形式来表现，这是在长期的语言交际过程中固定下来的，是社会约定俗成，也可以说是语言领域中"一种社会契约"（a kind of linguistic social contract）。

3.Sound and Form

It is generally agreed that the written form of a natural language is the orthographical(拼法) record of the oral form. Naturally the written form should agree with the oral form. In other words, the sound should be consistent with the form.

4.V ocabulary

All the words in a language make up what is generally known as its vocabulary. V ocabulary can be defined as the total word stock of a language.

What is lexicology

1. Lexicology is a branch of linguistics

The word plays such a crucial part in the structure of language that we need a special branch of linguistics to examine it in all its aspects. This branch is called Lexicology,

and it forms, next to phonology, the second basic division of linguistic science.

2.What is lexicology concerned about?

Comprehensively speaking, lexicology is the branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, history, structure, meaning and application. In short, it is the study of the significance and application of words.

3.Its relation to other disciplines

Lexicology relies on information derived from:

1. morphology, the study of the forms of words and their components.

2. semantics, the study of their meanings.

3. A third field of particular interest in lexicological studies is etymology, the study of the origins of words.

4. general linguistics (lexicology studies the words of a particular language. General linguistics studies the general characteristics of words in all languages.)

5.stylistics (the study of style. It is concerned with the user’s choice of linguistic

elements in particular context for special purposes.)

6.Phonetics语音学研究人类所有的语言,音系学研究某种特定语言语音系统。