《英语词汇学》串讲笔记2

Chapter 4
Word Formation II
一、【考情分析】
本章主要考核的知识点为：词缀法，复合法，转类法，拼缀法，截短法，首字母缩略
法，逆生法，专有名词普通化。通过对本章的学习，考生应该了解现代英语的主要构词法，
这些构词法在英语词汇发展中的地位，提高构词能力，自觉扩大词汇量。在历年考试中：常
常以选择题，名词解释，填空题的形式对本章知识点进行考核。
二、【知识串讲】
重点知识锦集：
1. The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word-formation.
2. According to the positions which affixes occupy in words, affixes falls into two
subclasses:prefixation and suffixation.（前缀和后缀）
3. Affixation is also known as derivation.
4. Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning.
5. Suffixes have only a small semantic role, their primary function being to change the
grammatical function of stems. In other words, they mainly change the word class.
6. We shall group suffixes on a grammatical basis into noun suffixes, verb suffixes, adjective
suffixes, etc.
7. Compounds can be written solid, hyphenated and open.（连写的，加连字符号的，不连写
的）
8. Most compounds consist of only two stems but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and
the internal grammatical relationships within the words are considerably complex.
9. Conversion is also known as functional shift.（功能转换）
10. Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
11. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs.
12. Unlike verbs, not all adjectives which are converted can achieve a full noun status. Some
are completely converted, thus known as full conversion,（完全转换） others are only partially
converted, hence partial conversion.（部分转换）
13. Blending（拼缀法） is a very productive process and many coinages resulting from blending
have become well-established.
14. As far as the structure is concerned, blends fall into four major groups: head+tail,
head+head, head+word, word+tail.
15. The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns.
16. Blends are mostly used in writing related to science and technology, and to newspapers and
magazines.
17. There are four common types of clipping: front clipping, back clipping, front and back
clipping, phrase clipping.
18. Both intialisms and acronyms have become very popular since the Second World War and
thus extremely productive.
19. Words created through back-formation are mostly verbs.
20. Stylistically, back-formed words are largely informal and some of them have not gained
public acceptance.
21. Open compounds look like free phrases as the

elements forming each word are written separately.
22. As a rule, the stress of compounds falls on the first element.
23. A compound functions as a single grammatical unit, so the internal structure can not be
changed.
24. Conversion（转换法） refers to the use of words of one class as that of a different class.
25. Partial conversion and full conversion are concerned with adjectives when converted to
nouns.
名词解释：
1. affixation（词缀法）: Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding
word-forming or derivational affixes to stems.
2. prefixation（前缀法）: Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to
stems.
3. suffixation（后缀法）: Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems.
4. compounding（合成法）: Compounding, also called composition, is the formation of new
words by joining two or more stems. Words formed in this way are called compounds.
5. conversion（转换法）: Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one
class to another class.
6. blending（拼缀法）: 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.
7. clipping（截短法）: 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. This is called clipping.
8. acronymy（首字母拼音法）: 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.
9. initialisms（首字母缩略词）: Initialisms are words pronounced letter by letter.
10. acronyms（首字母拼音词）: Acronyms are words formed from initial letters but pronounced
as a normal word.
11. back-formation（逆生法）: Back-formation is considered to be the opposite process of
suffixation. It’s therefore the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes.
论述问答题：
1. In what aspects do compounds differ from free phrases?
答：Compounds differ from free phrases in the following three aspects:
1). Phonetic features. In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first element
whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally stressed if there is only one stress.
2). Semantic features. Compounds are different from free phrases in semantic unity.
Every compound should express a single idea just as one word.
3). Grammatical features. A compound tends to play a single grammatical role in a
sentence, for example, a verb, a noun, or an adjective.
2. What is the best way to classify prefixes? Why?
答：Prefixes do not usually change the word-class of the ste

m but only modify lts meaning.
Although present-day English finds an increasing number of class-changing prefixes, they make
up only an insignificant number in the huge contemporary vocabulary. It might be the best way to
classify prefixes by their non-class-changing feature. 3. In what way are compound verbs generally formed? Give examples to illustrate your point.
答：Compound verbs are created either through conversion or back-formation. This could be
illustrated by two words, nickname and chain-smoker. Nickname, which is originally a noun, can
be used as a verb through conversion. Chain-smoker, which is originally a noun, can turn into a
verb through back-formation.
4. What is the difference between partial and full conversion? Explain them with examples.
答：When converted to nouns, not all adjectives can achieve a full noun status. Some are
completely converted, thus known as full conversion, others are only partially converted, hence
partial conversion. When a noun fully converted from an adjective has all the characteristics of a
noun, it can take an indefinite article or-(e)s to indicate singular or plural number. For example,
adjective “white”can be fully converted to a noun “white”, which can take indefinite article: a
white. When a noun partially converted from adjectives do not possess all the qualities a noun
does. They must be used together with the definite article, and they retain some of the adjective
features. For example, the poor, the rich.
5. Both back-formation（逆生法） and back-clipping（截后留前） are ways of making words
by removing the endings of words. How do you account for the coexistence of the two? Can you
explain the difference?
答：Back-formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. It’s
considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. For example, “loafer”may be assumed to
derive from the verb “loaf”’on the analogy of known derivatives, such as “swimmer” from
“swim” or “driver” from “drive”. By removing the supposed suffixes –er from “loafer”, a verb
“loaf”’is coined. Majority of back-formed words are verbs. Back-clipping is different. The
deletion occurs at the end of the word(usually a noun). Both the original long word and its short
form remain in the same word class. In different context, one could be used in other’s place.
6. After he comes back, he oiled machine.
In above sentence, which word is the converted word? Explain the type of the conversion and
the effect of the conversion.
答：In this sentence, the word “oil”is the converted word. It is converted from a noun to a verb.
When it was used as a noun, the meaning of it is that “ 油”. But in this sentence, it was used as a
verb, the meaning is “给…加油”; As is often the case, a noun can be converted to a verb without

a
ny change. The use of the verb converted is both economical and vivid.
Chapter 5
Word Meaning
一、【考情分析】
本章主要考核的知识点为：“意义”的意义，词义的理据，词义的类别。通过对本章的学
习考生应该了解“意义”的不同含义，词义的理据，弄清楚几种常见意义。在历年考试中：
常常以选择题，填空题，名词解释，简答题，问答题和搭配题的形式对本章知识点进行考核。
二、【知识串讲】
重点知识锦集：
1. Reference(所指关系) is the relationship between Language and the world.
2. The reference of a word to a thing outside the Language is arbitrary and conventional.（任意
的和依照惯例的）
3. Although reference is a kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context, it can refer to
something specific. 4. Every word that has meaning has sense(not every word has reference).
5. Different lexical items, which have different lexical meanings, may have the same
grammatical meaning.（语法意义）
6. Functional words, though having little lexical meaning, possess strong grammatical
meaning.
7. Lexical meaning itself has two components: conceptual meaning and associative meaning.
（概念意义和关联意义）
8. Associative meaning（关联意义） comprises four types: connotative, stylistic, affective,
collocative.
9. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative or pejorative.（褒
义词和贬义词）
10. To a large extent the affective meaning of the word depends on the context where the word
is used.
11. Motivation（理据） explains why a particular form has a particular meaning.
12. Unlike conceptual meaning, associative meaning is unstable and indeterminate.
13. By etymological motivation, we mean that the meaning of a particular word is related to its
origin.
14. The relationship between the linguistic sign and a referent is conventional.
15. Content words have both meanings, and Lexical meaning（词汇意义） in particular.
16. The word “miniskirt”is morphologically motivated.
17. The word “laconic”is etymologically motivated.
18. In the phrase “the mouth of the river”, the word “mouth”is semantically motivated.
名词解释：
1. concept（概念）: Concept, which is beyond Language, is the result of human cognition,
reflecting the objective world in the human mind. It’s universal to all men alike regardless of
culture, race, Language and so on.
2. sense（语义）: Sense denotes the relationship inside the Language. The sense of an
expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the
Language.
3. motivation（理据）: Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol
and its meaning.
4. onomatopoeic mot

iva
tion（拟声理据）: In modern English one may find some words whose
sounds suggest their meanings, for these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or
noises. For example, bang, miaow, ha ha and the like are onomatopoetically motivated words.
Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning.
5. morphological motivation（形态理据）: Compounds and derived words are
multi-morphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of the morphemes combined.
Quite often, if one knows the meaning of each morpheme, one can figure out the meaning of the
word. For instance, “airmail” means to ‘mail by air’.
6. semantic motivation（语义理据）: Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations
suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal
sense and figurative sense of the word.
7. etymological motivation（词源学理据）: The meanings of many words often relate directly
to their origins. In other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word. 8. grammatical meaning（语法意义）: Grammatical meanings refer to that part of the meaning
of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words,
singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms.
9. conceptual meaning（概念意义）: Conceptual meaning(also known as denotative meaning)
is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning.
10. associative meaning（关联意义）: Associative meaning is the secondary meaning
supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is
open-ended and indeterminate.
11. connotative meaning（内涵意义）: Connotative meaning refers to the overtones or
associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations.
12. stylistic meaning（文体意义）: Apart from their conceptual meanings, many words have
stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts.
13. affective meaning（情感意义）: Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards
the person or thing in question.
14. collocative meaning（搭配意义）: This meaning consists of the associations a word acquires
in its collocation. In other words, it’s that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before
or after the word in discussion.
论述问答题：.
1. Cite one example to illustrate what grammatical meaning（语法意义） is.
答：Grammatical meanings refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates
grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words（nouns,' verbs, adjectives,
adverbs), singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional

forms（forget, forgets, forgot,
forgotten, forgetting）.
2. What’s the difference between grammatical meaning and lexical meaning?
答：Unlike lexical meaning, different lexical items, which have different lexical meanings,
may have the same grammatical meaning. On the other hand, the same word may have different
grammatical meanings, functional words, though having little lexical meaning, possess strong
grammatical meaning whereas content words have both meanings, and lexical meaning in
particular. Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning make up the word-meaning. It’s known that
grammatical meaning surfaces only in use. But lexical meaning is constant in all the content words
within or without context as it is related to the notion that the word conveys.
3. How many types of motivation（理据） are there in English?
答：There are four types of motivation:
1). Onomatopoeical motivation. E.g.cuckoo, squeak, quack.etc.
2). Morphological motivation, e.g. airmail, reading-lamp, etc.
3). Semantic motivation, e.g. the mouth of the river, the foot of the mountain.
4). Etymological motivation, e.g. pen, laconic, etc.
4. The “pen” is mightier than the “sword”. Explain what “pen” and “sword”mean respectively
using the theory of motivation.
答：1). Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its
meaning.
2). Semantic motivation, one of the four major types of motivation, explains the
connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word.
3). In this sentence, “pen’’reminds one of the tool to write with, thus suggesting writing; “sword” reminds one of the weapon to fight with, thus suggesting war.
5. ①.Women are flowers.
②. Women are tigers.
Study the above sentences. Analyze grammatical meaning of “women”, conceptual meaning
and connotative meaning（内涵意义） in each sentence.
答：1). “Women” in the two sentences have same grammatical meanings and conceptual
meanings. Their grammatical meanings are: they are all plural nouns and subjects in the sentences.
Their conceptual meaning : adult female human being.
2). In sentence①, the connotative meaning of “women”: beautiful and lovely.
In sentence②, the connotative meaning of “women”: fierce and malicious.
Chapter 6
Sense Relations and Semantic Field
一、【考情分析】
本章主要考核的知识点为：多义关系，同形同音异义关系，同义关系，反义关系，上
下义（位）关系，语义场。通过对本章的学习，考生应该弄清楚词与词之间的几种主要语义
关系，它们的概念和特点，能运用这些知识指导语言实践。在历年考试中：常常以选择题，
填空题和简答题的形式对本章知识点进行考核。
二、【知识串讲】
重点

知识锦集：
1. A word which is related to other words is related to them in sense, hence sense relations.（语义
关系）
2. Polysemy（多义关系） is a common feature peculiar to all natural Languages.
3. Two approaches to Polysemy are diachronic approach and synchronic approach.（历时角度和
共时角度）
4. The development of word-meaning from monosemy to polysemy follows two courses,
traditionally known as radiation and concatenation.（辐射型和连锁型）
5. Radiation describes a process where each of the derived meanings is directly connected to the
primary meaning.
6. Concatenation describes a process where each of the later meaning is related only to the
proceeding one like chains.
7. Radiation and concatenation are closely related, being different stages of the development
leading to polysemy.
8. Based on the degree of similarity, hononyms fall into three classes: perfect homonyms（完全同
形同音异义关系）, homographs（同形异义词） and homophones（同音异义词）.
9. Of the three types: perfect homonyms, homographs, homophones, homopnones（同音异义词）
constitute the largest number and are most common.
10. There are various sources of homonyms:change in sound and spelling, borrowing.
11. In dictionaries, a polysemant（多义词） has its meanings all listed under one headword
whereas homonyms are listed as separate entries.
12. English as a highly developed language is known for its copious stock of synonyms.
13. Synonyms share a likeness in denotation as well as in part of speech.
14. Synonyms can be classified into two major groups: absolute synonyms and relative synonyms.
（绝对同义词和相对同义词）
15. The most important source of synonyms is perhaps borrowing. 16. Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition.
17. There is an absolute opposition between contradictory terms.
18. In the case of relative terms, the opposition is only relational, what is applicable to
contradictory terms may not be applicable to the relative terms.
19. Antonyms have various practical uses and have long proved helpful and valuable in defining
the meanings of words.
20. Antonyms（反义词） are useful in enabling us to express economically the opposite of a
particular thought, often for the sake of contrast.
21. In hyponymy, the general words the superordinate（上义词） terms and the more specific ones
are the subordinate（下义词）terms.
22. In production, knowing the semantic features of the hyponyms and their superordinates can
help us achieve vividness, exactness and concreteness（生动，准确，具体）.
23. According to Trier’s vision of fields, the whole vocabulary can be divided up into fields. Each
semantic field consists many subfields.
24. Words in each field are semantically related and define one ano

ther.
25. It’s a general belief that the
meaning does not exist in the word itself, but it rather spreads over
the neighbouring words, because the neighbouring words identify the semantic field and help pin
down the meaning.
26. The semantic field（语义场） of the same concept may not have the same members in different
Languages.
27. The origins（起源） of the words are a key factor in distinguishing homonyms from
polysemants.
名词解释：
1. diachronic approach（历时角度）: 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.
2. synchronic approach（共时角度）: Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of
various meanings of the same word in a certain historical period of time, say, Modern English.
3. radiation（辐射型）: Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the
centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rays. The meanings are
independent of one another, but can all be traced back to the central meaning.
4. 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
until, in many cases, there is not a sign of connection between the sense that is finally developed
and that which the term had at the beginning.
5. homonymy（同形同音异义关系）: Homonyms are generally defined as words different in
meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling.
6.perfect homonyms（同形同音异义词）: Perfect homonyms are words identical both in sound and
spelling, but different in meaning.
7. homographs（同形异义词）: Homographs are words identical only in spelling but different in
sound and meaning.
8. homophones（同音异义词）: Homophones are words identical only in sound but different in
spelling and meaning.
9. synonyms（同义词）: Synonyms can be defined as words different in sound and spelling but
most nearly alike or exactly the same in meaning. 10.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, both in grammatical meaning and lexical
meaning, including conceptual meaning and associative meanings.
11.relative synonyms（相对同义词）: Relatve 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.
12.antonymy（反义关系）: Antonymy is concerned with semantic opposition. Antonyms can be
defined as words which are opposite in meaning.
13.hyponymy（上下义关系）: Hy

ponymy deals with the relationship of semantic inclusion. That is,
the meaning of a more speci
fic word is included in that of another more general word. These
specific words are known as hyponyms.
论述问答题：
1. What’s the fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants? Try to explain it.
答：Perfect homonyms and polysemants are fully identical with regard to spelling and
pronunciation. This creats the problem of differentiation. The fundamental difference between
homonyms and polysemants lies in the fact that the former refers to the different words which
happen to share the same form and the latter is the one and same word which has several
distinguishable meanings. One important criterion is to see their etymology, i.e.homonyms are
from different sources whereas a polysemant is from the same source which has acquired different
meanings in the course of development. The second principal consideration is semantic
relatedness. The various meanings of a polysemant are correlated and connected to one central
meaning to a greater or lesser degree. On the other hand, meanings of different homonyms have
nothing to do with one another.
2. Try to point out the main sources of synonyms（同义词）.
1). Borrowing. The most important source is perhaps borrowing.
2). Dialects and regional English.
3). Figurative and euphemistic use of words.
4). Coincidence with idiomatic expressions.
3. What’s the discrimination（区别） of synonyms?
答：The differences between synonyms boil down to three areas: denotation, connotation, and
application.
1). Difference in denotation（外延意义上不同）. Synonyms may differ in the range and
intensity of meaning. Some words have a wider range of meaning than others.
2). Difference in connotation（内涵意义上不同）. By connotation we mean the stylistic and
emotive colouring of words. Some words share the same denotation but differ in their stylistic
appropriateness.
3). Difference in application（应用上不同）. Many words are synonymous in meaning but
different in usage in simple terms. They form different collocations and fit into different sentence
patterns.
4. Try to illustrate the three major types of Antonyms with examples.
答：1). Contradictory terms（矛盾反义词）. These antonyms truly represent oppositeness of
meaning. 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. In other words, if one of
the pair is true, then the other cannot be. For example: dead and alive; boy and girl; present and absent. Another character of this category is that such antonyms are non-gradable.
2). Contrary terms（对立反义词）. Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale
running between two pol

es or extremes. Antonyms such as: rich and poor; old and young; big and
small represesnt two points at both ends of the p
ole. The two opposites are gradable and one exists
in comparison with the other.
3). Relative terms（关系反义词）. This third type consists of relational opposites such as:
parent and child; husband and wife; employer and employee. The pairs of words indicate such a
reciprocal social relationship that one of them can not be used without suggesting the other.
5. Can you point out some of the characteristics of Antonyms?
1). Antonyms are classified on the basis of semantic opposition. In a Language, there are a great
many more synonyms than antonyms.
2). A word which has more than one meaning can have more than one antonym.
3). Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion. Pairs of antonyms are seen as marked and unmarked
terms respectively. In many pairs we find that one member is more specific(marked terms) than
the other and the meaning of the specific is included in that of the general(unmarked terms).
4). Contrary terms are gradable antonyms, differing in degree of intensity, so each has its own
corresponding opposite.
6. What’s the fundamental difference between the processes of radiation（辐射型） and
concatenation（连锁型）? Illustrate your point.
答：Radiation describes a process where each of the derived meaning is directly connected to the
primary meaning, concatenation describs a process where each of the later meaning is related only
to the preceding one like chains. But the two are closely related , being different stages of the
development leading to polysemy. Generally, radiation precedes concatenation. In many cases, the
two processes work together, complementing each other.
7. Use examples to illustrate the similarity and difference between absolute synonyms(绝对同义
词) and relative synonyms（相对同义词）
答：1). Absolute synonyms(complete synonyms) are words which are identical in meaning in all
its aspects,i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual meaning
and associative meanings. Synonyms of this type are interchangeable in every way. Absolute
synonyms are rare in natural languages and restricted to highly specialized vocabulary, such as
scarlet-fever/scarlatina in medicine.
2). Relative synonyms(near-synonyms) are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but
embrace different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality. For example, to
change a thing is to put another thing in lts place; to alter a thing is to make it different from which
it was before.