现代大学词汇学概论总结

1.Morpheme (词素)

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

2. Allomorphs(词素变体)An allomorph is any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by position or adjoining sounds .

3. Compounding (复合词)Composition or compounding is a word-formation process consisting of joining two or more bases to form a new unit, a compound word. It is a common device which has been productive at every period of the English language. Today the largest number of new words are formed by compounding. 4．Derivation (词源)A.The definition of prefixation(前缀) Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to stems.

Features: Prefixes do not generally change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. The majority of prefixes are characterized by their non-class-changing nature. Their chief function is to change meanings of the stems.

B. The definition of suffixation(后缀)

Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to stems. Unlike prefixes which primarily change the meaning of the stem, 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. However, they may also add attached meaning to the stem.

5. Conversion （转换）Conversion is a word-formation whereby a word of a certain word-class is shifted into a word of another without the addition of an affix. It is also called zero derivation(零位派生).

This is a method of turning words of one part of speech to those of a different part of speech. These words are new only in a grammatical sense. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this process is also known as functional shift.

6. Acronymy A. The definition of initialisms

Initialisms（首字母连写法）: a type of shortening, using the first letters of words to form a proper name, a technical term, or a phrase; an initialism is pronounced letter by letter.

B. The definition of acronyms

Acronyms（首字母拼音法）: words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as words.

Acronyms differ from initialisms in that they are pronounced as words rather than as sequences of letters.

7. Blending Blending（拼缀法）is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combining parts of two words. The

result of such a process is called a blend word. Blending is thus a process of both compounding and abbreviation.

8. Clipping Clipping （截短语）is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and using what remains instead. For example, plane and exam are often used in place of aeroplane, and examination respectively.

9. Back-formation Back-formation（逆成法）is a process of word-formation by which a word is created by the deletion of a supposed suffix. It is also known as a reverse derivation.

Look at the following words, think about what suffixes can be added to it: care: careful, careless, carefully, carelessly, carelessness friend: friendly, friendship

quick: quickly, quicken, quickish,quicky

10. Reduplication Reduplication（重叠法）is a minor type of word-formation by which a compound word is created by the repetition (1) of one word like so-so; (2) of two almost identical words with a change in the vowels such as pingpong; (3) of two almost identical words with a change in the initial consonants as in teenyweeny.

11. Motivation （理据）Types of Word Meaning

11.1 Grammatical Meaning Grammatical meaning(语法意义)refers to that part of meaning of the word which indicates grammatical