英语学习英语专业词汇学

• Concatenation is a semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away from its first sense by successive shifts until there is no connection between the sense that is finally developed and the primary meaning.
➢All the meanings are indepenn all be traced back to the central meaning.
Take head for example:
the head of the school, six pence per head, the head of a page, to come to a head, to lose one’s head, six head of cattle
➢ The first meaning is the primary meaning. Later meanings are called derived meanings.
➢Synchronic approach共时研究方法
Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word in a historical period of time. 从 共时的角度看，在同一个历史时期，同 一个词可以拥有许多不同的意义。
Polysemy
• 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. But how does a word acquire new meanings? In what way are the meanings related to one another?
Concatenation
• The word treacle is an illustrative example: (1) wild beast;
Two Approaches to Polysemy
• The problem of interrelation of the various meanings of the same word can be dealt with from two different angles: diachronic approach and synchronic approach.
➢ The basic meaning of a word is called the central meaning. The derived meanings are secondary in comparison.
2. Two processes of development
1) Radiation辐射型
Polysemy
• Polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. This is particularly true of highly developed languages like English. In modern English, an overwhelming majority of words are polysemous. There are words that have two or three senses, and the most commonly used ones can have as many as over a hundred.
Though these senses have little in common, they all derive from special application of the central idea of head as a part of the body.
2) Concatenation连锁型
1. Two approaches to polysemy
➢Diachronic approach历时研究方法 It is assumed to be the result of growth and development of the semantic structure of one and same word。
2) Concatenation连锁型
1) Radiation辐射型
➢Semantically, radiation is the process which the primary or central meaning stands at the center while secondary meanings radiate from it in every direction like rays.
5.1 Polysemy
• Polysemy means that one single word has two or more senses at the same time.
• The bulk of English words are polysemantic; one –meaning words are rare and are mainly scientific terms such as hydrogen, molecule, and so on.