詞匯學論文賞析

1、詞匯學論文賞析Introduction 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. Talking about word formation patterns means dealing with rules. But not all words which

2、are produced by applying the rule are acceptable. The acceptability is gained only when the word have gained an institutional currency in the language. Therefore rules only provide a constant set of models from which new word are created from day to day. Rules themselves are not fixed but undergo ch

3、anges to a certain extent. For instance, affixes and compounding processes may become productive at one time or lose their productivity. By word formation processes, we concentrate on productive or on productive rules. While applying the rules, we should keep in mind that there are always exceptions

4、. In my opinion, the most important principle for all these rules of word formation is economy. Chapter 1 the function of English word formation 1.1 Word formation is an effective way to enlarge our English vocabulary. Nowadays, more and more people have taken notice of learning English. The number

5、of the people who begin to learn English has increased at a high speed. How can we improve our English effectively is undoubtedly the focus of ourattention. Generally speaking, vocabulary and grammatical rules are keys to learning English2 well. Among the two aspects, vocabulary apparently plays a m

6、ore important role. Vocabulary is the foundation of language. If a language learner doesnt have enough vocabulary to express his or her opinions and understand other people, even if his or her grammatical rules and pronunciations are excellent, but he can not communicate with others well, he shouldn

7、t be a good language learner. Under the influence of traditional teaching mode, teachers often emphasis more on grammatical rules and pronunciations than vocabulary. As a result, students spend a lot of time on remembering new words, but the results are not so efficient. However if we have a knowled

8、ge of English word formation, the results will be not that bad. Word formation is really an effective way to enlarge our English vocabulary. 1.2 Word formation can help us have a better comprehension of an article. When we are reading a new article, we often encounter with some new words that we hav

9、e never seen before. In this case, most of us will leave out the new word and go on with the following sections. However, this is not a good habit. If we want to improve our English, we have to take every new word seriously either look them up in the dictionary or search for the internet. But dont y

10、ou think that these methods are inefficient? If we know something about English word formation, maybe the article would not be so difficult for us to understand. In this way, we can guess the meaning of the new word according to what we have learned about English word formation. It has been proved t

11、hat our guess is correct in most cases. So we say word formation can help us have a better comprehension of a new article. 1.3 Many new words can be derived based on the rules of word formation Recent years, the use of computers as a medium of communication has given birth to a new language phenomen

12、on-cyber language. A large amount of cyber language has sprung up. Not all the new vocabulary can be recognized by human society. Some new words only emerged in a very short time and then disappeared, however, there are still a lot of words are shared by many people. Finally, these words are recogni

13、zed by the whole human society. Some are even added to the reversed dictionary. Can we say that these words are unreasonable and irrational? The answer is absolutely Most of the new words that have been recognized are derived based on certain rules of word formation. For example, the sentence “3QUis

14、 widely used in the chatting room on the internet by foreigners. This is also known as one important characteristics of English word-productivity. So it is necessary for us to learn English word formation. Chapter 2 Affixation Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-

15、forming or derivational affixes to bases. This process is also known as derivation, by which new words derived from old or base forms. The words that are created in this way arecalled derivatives. According to the position affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into three subcategories: pre-fixat

16、ion, in-fixation and Pre-fixation is formation of new words by adding prefixes to bases, which do not generally change the word-class of the base. That is to say, prefixes do not change the part of speech of a word. Their chief function is to modify its meaning, although There are exceptions. In my

17、opinion, prefixes can be divided into: negative prefixes, pejorative prefixes, prefixes of degree or size, prefixes of time and order, and so on. Suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to bases. Their primary function is to change the grammatical function of the base, such as t

18、he change of the word class with a slight modification of meaning, though there are a few exceptions. Suffixes can be divided into noun suffixes, adjective suffixes, adverb suffixes, and verb suffixes. I can give you an example. The word countless change the part of form and show the negative meanin

19、g of the stem. Infixes are not so common and they usually show a kind attitude of the speaker and will not change the part of form and meaning of words. Chapter 3 Compounding Compounding is the formation of new words by joining two or more bases. Words formed in this way are called compounds. So a c

20、ompound is a lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word(Quirk).Compounds can be written solid, hyphenated and open. Compounds have remarkable characteristics which are different from noun phrases. It comes down to three major on

21、es: 1) Phonological features. In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first constituent whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally accented if there is only one stress. In cases where there are two stresses, the compound has the primary stress on the first element and the sec

22、ond stress, if any, on the second, whereas the opposite is true of free phrase. 2) Semantic features. Compounds differ from free phrases semantically. Every compound should express a single idea just as one word. The meaning of a free phrase can not be inferred from the two components of itself. Nev

23、ertheless, a lof compound are transparent, that is to say, the meaning can be obtained from the separate elements of compounds. But the two elements are inseparable and the change of the element would result in the loss of the original identity. 3) Grammatical features. Two elements of a compound ea

24、ch plays a separate grammatical role, which can be seen in the way the expressions are handled morphological. For example, compound nouns often show their plural forms by taking inflectional s at the end. Though there are exceptions, their one-wordnesS identity is apparent. Chapter 4 Conversion In E

25、nglish learning, students will often confused with words which have two or more part of form. Many of such conditions are caused by conversion. Conversion is the formation of mew words by converting words of one part of sthose of another part of speech, without changes in morphological structures bu

26、t in function. Words created in this way are new only in a grammatical sense. Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives and verbs. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs. It deserves nothing that conversion is not only a change of

27、grammatical function of the item involved but with it the different range of meaning is originally carried. Chapter 5 Blending Blending is a very productive process and many coinages are resulting from blending have become well established. Moreover, they can sever as models for new formation. It is

28、 not the Combination of two words directly, but to combine parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word. This kind of word formation is called blending. This processes including: The first part of the first word +the last part the second word. The whole part of the first part +the last p

29、art the second word. The first part of the first word +the first part the second word. The whole part of the second word + the first part of the first word. The overwhelming majority of blends are nouns; very few are verbs and adjectives are even fewer. Blends are mostly used in writing related to s

30、cience and technology, and newspapers and magazines. Though many of them have already achieved currency in English, they are still considered by the serious-minded people to be slang and informal. However, it is advisable not to use such words too often, particularly in formal writing. Conclusion La

31、nguage develops with the development of society and vocabulary is sensitive to the changes of society. Some old words are abandoned and some new ones are created. Most of the new words in English are created according to certain rules and conformed to certain methods. These rules and methods are closely related to English word formation. So it is essential, as well as important, f