英语词汇学charperlexicBorrowingAsourceofEnglishwordstockppt.ppt

“…The English language has vast debts. In any dictionary some 80% of the entries are borrowed”. English is supposed to have the most copious (丰富的) vocabulary of all the language in the world, estimated at more than a million words. --The Encyclopedia Americana Native words are the foundation and the core of English vocabulary. They are words of Anglo-Saxon origin They are words whose origin cannot be traced to any other languages. Warm-up exercise Can you infer the modern English spelling of the following old English words? Mann Wīf Hūs standan L?af Gesete Man, wife, house, stand, leaf, seat Characteristics of the native element All-national character: Words of the basic word stock denote the most common things and phenomena of the world around people who speak the language. Great stability: The native element lives for centuries providing the English with a basis for the formation of new words. As they denote the commonest things necessary to life, they are likely to remain unchanged. Native element: The native element in Modern English is mostly monosyllabic.单音节的 e.g. sun, cow, go, run d. Word-formation ability: Most words of native origin possess large cluster of derived and compound words in the present-day language. Handy, handle, handiwork, handcraft, handful, handbook, handbarrow, hand cuff. e. Wide collocability: 搭配强度 Many native words enter quite a number of set expressions, idioms, phrases and proverbial sayings. e.g. heart f. Plurality of meanings: Most of the native words have undergone striking transformations in semantic 语义的structure, and as a result are nowadays highly poly-semantic. e.g. to tell: make known, express, explain; utter, confide in(泄密，吐露心声); distinguish; count; reveal; scold. g. High frequency value: the native element forms the bulk of the most frequent elements used in any style of speech. They constitute no less than 80% of the 500 most frequ