英语与词汇学Chapter6.ppt

Chapter 6 ;Contents of today’s lecture:; 1.Polysemy（一词多义）; One-meaning words are very rare. They are often scientific terms (e.g. oxygen, moonwalk, earthrise) ; Most words are polysemous. “Polysemy is a rule and monosemy（单义词） is the exception”. The commoner a word, the more meanings it has. ;One example: fair; It is interesting to note that some polysemic words have different affective and stylistic meanings for their individual senses. e.g. Proud is appreciative when it means “having the quality of self-respect and showing this in one’s standards of behavior,” yet it is emotionally neutral or negative in its other senses. Bread is a slang word when its meaning is “money”, yet it is stylistically neutral in other senses. ;Think:;1) Necessity：an essential feature of a language’s economy and efficiency 2) Possibility: arbitrary assignment of form and meaning 3) Result: Most words are polysemous. “Polysemy is a rule and monosemy is the exception”. The commoner a word, the more meanings it has. ; 1) Diachronic approach(历时角度); Diachronically, we study the growth or change in the semantic structure of a word, or how the semantic structure of a word has developed from a primary meaning to the present polysemic state. （一词多义是同一个词的语义结构历史发展的结果。） ;This first meaning is the original meaning(原始意义). These later meanings are called derived meanings(派生意义).;2) Synchronic approach(共时角度);The basic meaning of a word is considered to be the core of word meaning, called the central meaning. The derived meanings, no matter how numerous, are secondary meanings. ;;Relationship between  the primary and the central meaning:;Two processes leading to polysemy: 1) Radiation(语义辐射);It is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the center and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rays. ;Power (in 13 senses) (page111);7. deity…; (colloq) large number or amount…; (Math.) third, tenth, etc. power of a number; product obtai