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Trang 11 Major peculiarities of the word: (Đặc tính chủ yếu của từ)
- External of structure of the word = morphological structure (cấu trúc bề mặt = cấu trúc hình thái học)
E.g: post-impressionists: external structure of this word is constituted by the
following morphemes (cấu trúc hình thái được tạo nên từ các hình vị sau):
- the prefixes: post-,
im the root: press
- the noun-forming suffixes: -ion, -ist
- the grammatical suffix of plurality: -s
E.g: dishonestly:
-the prefix:
dis the root: honest
- the adverd-forming suffix: -ly
- Internal structure of the word = its meaning = semantic structure of the word:
E.g: manufacture: make smt, in large number, with the help of machinery
Creat: make smt, original, requiring skill, dexterity.
=> Word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible
to grammatical employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity.
2 The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary
I Indo-European
element
I Celtic (5-6th c.A.D)
II Germanic element II Latin
1st group: 1st c.B.C
2nd group: 7th c.A.D
3rd group: the Renaissance period III English Proper
element (not earlier
than 5th c.A.D)
III Scandinavian (8-11th c.A.D)
IV French
1 Normal borrowings: 11-13th c.A.D)
2 Parissian borrowings (Renaissance)
V Greek (Renaissance)
VI Italian (Renaissance and later)
Trang 2VII Spanish (Renaissance and later) VIII German
IX Indian
X Russian
3 Native Element in English
- Articles (mạo từ)
- Prepositions (giới từ)
- Pronouns (đại từ)
- Conjunctions (liên từ)
- Auxiliaries (trợ động từ)
- words denoting everyday objects and ideas
Indo-European Group:
- Family relations (từ chỉ các mối quan hệ gia đình): father, mother, brother
- Parts of the human body (từ chỉ các bộ phận cơ thể con người): foot, nose, lip
- Animals (từ chỉ các loài động vật): cow, swine, goose
- Plants (từ chỉ các loại thực vật): corn, tree, birch
- Times of day (từ chỉ thời gian trong ngày): day, night
- Heavenly bodies (từ chỉ các yếu tố trên không gian): star, moon, sun
- Numerous adjectives (tính từ): red, new, glad
- Pronouns: personal, demonstrative
- Numerous verbs: be, sit, eat
Germanic Element:
- Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm
- Animals: fox, calf, bear
- Plants: oak, fir, grass
- Natural phenomena: rain, frost
- Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer
- Landscape features: sea, land
- Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench
- Sea-going vessels: boat, ship
Trang 3- Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white
- Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say
English Proper
4 The borrowed element
1 Celtic
Celtic words: bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle
Place names, names of rivers, hills (names of many parts and features of their territory): Avon, Exe, Eskm Usk, Ux
2 Latin
- 1 st B.C:
Names of new fruits and vegetables: butter, cheese, cherry, pear, plum… Some more examples: cup, kitchen, mill
- 7st A.D: names of persons, objects, and ideas associated with church and
religious rituals
- The Renaissance Period:
Abstract words (từ trừu tượng): filial, moderate, intelligent, elect, creat
Numerous scientific and artistic terms: datum, status, phenomenon, music, phylosophy
3 Scandinavian (8-11th c.A.D)
Ski-: ski, skate, sky, skill, skin
4 French
4.1 Normal borrowings: 11-13th c.A.D
Administrative words: government, council, power, state
Legal terms: court, crime, prison, judge, justice
Military terms: war, soldier, battle, officer, army
Educational terms: pupil, pen, pencil, lesson, library
Numerous terms: plate, saucer, autumn, uncle, river
4.2 Parissian borrowings (Renaissance)
Police, machine, ballet, matinée, technique
5 Greek (Renaissance)
Trang 4Numerous scientific and artistic terms: cycle, ethics, esthete, atom
6 Italian (Renaissance and later)
Opera, alarm, colonel, piano, violin
7 Spanish (Renaissance and later)
8 German
9 Indian
10 Russian
Trang 55 Word-building
Morphemes: smaller units which constitute the words Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only constituents of words Yet they possess meaning of their own
All morphemes are subdivided into 2 large classes: free -> roots (or radicals) and bound -> affixes (prefixes and suffixes)
5.1 Root words: house, book, tree, plant, see, heard -> have only a root morpheme
in its structure => conversion
The hammer -> to hammer
The nail -> to nail
Dog -> to dog
Wolf -> to wolf
Hand -> to hand
5.2 Derived words = a root + an affix (or several affixes) => affixation (or
derivation) E.g: invisible, invaluable
5.3 Compound words = 2 or more stems => composition E.g: dancing-hall, dancing-partner, mother-in-law…
Compounds:
+ Structurally:
- Neutral compounds:
+++ simple neutral compound = affixless stems E.g: sunflower, bedroom, tallboy…
+++ Derivational compounds have affixes in their structure E.g:
absent-mindedness, blue-eyed, music-lover…
+++ Contracted compounds have shortened stem in their structure
E.g: TV-set, V-day, H-bag…
- Morphological compounds E.g: Anglo-saxon, handiwork, spokesman, sportscar, statesman…
- Syntactic compounds: lily-of-the-valley, merry-go-round, mother-in-law, up-to-date…
Trang 6+ Semantically: basing on the degree of semantic cohesion of the constituent parts, it is divided into 2 groups:
- Non – Idiomatic compounds: their meanings do not correspond to the
separate meanings of their constituent parts: classroom, bedroom, working-man, sleeping-car…
- Idiomatic compounds: their meanings correspond to the separate
meanings of their constituent parts: blackboard, blackbird, football, pickpocket, chatterbox, ladybird, tallboy, bluestocking, butter-finger, man-of-war, merry-go-round, horse-marine…
5.4 Shortenings E.g: Laboratory-> lab, influenza -> flu
+ Clipping: airplane -> plane, influenza -> flu, examination -> exam, mathematics -> maths
+ Abbreviation: NATO = North Atlatic Treaty Organization + Initial Shortenings: Gif = Girl Friend
+ Blending: Channel + tunnel => Chunnel
Camera + recorder => Camcorder Breakfast + lunch => Brunch Spoon + fork => Spork
Trang 76 Meaning
Generally speaking, Meaning can be more or less described as a component
of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions
Types of semantic components:
- Denotations (Denotative Components): expresses the conceptual of a word
- Connotations (Connotative Components):
E.g:
Lonely: alone, without company (Denotation)
melancholy, sad (Emotive connotation) Glare: to look (Denotation)
steadily, lastingly (Connotation of duration) in anger, rage, etc (Emotive connotation)
CAUSES OF DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MEANINGS
- The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra-linguistic E.g: carriage: a vehicle drawn by horses -> new meaning: a railway car -> the new travelling conveyance was also naturally associated in people’s
mind with the old one: horse – drawn vehicle > part of railway train The job of both, horse-drawn carriage and the railway carriage, is the same: to carry passengers on a journey
- The second group of causes is linguistic factors
E.g: deer: any beast ->a certain kind of beast
It is important to note that in any case of semantic change, it is not the meaning but the word that is being transferred from one referent onto another The result of such tranference is the appearance of a new meaning
2 Types of transference:
- Transference based on Resemblance (Similarity): this type of
tranference is also refered to as linguistic metaphor A new meaning appears as a
Trang 8result of associating 2 objects due to their outward similarity Carriage is an
example of this type of tranference
Eye: hole in the end of a needle (kim khâu): based on resemblance of shape Drop: (a small particle of water or other liquid) -> new meanings: earrings (hoa tai) shaped as drops of water; candy of the same shape (viên kẹo).
Bar: original meaning barrier -> developed a figurative meaning realized in such contexts as social bar, colour bar
- Transference based on Contiguity: is refered to linguistic metonymy
The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty
2 objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied be the image of the other;
or they may be associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, of common position, of some material and an object which is made of it
+ Name of a container for what is contained: pint, a bottle (of wine)
+ Geographical names for the products: china, tweed, cheviot
+ Proper names as common names: sandwich, volt, watt
+ Names of material for the product: mink, iron, taffeta
+ Names of a separate part for a whole thing or vice versa:
They live under the same roof.
Your car needs servicing.
Glad: old meaning: bright, shining (applied to the sun, gold, precious stones, shining armour…) new meaning: joyful developed on the basic of the usual
association of light with joy
Hand of the clock: originates from the main meaning of this noun part of human body It developed due to the association of common function.
The result of tranference:
1 Generalization (Broadening) of the meaning:
Trang 9Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change
in range of meaning The range of the second meaning may be much broader/ more general or more narrow than that of the original meaning
E.g:
To arrive (French borrowing):
- The original meaning: to come to shore, to land
- The second meaning: to come -> to arrive in a village, town, city, at a
hotel, hostel, etc
-> The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity
Pipe:
- The earliest recorded meaning: a musical instrument
- The general meaning: any hollow oblong cylindrical body (water pipe)
-> The meaning developed through transference based on similarity of shape which finally led to a considerable broadening of the range of meaning
Bird:
- The original meaning: young of a bird
- The modern meaning: a creature with feathers and wings, usually able to
fly
-> The modern meaning developed through transference based on contiguity
2 Specialization (Narrowing) of the meaning:
Word The original meaning The narrowing meaning
male sex
Servant of the male sex
-> In all these words, the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity
3 Degeneration/Degradation and elevation of meaning
Trang 10These terms are open to question because they seem to imply (ngụ ý, bao
hàm) that meaning can become “better” or “worse” which is neither logical nor
plausible (hợp lí)
3.1 Degeneration of meaning
(to denote a person of bad repute or characteristics)
-> Semantically speaking, the second meaning developed a negative
evaluative connotation which was absent in the first meaning
3.2 Elevation of meaning
Word The first meaning The second meaning
1 Fond Foolish Loving, affectionate The situation is reserved: the first
meaning has a negative evaluative connotation, and the second meaning has not It is difficult to see what is actually “evaluated” here Certainly, it is not the meaning of the word
highwayman
Member of the Tories The first meaning has a pronounced
negative connotation which is absent in the second meaning Semantically speaking, the first one
is just as good as the second, and the difference lies only in the connotative structure
4 Knight Manservant Noble, courageous
man
The second meaning acquired a positive evaluative connotation that was absent in the first meaning So, here, once more, we are faced with
a mere readjustment of the connotative components of the
word
5 Marshal Manservant
attending horses
The highest rank in the
army
In these words, the second meaning developed due to the process of
Trang 11transference based on contiguity.
Lord and lady are also examples of
narrowing of meaning if we compare the range of the original and of the resultant meanings No connotation of evaluation can be observed in either of the meanings The fact that in all these cased, the original meaning denoted a humble ordinary person and the second denotes a person of high rank is absolutely extra-linguistic.
6 Lord Master of the
house, head of the
family
Baronet (aristocratic
title)
7 Lady Mistress of the
house, married woman
Wife or daughter of
baronet
-> All of that has been said and the examples that have been given show that the
terms “degradation” and “elevation” of meaning are imprecise and do not seem to
be an objective reflection of the semantic phenomenon they describe
It would be more credible to state that some cases of transference based on
contiguity may result in development or loss of evaluative connotations
Trang 127 Homonyms
7.1 Definition
Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least,
in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning
E.g:
- Ball: a large formal occasion where people dance
- Ball: a sphere, any spherical body
- Sent - cent - scent
- site - cite - sight
- right - rite - write - wright
- Bank: + financial institution
+ a shore of a river
- bear: + a large heavy animal with thick fur
+ to give birth to + to tolerate Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during development
In the process of communication they are more of an encumbrance, leading sometimes to confusion and misunderstanding Yet it is this very characteristics which makes them one of the most important sources of popular humor
7.2 Types of Homonyms
a, Homonyms proper (đồng âm, đồng tự)
Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are traditional termed homonyms proper
- Jet: + a thin stream of smt, such as water or gas, which is forced out of a small hole
+ a hard black stone which shines when it is rubbed and is used to make jewellery and other decorative objects
b, Homophones (phát âm giống nhau nhưng viết khác nhau): same in sound but different in spelling
Trang 13- Hour: means a twenty-fourth part of a day and night
Our: means belonging to us
- Bean / been
- night / knight
- piece / peace
- scent / cent / sent
c, Homographs are the words which are the same in spelling but different in sound
- Lead /li:d/: to conduct on the way, go before to show the way
Lead /led/: a heavy mental / a very dense, dark-grey, poisonous metal
- Bow /bau/ (v): to incline the head or body in salutation
Bow / bou/ (n): a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows
7.3 Source of homonyms
a, Phonetic changes:
b, Borrowing
c, Word-building
Conversion
- Comb (n) / to comb (v)
- Pale (adj) / pale (v)
- To make / make (n)
Shortening
- Fan: is a shortening produced from fanatic which means an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc
Fan: means an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air
- Rep : repertory / representative / reputation
- Bang: a loud, sudden explosive noise
Bang: a fringe of hair combed over forehead
d, Split polysemy