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Chapter Three
Lexicon
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词汇学
What is word?
The formation of words
Lexical change
通过本章的学习使学生对词汇、形态学和
语言的变化有所认识，了解词的定义、形
成以及词汇变化。
1. What is word?
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A unit of expression that has universal
intuitive recognition by native speakers,
whether it is expressed in spoken or written
form. – A vague definition.
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Three senses are involved in defining “word”,
none of which is satisfactory to cope with all the
situations.
1.1 Three senses of “word”
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A physical unit: a cluster of
sound segments or letters
between two pauses or blanks,
eg
Phonological:
 Orthographic: It is wonderful.
 Three words are recognized.
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However, in casual speech or
writing, it often becomes:
Phonological:
 Orthographic: It’s wonderful.
 Are they two words or three?
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A set of forms: walk, walks, walking, walked
How many words are there?
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I usually have dinner at 6 but yesterday I had it
at seven.
How many times did the word “have” occur?
A lexical item or a lexeme
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A lexical item is an entry in a dictionary. A
lexeme WRITE includes all of its
grammatical forms:
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write, writes, writing, wrote, written
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A grammatical unit:
sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme
Problem: blackboard
1.2 Identification of words
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Stability: stable linguistic units.
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chairman, but not *manchair
Relative uninterruptibility: though we
recognize three components in the word
disappointment, we cannot pause and add
another component in between, as in
*disinterestappointment.
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But we can add another word between words:
Paul, (John) and Mary ...
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A minimum free form: the smallest unit that
can constitute a complete utterance by itself,
eg
—Is Jane coming tonight?
 —Possibly.
 Hi.
 Wonderful.
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1.3 Classification of words
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Variable vs. Invariable Words:
Variable words: they may have inflective
changes. The same word may have different
grammatical forms but part of the word remains
relatively constant.
write, writes, writing, wrote, written; cat, cats.
 Invariable words: words which do not inflective
endings.
since, when, seldom, through, etc.
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Grammatical vs. Lexical Words:
Grammatical/Function words: conjunctions,
prepositions, articles, pronouns.
 Lexical/Content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs.
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Closed-class vs. Open-class Words:
Closed-class words: New members cannot
normally be added, eg pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, articles, auxiliaries.
 Open-class words: New members can be added,
eg nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
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Word class: known as Parts of Speech in
traditional grammar.
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Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition,
pronoun, conjunction, interjection, article, etc.
Some new terms in word class:
Particle: infinitive to, negative not, subordinate
units in phrasal verbs “get by”, “look back”, etc.
 Auxiliary: do, have
 Modal verbs: can, will, may, must, etc.
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Pro-forms: substitutes for other terms.
Pronoun: he, she, I, they, everyone
 Pro-adjective: Your car is red. So is his.
 Pro-verb: He speaks English better than he did.
 Pro-adverb: He hopes to win and I hope so too.
 Pro-locative: He went there.
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Determiner: all the articles, demonstratives,
and quantifiers that appear before the noun
and its modifiers.
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As many as three determiners may be used in
each case and there is a fixed order when there
is more than one.
Pre
all
all
Central
her
her
her
Post
many
many
many
all
what a
the
one
a few
both my father’s
Modifier Noun
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
good
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
ideas
idea
idea
ideas
parents
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Predeterminers: all, both; half, one-third,
three-quarters …; double, twice, three
times …; such, what (exclamative)
Central determiners: the; this, these, that,
those; we, us; you; which, what (relative),
what (interrogative); a, another, some, any,
no, either, neither; each, enough, much,
more, most, less; a few, a little
Postdeterminers: every; many, several, few,
little; one, two, three …; (a) dozen
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*their all trouble
*five the all boys
*all this boy
*all both girls
2. Morphology
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Morphology: the study of word-formation, or
the internal structure of words, or the rules
by which words are formed from smaller
components – morphemes.
purify ← pur(e) + -ify
Verb ← adj. + -ify a morphological rule
amplify, simplify, electrify, falsify
2.1 Morphemes
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The smallest unit of language in terms of
relationship between expression and content,
a unit that cannot be further divided into
smaller units without destroying or
drastically altering the meaning, whether it
is lexical or grammatical.
boys, chairman, checking, disappointment,
disestablishmentarianism
2.2 Types of morphemes
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Free vs. Bound morphemes:
Free morphemes: those that may constitute
words by themselves, eg boy, girl, table, nation.
 Bound morphemes: those that cannot occur
alone, eg -s, -ed, dis-, un-.
 All monomorphemic words are free morphemes.
 Polymorphemic words which consist wholly of
free morphemes are compounds: paymaster,
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moonwalk, babysit, godfather, sunflower.
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Root: the base form of a word that cannot be
further analyzed without total loss of identity,
eg friend as in unfriendliness.
Roots may be
free: those that can stand by themselves, eg
black+board; nation+-al; or
 bound: those that cannot stand by themselves,
eg -ceive in receive, perceive, conceive;
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remit, submit, permit, commit
retain, contain, maintain
incur, recur, occur .
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A few English roots may have both free and
bound variants: sleep, slept, child, children
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Affix: the type of formative that can be used
only when added to another morpheme.
Normally divided into
prefix (dis-, un-) and
 suffix (-en, -ify).
 infix (feet, goose, geese,
abso-bloomingly-lutely)
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Base: a morpheme to which an affix is
added, eg
A base is any form to which affixes of any
kind can be added; a form to which a rule of
word-formation is applied. Any root or stem
can be a base, desirable is a base in
undesirable, internation is a base in
international.
friend
root > base
 friendly
root/base + suffix > base
 unfriendly
prefix + base > base
 unfriendliness
base + suffix > base?
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Stem: a morpheme or combination of
morphemes to which an inflectional affix
may be added, eg friend+-s; write+-ing,
possibility+-es.
Inflection: grammatical endings, eg plural,
tense, comparative, etc.
Derivation: combination of a base and an
affix to form a new word, eg friend+-ly >
friendly.
Inflectional affix
(Inflectional morphemes)
Derivational affix
(Derivational morphemes)
Often only add a minute or delicate
grammatical meaning to the stem, Serve to
produce different forms of a single word
Toys, walks, John’s
Often change the lexical meaning
Cite citation;
Gernerate generation
Do not change the word class
flower/flowers
change class
not change class
small/smallnes brother/brotherhood
s
Are conditioned by nonsemantic factors
outside the word they attach to but within
the phrase of sentence.
The boy likes to navigate on the internet.
Are often based on simple meaning
distinctions.
Clever:
1.the property: clever
2.the state of being clever:
cleverness
Mostly suffixes, always word final
Drums, walks, Mary’s
Be prefixes
disable, depart,
online
suffixes
slaver, teacher,
workable
2.3 Word-formation
Morphology
Inflectional Derivational/
Morphology
Lexical
Morphology
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Inflections (Inflectional morphology)
The manifestation of grammatical
relationships through the addition of
inflection affixes, such as number, person,
finiteness, aspect and case, which do not
change the grammatical class of the stems
to which they are attached.
Number: table/tables, apple/applescar/cars
Person, finiteness and aspect:
talk/talks/talking/talked,
open/opens/opening/opened,
Inflection
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Nominal forms: boys, boy’s
Verb forms: wants, wanted, wanting
Adjective/adverb forms: smaller, smallest
Each set constitutes a single paradigm, a set
of grammatically conditioned forms all
derived from a single root or stem.
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Word formation (Lexical / Dervational
morphonogy)
The process of word variations signaling
lexical relationships.
purify → pur (e) + -ify
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Two types: Compound and Derivation
Compound (Compositional type) : Words
that consist of more than one lexical morpheme,
or the way to join two separate words to
produce a single form. Relations between lexical
Compounding
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Two or more free roots combine to make a
new word.
Noun compounds: daybreak, playboy, haircut,
windmill
 Verb compounds: brainstorm, lipread, babysit
 Adjective compounds: gray-haired, insect-eating,
dutyfree
 Preposition compounds: into, throughout
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Endocentric & exocentric
Endocentric: one element serves as the head,
the relationship of “a kind of”; eg
self-control: a kind of control
 armchair: a kind of chair
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Exocentric: there is no head, so not a
relationship of “a kind of something”, eg
scarecrow: not a kind of crow
 breakneck: not a kind of neck
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Written forms of compounds
Solid: blackboard, teapot, bodyguard
 Hyphenated: wedding-ring, wave-length
 Open: coffee table, washing machine
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Free variation:
businessman, business-man, business man
 winebottle, wine-bottle, wine bottle
 no one, no-one, noone
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Derivation (Derivational type)
Relations between roots and affixes
un + conscious → unconscious,
nation + al →national,
national + ize →nationalize,
nationalize + ation →nationalization
Derivation
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Class-changing:
N>V: lengthen, hospitalize, discard
 N>A: friendly, delightful, speechless
 V>N: worker, employee, inhabitant
 V>A: acceptable, adorable
 A>N: rapidness, rapidity
 A>V: deafen, sweeten
 Adj>Adv: exactly, quickly
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Class-preserving:
N>N: nonsmoker, ex-wife, booklet
 V>V: disobey, unfasten
 A>A: grayish, irrelevant
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2.4 Sememe vs. Morpheme, and
Phoneme vs. Morpheme
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Sememe vs. Morpheme
 Sememe is the smallest component of
meaning.
The morpheme –s has only one sememe:
PLURALITY, meaning more than one.
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Five occasions of the relationship
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One morpheme vs. one sememe
-less: WITHOUT. fearless, careless, countless, faceless
One morpheme vs. more than one sememe
a-:
1. arise, await, enhance the meaning of the original senses
rise and wait;
2. awash, ablush, changes both the semantic and the
grammatical catories of wash and blush, verb → adj;
3. atypical, asymmertry, no, non
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One sememe vs. more than one morpheme
no, non: atypical, erostrate, illegal, neither, untidy
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Morphemes that have no specific sememe
en- has no specific sememe, but may help change
grammatical and semantic categories.
joy (adj, quality) enjoy (verb, event)
cran-: cranberry --- blueberry, blackberry, cloudberry
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Function changes in both sememe and morpheme
without morpheme change
run: run a company (verb, event)
in a short run (noun, thing)
No morpheme change, but the sememe is changed:
progress, fish,
fat (verb, event / noun, thing / adj, quality)
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Morpheme vs. phoneme
Morphophonology (Morphonology,
Morphonemics, Morphophonemics): a branch of
linguistics that refers to the analysis and
classification of the phonological factors that
affect the morpheme forms and, correspondingly,
the morphological factors that affect the phoneme
forms. It studies the interrelationship between
phonology and morphology.
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A single phoneme vs. a single morpheme
A single phoneme may represent a single morpheme,
but they are not identical.
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A single morpheme vs. multiple phoneme
Morphemes may also be represented by phonological
structures other than a single phoneme.
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Thus, the syllabic / phonological structure of a word and its
morphemic / grammatical structure do not necessarily
correspond.
tell + er /te + lә /
big (g) + er /bi + gә /
Allomorph
Some Morphemes have a single form in all contexts: dog, bark, cat…
A morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms:
map
dog
watch
mouxe
ox
tooth
sheep
maps
dogs
watches
mice
oxen
teeth
sheep
/ mæps /
/ d£gz /
/ w£t∫iz /
/ mais /
/'£ksn /
/ ti:θ /
/ ∫i:p /
voiceless /s/
voiced /z/
vowel-consonant structure /iz/
diphthong /ai/
nasal sound /n/
long vowel /i:/
zero form /Ø/
The plural morpheme can be expressed in the form of
{ -s ~ -z ~ -iz ~ -ai ~ - i: ~ -n ~ - Ø }.
Morpheme, like phoneme, is an abstract unit, but on a
higher level of abstraction. It consists of a sequence of
classes of phonemes and has either lexical or
grammatical meaning.
 Some morphemic forms represent different
morphemes and thus have different sememes.
The morphemic shape –s can express
plurality: tables, apples, cars
person / finiteness: talks, opens, shouts
case: boy’s, John’s, university’s
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 Morphemic
conditions
Morpheme shapes vary according to
both phonological conditions and to
the conditions of their own.
▲ Phonologically conditioned
The form or shape of morphemes may be conditioned
by phonological factors.
/n/ (alveolar nasal) changes to /m/ (bilabial
nasal) to make it more similar to
/p/(bilabial stop).
The assimilation of /n/ is to be conditioned
by /p/.
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grammar
glamor
peregrinus pilgrim
marbre
marble
The phoneme /r/ dissimilates to /l/.
Dissimilation refers to the influence
exercised by one sound segment upon the
articulation of another, so that the sounds
become less alike, or different.
▲ Morphologically conditioned
Morphemes can also be conditioned by
morphological factors.
 Three requirements should be met.
a. All the allomorphs should have common meaning.
E.g. the plural morpheme
{ -s ~ -z ~ -iz ~ -ai ~ - i: ~ -n ~ - Ø }.
b. All the allomorphs should be in complementary
distribution.
c. Allomorphs that share the common meaning should
occur in parallel formation.
3. Lexical change
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Formation of new words
Phonological change
Morphosyntactic change
Semantic change
Orthographic change
3.1 Word-formation through lexical
change
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Invention/Coinage
Mostly brand names:
 Kodak, Coke, nylon, Band-aid, Xerox, Lycra
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Blending
transfer+resistor>transistor
 smoke+fog>smog
 motorist+hotel>motel
 breakfast+lunch>brunch
 modulator+demodulator>modem
 dance+exercise>dancercise
 advertisement+editorial>advertorial
 education+entertainment>edutainment
 information+commercial>infomercial
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Back-formation
diagnose < diagnosis
 enthuse < enthusiasm
 laze < lazy
 liaise < liaison
 reminisce < reminiscence
 statistic < statistics
 televise < television
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burgle, commentate, edit, peddle, scavenge,
sculpt, swindle
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air-condition, babysit, brainstorm, brainwash,
browbeat, dry-clean, house-hunt, housekeep,
sightsee, tape-record
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articulate, assassinate, coeducate, demarcate,
emote, intuit, legislate,marinate, orate, vaccinate,
valuate
Abbreviations
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Clipping
Back-clippings: ad(vertisement), chimp(anzee),
deli(catessen), exam(ination), hippo(potamus),
lab(oratory), piano(forte), reg(ulation)s
 Fore-clippings: (ham)burger, (omni)bus,
(violin)cello, (heli)copter, (alli)gator,
(tele)phone, (earth)quake
 Fore-and-aft clippings: (in)flu(enza),
(de)tec(tive)
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Acronym
AIDS, Aids: Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome
 ASAP: as soon as possible
 CD-ROM: compact disc read-only memory
 WASP: white Anglo-Saxon protestant
 dink(y): double income, no kids
 nilk(y): no income, lots of kids
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Initialism
AI: artificial intelligence
 a.s.a.p.: as soon as possible
 ECU: European Currency Unit
 HIV: human immunodeficiency virus
 PC: personal computer
 PS: postscript
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RSVP: répondez s’il vous plait (‘please reply’ in
French)
Analogical creation
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From irregular to regular:
work: wrought > worked
 beseech: besought > beseeched
 slay: slew > slayed?
 go: went > goed???
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Borrowing
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French: administration, parliament, public,
court, crime, judge, army, enemy, officer,
peace, soldier, war, faith, religion, coat,
costume, dress, fashion, jewel, dinner, feast,
fry, roast, supper, toast, customer, money,
price, art, college, music, poet, prose, story,
study
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Latin: admit, client, conviction, discuss,
equal, index, library, medicine, minor
Greek: catastrophe, cosmos, criterion,
idiosyncrasy
Spanish and Portuguese: banana, barbecue,
cafeteria, cargo, chocolate, cigar, cocaine,
cockroach, cocoa, guitar, mosquito, negro,
potato, tank, tobacco, tomato, vanilla
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Italian: aria, bandit, broccoli, casino,
concerto, duet, finale, influenza, mafia,
malaria, paparazzi (singular paparazzo),
piano, pizza, solo, soprano, spaghetti, studio,
umbrella, volcano
Dutch: boss, brandy, cookie, cruise, deck,
dock, dollar, freight, gin, kit, knapsack,
landscape, luck, sketch, slim, smuggle, snap,
trek, yacht
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Arabic: admiral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra,
alkali, almanac, assassin, candy, hazard,
lemon, magazine, safari, sofa, zero
Indian: bungalow, cashmere, curry, ginger,
jungle, mango, polo, pyjamas (or pajamas),
shampoo, swastika, thug, yoga
Chinese: chop suey, chow, chow mein,
ginseng, gung-ho, ketchup (or catchup or
catsup), kung fu, tea, tofu (via Japanese),
typhoon
Types of loan words
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Loanwords:
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au pair, encore, coup d’etat, kungfu, sputnik
Loanblend
coconut: coco (Spanish) + nut (English)
 Chinatown: China (Chinese) + town (English)
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Loanshift
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bridge: meaning as a card game borrowed from
Italian ponte
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Loan translation, or calque
free verse < L verse libre
 black humor < Fr humour noir
 found object < Fr objet trouvé
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3.2 Phonological change
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Loss of sound:
loss of the velar fricative /x/ which existed in
O.E.
 loss of sound in fast speech,
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eg library, laboratory
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and > ’n in connected speech,
eg rock-’n-roll
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Addition of sound:
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L. studium > O.F. estudie, Sp. estudio, Port.
estudo
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Metathesis: changing the sequence of sound
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English: rascal > rapscallion
O.E. brid > bird, O.E. ox/ax > ask
Assimilation:
impossible, immovable
 irregular, irresponsible
 illogical, illegal
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3.3 Morphosyntactic change
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Morphological change:
third person singular present tense:
 -(e)th: do(e)th, goeth, hath, findeth >
-(e)s: does, goes, has, finds
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the campus of the university >
the university’s campus
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Syntactic change:
He saw you not. > He didn’t see you.
 I know not where to hide my head. > I don’t
know where to hide my head.
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Fusion/blending:
equally good + just as good > equally as good
 It’s no use getting there before nine + There’s
no use in getting there before nine > There’s no
use getting there before nine.
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3.4 Semantic change
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Broadening:
holiday: holy day (religion) > day for rest
 bird: young bird > any kind
 task: tax > work
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Narrowing:
meat: food >
 girl: young person > young woman
 deer: beast > a special kind of animal
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Meaning shift:
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bead: prayer > the prayer bead >
small, ball-shaped piece of glass,
metal or wood
Class shift: conversion to other
word classes
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engineer: person trained in
engineering > to act as an
engineer (N>V)
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Folk etymology: a popular but mistaken
account of the origin of a word or phrase .
history: Old French < Latin < Greek historia,
meaning 'knowledge through inquiry, record, or
narrative'.
 his story > herstory
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Fake etymology: a kind of folk etymology
Manhattan: man with hat on
 MBA: married but available
 PhD: perhaps have divorced
 golf: Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden
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3.5 Orthographic change
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Change of spelling:
Iesus > Jesus
 sate > sat
 Sunne > Sun
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