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Three criteria :
1) By use of frequency
2) By notion
3) By origin
By use of frequency 可划分为：
1) The basic word stock
2) Nonbasic word vocabulary
By notion 可划分为：
1) Content word
2) Functional word
Content words are also known as notional words . (Content words 的别称)
Functional words are also known as empty words, or form words. (
Functional words 的别称)
Functional words possesses a characteristic of basic word stock, i.e.
stability
According to Stuart Robertson ,et al (1957),* (年年考试必考) the nine
functional words , namely ,and , be , have , it , of , the , to , will ,you
What are the characteristics of basic word stock?
1) All national character
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2) Stability
3) Productivity
4) Polysemy
5) Collocability
要把握住‘All national character’的词,就是和我们日常生活息息相关的，最普通的词
稳定性是基本词的一个很大特点，请你举例说明？
e.g. man, woman , fire, water …
e.g. machine, video, telephone …
e.g. bow, chariot , knight
Stability is relative, not absolute.
根据词的use frequency 划分出的基本词之外，还有一类词叫作None basic
vocabulary, 非基本词有几大特点？或者是几大分类？
1) Terminology
e.g. sonata, algebra
2) Jargon
e.g. Bottom line ( Jargon )
3) Slang
e.g. smoky, bear ( Slang )
4) Argot
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e.g. persuader
5) Dialectal words
e.g. station ( AusE = ranch )
bluid ( ScotE= blood)
6) Archaisms
e.g. wilt (will)
7) Neologisms
e.g. email ( Neologisms )
beaver 是girl 的slang 表达方式，但是二者之间存在着Stylistic difference
Which constitutes the larger number among English vocabulary, content
words or functional words ?
Answer : Content words
What is native words?
Answer : (1) By origin, English words can be classified into native
words and borrowed words.
(2) Native words are words brought to Britain in the fifth century by
the German tribes: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, thus know as
Anglo-Saxon words.
(3) Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are small in number ,amounting to
roughly 50,000 to 60,000, but they form the mainstream of the basic
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word stock and stand at the core of the language
什么叫borrowed words?
Answer: (1) words taken over from foreign languages are know as
borrowed words or loan words or borrowings in simple terms.
(2) It is estimated that English borrowings constitute 80
percent of the modern English vocabulary
(3) The English language has vast debts .In any dictionary
some 80% of the entries are borrowed.
什么叫Denizens?
Denizens are words borrowed early in the past and now are well
assimilated into the English language. In other words they have come to
conform to the English way of pronunciation and spelling, such as port
from portus (L).
‘Denizens’的例子都要记：Port from portus (L), cup from cuppa (L),
shift from skipta (ON), shirt from skyrta (ON), change from changier
(F), pork from porc (F).
什么叫Translation-loans ?
Translation-loans are words and expressions formed form the existing
material in the English language but modeled on the patterns taken from
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another language, such as ‘ long time no see from haojiumeijian (Ch)
什么叫Semantic-loans ?
words of this category are not borrowed with reference to the form ,But
their meaning are borrowed , in other words, English has borrowed a new
meaning for an existing word in the language ,such as the word dream
,which originally meant ’joy’ and ‘music ’, and its modern meaning was
borrowed later from the Norse.
第二章：The development of the English vocabulary
The Indo-European Language Family
It is assumed that the world has approximately 3,000(some put it
5,000)languages ,which can be grouped into roughly 300 language
families on the basis of similarities in their basic word stock and
grammar . (重点：语系划分的标准）
What is the criteria to divide language families ?
The answer : 1. the basis of similarities in their basic word stock
2. grammar
(重点)The Balto-Slavic comprises such modern languages as(选择题内容：)
Prussian, Lithuanian , Polish ,Czech, Bulgarian ,Slovenian and Russian.
‘Indo-European’ 两大分支：