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English 121 09/29/05

English 121 09/29/05. The English Lexicon. What do we mean by lexicon ?. The study of the vocabulary of a language How words are formed How words develop over time How they are addressed in dictionaries How they relate to each other in meaning. Words…. What is a word?. Are these words?.

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English 121 09/29/05

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  1. English 12109/29/05 The English Lexicon

  2. What do we mean by lexicon? • The study of the vocabulary of a language • How words are formed • How words develop over time • How they are addressed in dictionaries • How they relate to each other in meaning

  3. Words… What is a word?

  4. Are these words? • book • store • tooth • brush • God • mother Why would you call these words?

  5. Are these words? • the • of • a • which • what • where Do all of these words fit your previous definition?

  6. What does it mean to know a word? • You know how to pronounce it roof; either; route • You (generally) know what it means • You know how other words can be formed from it able; unable; disable • You know its category (noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc.)

  7. What counts as a word? • two-fifths • cutting-edge • fixer-upper • NATO • CIA

  8. What counts as a word? • Mary • New York • Metallica

  9. What counts as a word? • Book • Store Bookstore • Tooth • Brush Toothbrush • God • Mother Godmother 1 or 2 words?

  10. What counts as a word? • bake; baking; baked • tell; telling; told • am; is; are; was; were; am; being • old; older; oldest How many words here? 4? 16?

  11. Lexemes • Include the word and its related forms as a single construct • “A unit of lexical meaning that exists regardless of its inflectional endings” (CEEL, p. 118) bake, tell, old, be are all lexemes

  12. How many words (lexemes) are in the English Language? • Depends on what counts as a word • If you use a dictionary, it depends on the decisions that dictionaries make. • Dictionaries written in the 1700s will not have the word telephone. • Dictionaries written in the 1950s will not have e-mail or fax • Is Metallica in the dictionary? By conservative estimates, between 450,000 and 500,000 English words.

  13. How many words do people generally know? • Depends…what does it mean to know a word? • To use it? • To know what it means? Active vocabulary: words you actually use Passive vocabulary: words you know, but may not use (e.g., davenport; lorry; the lift)

  14. The CEEL says… • Office worker • active 31,500 • passive 38,300 • Business woman • active 63,000 • passive 73,350 • College professor • active 56,250 • passive 76,250

  15. How does a language get (and increase) its vocabulary? • Affixation • Re-fax that will you? • Compounds • toothbrush • Shortening • feds; poli-sci; narcs • Acronyms/initialisms • WASP; NAFTA; AOL; GPA • blends • smog (smoke + fog); mockumentary (mock + documentary) • borrowing • pecan; boomerang; kung fu; alcohol

  16. Words and word meaning • We have lots of words that can refer to the same thing but are different. We can refer to these two different types of meaning as: • denotation • connotation

  17. Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary definition Snake: "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."

  18. Connotation refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

  19. Synonym Worksheet Do as a group…

  20. Word origins • colleague--Latin through French (1524) friend—Old English (1018—Beowulf) contemporary—Latin (1742) peer—Norman (1321) associate—Latin (1389) buddy—from the U.S. (1850) mate—middle low German (1582)

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