词汇学

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false .

1. Compounds are words formed by combining affixes and stems . F

2. As a rule, the stress of compounds falls on the first element . T

3. The meaning of a compound is usually the combination of the stems . F

4. A compound functions as a single grammatical unit , so the internal structure can not be changed . T

5. Conversion refers to the use of words of one class as that of a different class . T

6. Words mainly involved in conversion are nouns , verbs and adverbs . F

7. Partial conversion and full conversion are concerned with adjectives when converted to nouns . T

8. Such words as “ the poorer , the departed , a Republican ” are all examples of partial conversion . F

9. The conversion between nouns and verbs may involve a change of stress . T

10. An alternative for conversion is functional shift . T

11. An idiom contains at least two words . T

12. Idioms are fixed in structure and so can never be changed . F

13. Idioms are usually difficult to understand because the meanings of idioms are not in many cases the total of individual words . T

14. Stylistically speaking , most idioms are neither formal nor informal . T

15. Some idioms deny analysis in terms of grammar . T

16. All idioms are used in their figurative senses . F

17. A variation of an idiom is the same idiom used in a different sense . F

18. Since each idiom is a semantic whole , each can be replaced by a single word . F

19. Idioms are characterized by terseness , expressiveness and vividness . T

20. Semantic unity and structural stability are general features of idioms , but there are many exceptions . T

21. Words which have opposite meanings are called antonyms . T

22. Contrary terms are non-gradable and allow intermediate members in between . F

23. If a word has synonyms , naturally it has antonyms . F

24. Antonyms shoulds be opposites of similar intensity . T

25. Antonymy deals with the relationship of semantic opposition . T英语三个时期

Old English （450 ~

1150）。 After the Romans， the Germanic tribes called Angles， Saxons， and Jutes came in great numbers. Soon they permanent control of the land，which was to be called England.

Their language， historically known as Anglo - Saxon， dominated and almost totally blotted out the Celtic.

Now people generally refer to Anglo - Saxon as Old English. The introduction of Christianity had a great impact on the English vocabulary.

In the 9th century the land was invaded again by Norwegian and Danish Vikings.

With the invaders， many Scandinavian words came into the English languages. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50000 ~ 60000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like modern German.

Therefore， nouns， pronouns， adjectives， verbs， and adverbs had complex endings or vowel changes， or both， which differ greatly from the language that we use today.

（2） Middle English （1150 ~

1500）。 The Norman Conquest in 1066 started a continual flow of French words into English and Norman French became the polite speech. But by the end of the 13th century， English gradually came back.

During this period， Britain had trade relations with Holland and as a result， as many as 2500 words of Dutch origin found their way into English.

（3） Modern English. Modern English began with the establishment of printing in England. During the Renaissance， enormous numbers of Latin words became part of English vocabulary.

In the mid - seventeenth century， British tentacles began stretching out to every corner of the globe， thus enabling English to absorb words languages of the world.

Since the beginning of this century， thousands of new words have been created to express new ideas， inventions， and scientific achievements.

In modern English， word endings were mostly lost with just a few exceptions. It can be concluded that English has evolved from a synthetic language to the present analytic language from all major.