CHAPTER I A GENERAL SURVY OF ENGLISH

VOCABULARY1. The definition of word2. The development of English vocabulary A. English vocabulary as viewed in the

historical perspective B. The rapid growth of present-day English vocabulary

3. Classification of English words according to different criteria

THE DEFINITION OF WORD

• What is a word?

• A word is a minimum free form(Bloomfield 1933)

• A word is defined by the association of a given sense with a given group of sounds capable of a given grammatical use(Antoine Meillet)

• A word may be defined as one of the fundamental units of speech and as having a minimum free form. It is a unity of sound and meaning, capable of performing a given syntactical function.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY

• All the words in a language together constitute what is known as its vocabulary

• English vocabulary as viewed in the historical perspective

• The period from 450 to 1150 is known as the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon period.

• The period from 1150 to 1500 is known as the Middle English period.

• The period from 1500 to the present day is called the Modern English period.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH 1

• The pronunciation of Old English words differs somewhat from that of Modern English words.

•

• O.E vowels undergone changes Mod.E stan stone fot foot fyr fire represented the sound of th by p and Ǿ

wip with Ǿa then

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH 2

• The basic elements remained. They express fundamental concepts of human life, such as: mann (man), wif (wife), cild (child), hus (house), benc (bench), mete (meet, food)

• Old English was a highly inflected language. It had a complete system of declensions with four cases and conjugations.It’s a synthetic (not analytic) language.