Words and their meaning PDF

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Words and their meaningChapter 1: What is a word? You have to interpret the term word in any particular context. A word is an ambiguous term that we use in many ways. It is regarded as an item bounded by spaces but in a sentence such as You can’t tie a bow with the rope in the bow of a boat Can’t is...

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Words and their meaning Chapter 1: •

What is a word? You have to interpret the term word in any particular context.

A word is an ambiguous term that we use in many ways. It is regarded as an item bounded by spaces but in a sentence such as You can’t tie a bow with the rope in the bow of a boat Can’t is the union of can can and not. If we regard can’t as two words written together and abbreviated, the total of words (14) comes to 15. There are also words that occur more than once: a and the. There is also the repetition of bow: orthographically, the two occurrences of this sequence of letters constitute a single word but the orthographic perspective ignores the meaning of the words, and talking about meaning we can see that they are two different words. There are: Orthographic words: words distinguished from each other by their spelling Phonological words: words distinguished from each other by their pronunciation Word-forms: grammatical variants Lexemes: items of meaning, the headwords of dictionary entries. In the sentence there are 11 orthographic words, with two instances each of a, the and bow. There are 12 phonological words, 13 word-forms, since grammatically we count can and not ad distinct word-forms and there are 13 different lexemes. Written and spoken Words: A language that haven’t a written form have a problem in deciding where the limits between words occur in speech Orthography is not always a good reflection of grammar and meaning. Linguists use different criteria from different linguistic levels to decide on word boundaries in languages that they are reducing to writing. In English the question of word boundaries in writing exists especially in how we write compound words, words that form a unit made up of two or more single words (time+keeper, time+lag, time+sharing). In English there are some words that create confusion between writing and speech: Homographs: words that are spelt the same but have different pronunciation and meanings (es: bow) In a dictionary this kind of words are given with separate entries. Homophones: words that are pronounced the same but have different spelling and meanings (es: feet/feat) In a dictionary this kind of words are separate headwords. Homonyms: words which are spelt and pronounced the same but with different meanings (es: bank= bank 1 : financial institution, bank 2: side of river or stream; bank 3 : a row of keys on a keyboard) Homonymy and polysemy are not always clear distinguishable We talk about polysemy to refer to one word having a number of senses or variants of a single meaning (grow); and about homonymy to refer to words with different meanings sharing the same form (bank).

•

Word – forms

Word-forms are grammatical variants. They are not different words but they are different forms of the same word. Even if they have some letters and sounds in common, the spelling and the pronunciation are a reflection of what are grammatical differences, they occur in different grammatical contexts. Concerning the meaning, they can be regarded as the same word but it is not a case of polysemy, in fact, the dictionary does not enter different senses for these items but it is a case of variant form, differing according to grammatical functions and context. They are inflections for different classes of words. We have now to identify four kinds of ‘word’:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Orthographic words Phonological words Word-forms : grammatical variants Lexemes : the headword of dictionaries entries

Lexemes: Lexemes are headwords of dictionary entries, the base forms of the words, from which other words forms are considered to be derived. For verbs the base form is the present tense form or the infinitive form without to. For the verb ‘’be’’ there is a difference because ‘’ be’’ is not the present tense form. There is no difference between irregular and regular verbs. • For nouns the base form is the singular common case form; • for adjectives the base form is the absolute form; • for other words such as adverbs and prepositions, where there are no grammatical variants, there is only one form that can be the headword. The headwords of dictionary entries are called citation forms of lexemes. If the word-form has a regular derivations from the base form, the dictionary entry does not indicate them; if the word-forms are irregular in their formation and cannot be deduced from the general rules of grammar, dictionary entries usually indicate them. Only the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary gives the word-forms of all lexemes. The entry under a particular headword may contain any derived lexemes which have been formed from the headword by a process of lexical derivation (singer may be found under the headword sing). These must be regarded as separate lexemes but they belongs to a different word-class and so are used in different ways in the structure of sentences. The other main subdivisions in dictionary entries are for the different senses of polysemous lexemes, which are variant meanings of a lexeme. Multi-word lexemes: A lexeme consists of no more than one orthographic word. There are also sequences of words which have to be considered as single lexemes: Such combinations are called phrasal verbs: a verb followed by an adverb particle that we understand them as single semantic unit. They have the same function in sentences as single-word verbs, except that the adverb particle may be detached from the verb word. Than we have prepositional verbs: a verb which the accompanying particle is a preposition. Prepositional verbs can be considered as belonging not to the verb but to the following noun phrase. Es: Jane looked out of the window (it refers to the window) Phrasal Verbs: The same argument cannot apply to phrasal verbs because some phrasal verbs do not take an object and because the adverb particle can be positioned after the object would suggest that it is independent of it. It is for this reason that phrasal verbs are regarded as single lexemes, while prepositional verbs are regarded as two lexemes, a verb and a preposition. Phrasal verbs are treated as separate headwords while prepositional verbs are usually treated as derivations of the verb word but it depends on how the meaning of the prepositional verb relates to the verb word without a preposition. There are cases like fire extinguisher, child safety seat. Structure of this kind are not always compound lexemes, but they are a gradation between compounds (single lexemes) and syntactic constructions (of several lexemes) which look like compounds. Idiomatic phrase: a more or less fixed sequence of words with a unitary meaning. They sometimes have a single-word equivalent and its meaning is not the sum of meanings of its constituent parts but has to be interpreted as a whole. Dictionaries treat idioms ad single lexemes and they entered as a derivative under one or more of the constituent words of the idioms, the ones that are considered to be central to the idiom.

LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL WORDS They are the bricks and mortar of sentences and they make the sentence grammatically complete and provide relations. Lexical words are the bricks while the grammatical words are the mortar or function words. Lexical words belong to classes of words which are opened (nouns, verbs, adjectives, many adverbs) in fact new items are continually being coined and some become obsolete and fall out of use. Grammatical word-classes have a small and stable membership that has not changed for lots of years, following the loss of the thou and thee forms, that continue in some dialects while other dialects have introduced yous and some varieties of American English have you-all as the plural of you. There is a gradation between completely lexical (nouns) and completely grammatical (articles). So… We can say that a word is a term used in number of related ways in different contexts.

Chapter 2

Where did English words come from?

The word ‘English’ comes from the name of one of the three Germanic tribes which invaded and settled in this island during the fifth and the sixth centuries: the Angles. English is essentially a Germanic language. This three tribes were Angles, Jutes and Saxons. They displaced Celtic, many of them fled before the invaders to arrive and many other became assimilated to the new tribes by intermarriage. Traces of Celtics survived in modern English, mainly in the name of rives, some town and cities. The three tribes spoke mutually intelligible dialects. The language of the country was the English ( now named after ‘’Anglo-Saxon’’ ). From the middle of the fifth century until the end of the eleventh century, it was the ‘’Old English’’ period of language ( abbreviated ‘’OE’’ in the dictionary , it constitute the bulk of the vocabulary used in everyday conversation) . A very large number of words have been incorporated in the dictionary from other languages (named after loan-words) through a process called borrowing. They frequently become nativised in the course of time : the pronunciation and the grammatical inflections and perhaps even the spelling are adapted to the system of English. Words of English usually are borrowed from Old English, Old Norse, Latin, Greek, French and Hindi. Words of Old English constitute the bulk ( maggior parte ) of the vocabulary Anglo-Saxon words used in everyday conversation. This is explained by the fact that Anglo-Saxons words occur more frequently than loan words. Anglo-Saxon words tend to be short consisting in one or two syllables . However words composed by more than three syllables are nearly always of foreign words. ‘’Speaking Anglo-Saxon ‘’ means for this reason speak in a plain and blunt way. The expression ‘’Anglo-Saxon words’’ is used as a euphemism for taboo words of ‘four-letter’ words. English vocabulary contains many pairs of words, one of whose members is of Old English origin and belongs to the register of informality, whereas the other member is a borrowed word and tends to be associated with more formal contexts. Examples: pluck – courage (French) : guts – determination ( Latin ) ; book – volume ( French ) The sources of borrowed words in English are basically historical. English speakers Borrowed words kept in contact with Islamic culture and Arabic language. Due to the Second War Word started a process of borrowing from German . But some borrowed words have been made into English. We can distinguish borrowed that have resulted • • •

from incidental culture contact from political conquest or invasion from cultural invasions

Invaders like Danes and Norvegians, spoke dialects of what has been called Old Norse that it’s the parent language of the modern Scandinavian languages. It was a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch , and so was related to the Old English spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. Unlike the Normans who were to follow them, the Scandinavian invaders never achieved political and cultural dominance over the entire country. They ruled the north-eastern part of the country know as ‘’Danelaw’’. Consequently their linguistic influence of English was relatively small. A number of words beginning with ‘’SK’’ were borrowed from Old Norse at this time like Skill, Sky, Skirt. The Old English 3rd person plural pronouns : hie, hiom, hiera were replaced with Scandinavian equivalents they, them, their. The most whispered relic of Old Norse is probably the ending –by in places like Whitby and Derby , meaning simple ‘village’. The second and linguistically far more significant political invasion was that of the Normans under William the Conqueror in 1066. William and his followers spoke the northern French dialect of Normandy but by that

time Normandy was lost to French in 1204 the influence on England was increasing that of central French. The French formed a cultural, social and political influence in many different ambits. Borrowed words of French origin often represent equivalents for native English words in a more formal stylistic level Example : child = enfant ; happiness = felicity More significant borrowed words from French are the ones that referring to law area like justice, jury, legacy, libel, perjury and many others. Similarly, words referring to the social and cultural pursuits of the nobility were also borrowed like grill, fry, boil, stew and roast. Also terms used in the hunt like chase, quarry, scent and track, or titles of the nobility like prince, duke, viscount and baron. Words derived from French are characterised by patterns of spelling: the –ity endings of felicity or equality : the –our ending of favour or the –ant of infant. Latin had a great influence because of the Church, in fact the borrowed words are mostly ecclesiastic terms and theological terms. It became also, after the Renaissance, the more generally language of learning. In modern English , many technical words are formed from Latin and Greek, they are combining forms. They can be recognised from their typical endings : -um, -us, -ex, -ix, -on. The following words have been borrowed from Geek : chromatic, criterion, enthusiasm , homologus.

French

German

Italian

Spanish

Russian

Indian

Australian

Borrowing is not the only process to expand the dictionary. One of the Making new Words most productive way to coin new words is a process called compounding. It involves combining two or more existing words in order to form a third, new word. Most compounds are nouns but most word-classes may contain compounds (overcharge = verb ; outside = adverb). For example the noun double-glazing is composed by an adjective and the present participle ( verbal noun ) glazing. There is another kind of compounding in which the parts of compound are not themselves independent words. These are compounds formed from the Latin and the Geek loan-words. We define this kind of compound ‘’neo-classical’’. Another process used for coined words is derivation. Derivation involves adding to an existing word either a suffix (at the end). Suffixes and prefixes can’t stand alone as a single word, they can just be combined with words. Examples: location = locate + ion ; dislocated = dis + located Frequently as we see with location, the affix changes verbs to nouns. Minor process of word formation are: • blending: two words are together and retaining part of each (es: telegenic is a blend of television) • clipping or abbreviation: such as fridge from refrigerator • back formation: which involves the removal of affixes (es babysitter (noun) preced the verb babysitting • acronyms: like UNESCO from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

Chapter 3

Dictionaries: the repositories of Words

If we consider more than one dictionary’s definition of words like cutaneous, javelin, polytheism, vegan , we could see that some dictionaries are more wordly. We can also see how often the same words occur in the definition of both dictionaries. Examples: vegan : CED = ‘a person who practises strict vegetarianism’ LCED= ‘a strict vegetarian who avoids food or other products derived from animals’ In general Collins English Dictionary is more wordy than Longman Concise English Dictionary. Organisation and structure: We have to consider a medium-size dictionary that is organised in three parts. Main body of a dictionary: is composed by the alphabetical list of headwords with their accompanying articles: the entries of dictionary. We call headwords those items printed in bold ( grassetto ) which initiate the entries in dictionary. Headwords could be made by single-word lexemes, multi-word lexemes such as phrasal or prepositional verbs or fixed expression or compounds written as separated words. Not in all dictionaries headwords have to be ‘words’ or even lexemes : some dictionaries include prefixes, suffixes and combining forms for neo-classical compounds (geo- , tele- -phile ) in the alphabetical list of headwords. Also included among the headwords may be abbreviation, proper names and people. Front matter: it preceded the main part, which the dictionary user is expected to have read before consulting the dictionary . The main part of the dictionary may be followed by a number of appendices, containing information that the dictionary editors consider may be use to the intended users of the dictionary, though the information may not itself be strictly ‘lexical’. The front matter include a list of editorial staff responsible who contributes on particular general varieties of English (American, Australian) or on technical varieties ( astronomy, aereonautics). There may be a foreword or preface, perhaps explaining how the dictionary differs from the previous edition or from other similar dictionaries. Then, the front matter will contain instruction on how to use the dictionary. Dictionaries vary in the amount of instruction that they give their users, for example Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary has just one-and-a-half pages of ‘’Notes to the User’’, while the Longman Concise English Dictionary has two-and-a-half pages of explanatory charts and ten-anda-half pages on ‘’How to use this Dictionary’’. Also keys to interpreter symbols and the pronunciations are in the front-matters or we can found them on the inside front or back cover of the dictionary. In the front-matter sometimes we can find essays on aspects of the English language. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for example has an essay on the history of English. An appendix that many dictionaries have, contains abbreviations which are established in the language. The same abbreviation could have different meaning : for example “adj” means adjective for linguists but it also means adjustment for bankers. Another appendix contains ‘foreign words and phrases’ like words and expressions from French or Latin. Dictionaries vary in the information that they include as appendix material. Tables of weight and measures occur on the inside back cover of Collins English Dictionary. We find personal names, names of countries of Great Britain or states of U.S.A , the books of the Bible and so on. Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, has twelve appendices covering some 58 pages, including musical terms, sings and abbreviations, the Geek alphabet, the Russian one and so on. Spelling and meaning: Two kinds of information for which a dictionary is consulted are to check the spelling of a word and to find out the ‘meaning’ of a word. So we have orthographical dictionaries like the one used by German speakers and it is without definitions. Is important to distinguish homonyms and homographs, lexemes which have the same spelling. Dictionaries usually differentiate homographs putting a number before the word, for example

three homographs of ‘’limp’’ are listed in the Longman Concise English Dictionary as 1limp, 2limp, 3limp. 1limp is the verb , 2limp is a noun and 3limp is an adjective. Numbers before the word are organised in base of the different word-class membership. Not all dictionaries distinguishes homographs in the same way. Another requirement in the description of the meaning of a word is to deal with polysemy, to distinguish the different senses of a lexeme, where this is appropriate. (metaphoric sense for example , physical and so on) . Sense of a word can also subdivided in subsenses. Each sense or subsense of a lexeme is provided with a definition, which is a description of its ‘meaning’. Definitions are the central part of a dictionary entry and for many people it is what they go to a dictionary for, they look for how a word is define. If we are looking for a lexeme derived by prefixation , we find them as separate headwords at the appropriate place in the alphabetical listing. In the case of lexemes derived by suffixation, these are sometimes found under the headword from which they are derived as what are called run-ons. As we have noted, derived words are treated as run-ons in LCED if they are not provided with a definition, because their meaning is deducible from that of the headword. Ancillary(accessorie) information: a dictionary is not made up just by definitions, it contains information. The pron...