第一章=1\*Arabic1.Awordisaminimalfreeformofalanguagethathasagivensound,meaningandsyntacticfunction.2.Vocabularyreferstothesumtotalofallthewordsinalanguage.Inotherwords,vocabularyiscomposedofwordsandwordsmakeupvocabulary.Ifwecomparevocabularytoafamily,wordsarefamilymembers.3.Soundisthephysicalaspectofawordandmeaningiswhatthesoundrefersto.Soundandmeaningarenotintrinsicallyrelatedandtheircollectionisarbitraryandconventional.Forexample,tree/tri:/means樹inEnglishbecausetheEnglish-speakingpeoplehaveagreedtodosojustasChinesepeopleuse/shù/(樹)torefertothesamething.Thisexplainswhypeopleofdifferentlanguagesusedifferentsoundstoexpressthesameconcept.However,inthesamelanguages,thesamesoundcandenotedifferentmeanings,e.g./rait/canmeanright,rite,andwrite.4.Therearegenerallyfourmajorcausesofthedifferencesbetweensoundandform.⑴TherearemorephonemesthanlettersinEnglish,sothereisnowaytouseonelettertorepresentonephoneme.⑵Thestabilizationofspellingbyprinting,whichbreaksthesynchronizedchangeofsoundandspelling.⑶influenceoftheworkofscribes,whodeliberatelychangedthespellingofwordsand⑷borrowing,whichintroducesmanywordswhichareagainstEnglishrulesofpronunciationandspelling.5.Earlyscribeschangedthespellingofmanywordswhilecopyingthingsforothersbecausetheoriginalspellingformsincursivewritingweredifficultforpeopletorecognize,suchassum,cum,wuman,munkandsoon.Later,theletteruwithverticallineswasreplacedwitho,resultinginthecurrentspellingformslikesome,come,woman,monk.Thechangedspellingformsaremoredistinguishabletoreaders.6.WordsofthebasicwordstockformthecommoncoreoftheEnglishlanguage.Theyarethewordsessentialtonativespeakers’dailycommunication.Suchwordsarecharacterizedbyallnationalcharacter,stability,polysemy,productivityandcollocability.7.a.loosewomanb.fellowc.pistold.greate.cowardf.fightg.policeh.drunki.womanj.girl8.haply=perhapsalbeit=althoughmethinks=itseemstomeeke=alsosmooth=truthmorn=morningtroth=pledgeere=beforequoth=saidhallowed=holybillow=wave/theseabade=bid9.Neologismsrefertonewly-coinedwordsoroldwordswithnewmeanings.Forexample,euro(歐元),e-book(電子書),SARS(非典),netizen(網民),arenewly-coinedwords.Wordslikemouse(鼠標),web(網絡),spaceshuttle(航天飛機)etc.areoldwordswhichhaveacquirednewmeanings.10.Bynotion,wordsfallintocontentwordsandfunctionalwords.Contentwordsincludenouns,verbs,adjectives,adverdsandnumerals,whichhaveclearnotions;whereasfunctionalwordsarevoidofnotionsbutaremainlyusedtoconnectcontentwordsintosentences.Contentwordsarenumerousandchangingallthetime,whilefunctionalwordsaresmallinnumberandstable.Butfunctionalwordshavemuchhigherfrequencyinusethancontentwords.11.NativewordsformasmallportionoftheEnglishvocabulary,buttheymakeupthemainstreamofthebasicword-stockwhichbelongstothecommoncoreoftheEnglishlanguage.Comparedwithmostloan-words,nativewordsaremostlyessentialtonativespeakers’dailycommunicationandenjoyamuchhigherfrequencyinactualuse.12.DenizensAliensTranslationloansSemanticloans