英语词汇学第一章自测题

1.  What is a word?

2.   In what way are words related to vocabulary?

3.   Illustrate the relationship between sound and meaning with examples.

4.  Enumerate the causes for the differences between sound and form of English words.

5.  Give examples to show the influence of early scribes on English spelling.

6.  What are the characteristics of the basic word stock?

7.  Choose the standard meaning from the list on the right to match each of the slang words on the left.

a.  tart                   girl     

b.  bloke                police

c.  gat                    great  

d.  swell                drunk   

e.  chicken              coward  

f.  blue                   loose woman

g.  smoky               pistol   

h.  full                    fight    

i.  dame                  fellow   

j.  beaver               woman  

8. Give the modern equivalents for the following archaic words.

haply = perhaps                      albeit = although

methinks = it seems to me     eke = also

sooth = truth                           morn = morning

troth = pledge                         ere = before

quoth = said                            hallowed = holy

billow = wave / the sea           bade = bid

9.  Explain neologisms with examples.

10.  What is the fundamental difference between content and functional words?

11.  How do you account for the role of native words in English in relation to loan-words?

12. Categorize the following borrowed words into denizens, aliens, translation loans and semantic loans.

Kettle                   confrere      chopstick       dream     die     pro patria    

black humour       skirt             parvenu     typhoon      wall      Wunderkind    

long time no see   Husband        mikado