1. English 121 09/29/05 The English Lexicon

2. What do we mean by lexicon? The study of the vocabulary of a language –How words are formed –How words develop over time –How they are addressed in dictionaries –How they relate to each other in meaning

3. Words… What is a word?

4. Are these words? bookstoretoothbrushGodmother Why would you call these words?

5. Are these words? theofawhichwhatwhere Do all of these words fit your previous definition?

6. What does it mean to know a word? 1.You know how to pronounce it roof; either; route roof; either; route 2.You (generally) know what it means 3.You know how other words can be formed from it able; unable; disable able; unable; disable 4.You know its category (noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc.)

7. What counts as a word? two-fifthscutting-edgefixer-upperNATOCIA

8. Mary New York Metallica

9. What counts as a word? Book Store Bookstore Tooth Brush Toothbrush God Mother Godmother 1 or 2 words?

10. What counts as a word? bake; baking; baked tell; telling; told am; is; are; was; were; am; being old; older; oldest How many words here? 4? 16?

11. Lexemes Include the word and its related forms as a single construct “A unit of lexical meaning that exists regardless of its inflectional endings” (CEEL, p. 118) bake, tell, old, be are all lexemes

12. How many words (lexemes) are in the English Language? Depends on what counts as a word If you use a dictionary, it depends on the decisions that dictionaries make. –Dictionaries written in the 1700s will not have the word telephone. –Dictionaries written in the 1950s will not have e-mail or fax –Is Metallica in the dictionary? By conservative estimates, between 450,000 and 500,000 English words.

13. How many words do people generally know? Depends…what does it mean to know a word? –To use it? –To know what it means? Active vocabulary: words you actually use Passive vocabulary: words you know, but may not use (e.g., davenport; lorry; the lift)

14. The CEEL says… Office worker –active 31,500 –passive38,300 Business woman –active63,000 –passive73,350 College professor –active56,250 –passive76,250

15. How does a language get (and increase) its vocabulary? Affixation –Re-fax that will you? Compounds –toothbrush Shortening –feds; poli-sci; narcs Acronyms/initialisms –WASP; NAFTA; AOL; GPA blends –smog (smoke + fog); mockumentary (mock + documentary) borrowing –pecan; boomerang; kung fu; alcohol

16. Words and word meaning We have lots of words that can refer to the same thing but are different. We can refer to these two different types of meaning as: –denotation –connotation

17. Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary definition Snake: "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."

18. Connotation refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

19. Synonym Worksheet Do as a group…

20. Word origins 1. colleague--Latin through French (1524) friend—Old English (1018—Beowulf) contemporary—Latin (1742) peer—Norman (1321) associate—Latin (1389) buddy—from the U.S. (1850) mate—middle low German (1582)