本书是普通高等教育“十一五”国家级规划教材。在编写过程中，我们力求跟踪学科理论的发展，充分体现英语专业本科教育的特点，教材的深度和广度上有利于学生掌握坚实宽广的词汇学基础理论知识，体现词汇学研究的前沿，提高学生在实际交际中正确使用英语词汇的能力，了解到词汇研究的发展。

本书既叙述英语词汇的内部结构特征，又讨论英语词汇与社会文化、认知的关系，力图内容充实，充分体现英语词汇研究的成果。

Chapter 1 Lexicology and Words?

 1.1 Introduction

 1.2 What Is Lexicology?

1.2.1 Morphology and Semantics

1.2.2 Etymology and Lexicography

 1.3 What Is a Word?

1.3.1 Difficulties in the Definition of the Word

1.3.2 Major Features of Words

 1.4 Words in Linguistic Analysis

 1.5 Word Classes

 1.6 Lexical and Grammatical Words

 1.7 Words and Semantic Fields

 Exercises

Chapter 2 Some Basic Concepts and Word Meanings

 2.1 Introduction

 2.2 Morpheme, Lexeme and Morph

2.2.1 Morpheme

2.2.2 Lexeme

2.2.3 Morph

2.2.4 Types of Morphemes

 2.3 Word Meanings

2.3.1 Denotation and Reference

2.3.2 Denotation and Sense

 2.4 Seven types of Meaning

2.4.1 Conceptual Meaning

2.4.2 Connotative Meaning

2.4.3 Social and Affective Meanings

2.4.4 Reflected and Collocative Meanings

2.4.5 Thematic Meaning

 2.5 Root and Stem

 2.6 Polysemy

 2.7 Homonymy

 Exercises

Chapter 3 The Origins of English Words

 3.1 Introduction

 3.2 The Development of English

 3.3 The Historical Periods of English

3.3.1 Old English Period (450-1066)

3.3.2 The Middle English Period (1066-1500)

3.3.3 Early Modern English Period (1500-1800)

3.3.4 The Modern English Period (1800-present)

 3.4 American English

 3.5 Native English Vocabulary

 3.6 Major Influences on English

3.6.1 The Scandinavian Influence

3.6.2 The Norman Conquest

3.6.3 The Latin Influence

 3.7 Borrowings in English

3.7.1 Latin words in English

3.7.2 Greek and French Loanwords

3.7.3 German, Dutch and Italian Loanwords

3.7.4 Loanwords from the East

3.7.5 Loanwords from Other Sources

 3.8 The Size of English Vocabulary

 3.9 Creation of New English Words

3.9.1 Root Creation

3.9.2 Onomatopoeic words and Ejaculations

3.9.3 Word formation

 Exercises

Chapter 4 Word Formation in English

 4.1 Introduction

 4.2 Inflection and Derivation

4.2.1 Definition of Inflection

4.2.2 Functions of Inflection

4.2.3 Derivational Affix

4.2.4 Functions of Derivations

4.2.5 Types of Derivational Affix

 4.3 Compounding

4.3.1 Definition of Compounding

4.3.2 Characteristics of Compounds

4.3.3 Common Patterns of compounds

 4.4 Other Word-formation Processes

4.4.1 Conversion

4.4.2 Blending

4.4.3 Shortenings

 4.5 Backformation

 4.6 Words from Proper Names and Metanalysis

4.6.I Words from Proper Names

4.6.2 Metanalysis

 Exercises

Chapter 5 Sense Relations

 5.1 Introduction

 5.2 Characteristics of Sense Relations

 5.3 Synonymy

5.3.1 Two Types of Synonymy

5.3.2 Difference Among Synonyms

 5.4 Antonymy

5.4.1 Gradable Antonyms

5.4.2 Complementary Antonyms

5.4.3 Converse antonyms

 5.5 Hyponymy

 5.6 Meronymy

 5.7 Collocation

5.7.1 Free and Fixed Combinations

5.7.2 Grammatical Collocations

5.7.3 Lexical Collocations

5.7.4 Other Features of Collocation

 5.8 Metaphorical Extension

 Exercises

Chapter 6 Idioms,Multiword Vers and Proverbs

 6.1 Introduction

 6.2 Idioms

6.2.1 Classification of Idioms

6.2.2 Different Aspects of Idioms

 6.3 Multiword verbs

 6.4 Proverbs

 Exercises

Chapter 7 English Dictionaries

 7.1 Introduction

 7.2 Organization of the Entry

7.2.1 Headword

7.2.2 Prommciadon

7.2.3 Grammatical Information

7.2.4 Etymology

7.2.5 Definition

7.2.6 Examples

7.2.7 Related Forms and Usage Labels

7.2.8 Illustrations

7.2.9 Supplementary Matter

 7.3 Corpora

 7.4 Dictionary Shelf-life

 7.5 Types of Dictionaries

7.5.1 General and Specialized Dictionaries

7.5.2 Monolingual and Bilingual dictionaries

7.5.3 Electronic and Print Dictionaries

7.5.4 Unabridged Dictionaries

7.5.5 Learner's Dictionaries and Children's Dictionaries

7.5.6 Thesaurus

 7.6 A Review of Some Dictionaries

7.6.1 The Oxford English Dictionary

7.6.2 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language

7.6.3 The Chambers Dictionary

7.6.4 Random House Webster's College Dictionary

7.6.5 Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

7.6.6 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

7.6.7 Collins COBUILD English Dictionary

7.6.8 Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

7.6.9 A New English-Chinese Dictionary and the English-Chinese Dictionary

 Exercises

Chapter 8 Words in Context

 8.1 Introduction

 8.2 Dialect

 8.3 Register and Style

 8.4 Taboo Words and Euphemisms

8.4.1 Taboo Words

8.4.2 Euphemisms

8.4.3 Classification of Euphemisms

8.4.4 The Use of Euphemisms

 8.5 Slang

 8.6 Jargon

 8.7 Meaning Shifts

8.7.1 Broadening

8.7.2 Narrowing

8.7.3 Amelioration and Pejoration

 Exercises

Chapter 9 English Words and Cognition

 9.1 Introduction

 9.2 The Mental Lexicon

 9.3 Metaphor

9.3.1 Cognitive Interpretation of Metaphor

9.3.2 Cognitive Modeling of Metaphor

 9.4 Spatial Terms and Spatial Relationships

9.4.1 The Flexibility of Spatial Terms

9.4.2 Cognitive Mappings of Spatial Terms

 9.5 Prototype and Radial Categories

9.5.1 Radiality and the Meaning of the Suffix-able

9.5.2 Radiality in Attributes

 Exercises

References