Chapter 8

　　Context is very important for the understanding of word-meaning because the meaning is influenced immediately by the linguistic context， and in many cases by the whole speech situation as well.

　　Types of context

　　In a narrow sense， it refers to the words， clauses， sentences in which a word appears.

　　This is known as languished context with may cover a paragraph， a whole chapter and even the entire book.

　　In a broad sense， it includes the physical situation as whole. this is called extra-linguistic or non-linguistic context， which embrace the people， place， and even the whole culture background.

　　The extra-linguistic context may extend to embrace the entire culture background.

　　trade union in western countries/in China

　　Landlord in Chinese/in western country weekend

　　Linguistic context can be subdivided into lexical context and grammatical context

　　Lexical Context – refers to the words occur together with the word in question. The meaning of the word is often affected and defined by the neighboring word.

　　Grammatical context – The meanings of a word may be inflected by the structure in which it occurs.

　　Generally speaking， the immediate verbal context， either lexical or grammatical， will suffice for interpreting meaning of a word

　　As indicated. however， there are cases where the meaning of a word may remain a puzzle until a whole paragraph， a chapter or even a whole book covered.

　　the role of context content has three major function

　　elimination of ambiguity

　　Ambiguity often arises due to polysemy and homonymy. When a word with multiple meanings used in inadequate context， it creates ambiguity.

　　He is a hard businessman.

　　Jone ran the egg and spoon race.

　　John ran the egg and spoon race and won second place.

　　Homonymy is another cause of ambiguity as tow separate words share the same form.

　　Grammatical structure can also lead to ambiguity.

　　indication of referents

　　English has a large number of words used to refer directly to people， time， place， etc. without clear context， the reference can be very confusing

　　provision of clues for inferring word meaning

　　1. definition

　　2. explanation

　　3. example

　　4. synonym

　　5. antonym

　　6. hyponym

　　7. relevant details

　　8. word structure

　　Chapter 9

　　1.Idiom—idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences， which are peculiar to the language in question and loaded with the native cultures and ideas. Strictly speaking， idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual elements. In a broad sense， idioms may include colloquialisms， catchphrases， slang expressions， proverbs，etc.

　　2.Characteristics of idioms

　　a. Semantic unity - Idioms each consist of more than one word， but each is a semantic unity. Though the various words which make up the idiom have their respective literal meanings， in the idiom they have lost their individual meaning. Their meanings are not often recognizable in the meaning of the whole idiom. The part of speech of each element in no longer important. Quite often the idiom functions as one word.

　　E.g. till the cows come home forever

　　The relationship between the literal meaning of each word and the meaning of the idiom is illogical. Many idioms are semantically inexplicable.

　　E.g. How do you do

　　Wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve show one’s feeling plainly

　　Rain cats and dogs

　　b. Structural Stability – the structure of an idiom is to a large extent unchangeable.

　　1.The constituents of idioms cannot be replaced. The structure is fixed.

　　E.g. in a brown study deep in thought

　　lip service support only in words， not in fact

　　kick the bucket die

　　bury the hatched （come to friendly or peaceful terms）

　　2.The word order cannot be inverted or changed.

　　E.g. by two and threes 三三两两

　　tit for tat 针锋相对

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