Structure of the English Vocabulary
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THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England.Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as lingua franca in many regions. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organizations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Due to the significant assimilation of various European languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary.The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy. It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).
What is vocabulary?
“Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that studies all aspects of the vocabulary of a particular language.“[2] Lexicologists are interested in establishing the extent of the current vocabulary of a language or what constituted the vocabulary of a language at some point in the past. Hence, vocabulary is perceived and analysed from both a synchronic and a diachronic point of view.
Broadly defined, vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. If we go further into details vocabulary, or lexis, or lexicon appears to be the total stock of words of a language[3], its most important instrument of communication[4].
Merriam Webster online dictionary provides...
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England.Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as lingua franca in many regions. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organizations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Due to the significant assimilation of various European languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary.The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy. It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).
What is vocabulary?
“Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that studies all aspects of the vocabulary of a particular language.“[2] Lexicologists are interested in establishing the extent of the current vocabulary of a language or what constituted the vocabulary of a language at some point in the past. Hence, vocabulary is perceived and analysed from both a synchronic and a diachronic point of view.
Broadly defined, vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. If we go further into details vocabulary, or lexis, or lexicon appears to be the total stock of words of a language[3], its most important instrument of communication[4].
Merriam Webster online dictionary provides...