THE HONG KONG INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
Course Outline
Programme Title
: Master of Education Programme (Two-year Part-time)
Course Title
: Lexis, Morphology and Semantics
Department
: English
Credit Points
: Three
Contact Hours
: 39
Pre-requisite(s)
: Nil
[If applicable.]
Level
:
[If applicable. For example, for Discipline Studies under the BEd Core Curriculum, there are three levels of modules
to reflect the progression of study or the extent of in-depth knowledge.]
Synopsis:
This module develops participants’ knowledge of the lexical, morphological and semantic properties of
English words, together with techniques and terminology for the analysis of their formation, semantic
meanings and the relations between them. Attention is given to how word meanings are acquired, stored
and communicated by monolingual and bilingual speakers.
Objectives :
To enable participants to
a. deepen their understanding of word formation processes and productivity;
b. further their knowledge of the semantic properties of and lexical relations between words;
c. gain added facility in the analysis of spoken and written texts; and
d. apply and utilize such enhanced insights for various appropriate pedagogical purposes.
Content
Lexis:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Concepts of word - definitions and dilemmas; Hellenic, Italic, Germanic and other sources historical review;
Morphology:
Morpheme identification; derivation and inflexion; adding to the lexicon;
Semantics:
Aspects of meaning; semantic feature analysis; relational models; the semantics of figurative
language;
Vocabulary teaching:
Principles and techniques; learner and learning
strategies, acquisition and storage;
corpora and datadriven learning;
1
5.
Pedagogical application:
An independently conducted mini-project involving aspects such as text analysis,
identification of learner strengths/error identification, correction and explanation, and related
materials creation.
Assessment
A portfolio of take-home tasks demonstrating mastery of the linguistic concepts introduced in
a.
b.
Sessions 1-5 of the module (2,000-2,500 words) (50%)
A mini-project report demonstrating application of principles of vocabulary acquisition
introduced in Sessions 6-10 to a specific context of vocabulary teaching or learning (2,0002,500 words) (50%)
Required Text
Hatch, E.M. & Brown, C. (1995). Vocabulary, semantics and language education. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Recommended Reading
Bauer, L. (1993). English word-formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (1991). Vocabulary and language teaching. London: Longman.
Collins Cobuild (1991). English guides 2 – Word formation. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Gairns, R., & Redman, S. (1986). Working with words: A guide to teaching and learning
vocabulary. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Granger, C. (1993). Play games with English. Oxford, UK: Heineman.
Gregory, H. (2000). Semantics. London: Routledge.
Hurford, J. & Heasley, B. (1999). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. London: Macmillan.
Lyons, J. (1995). Semantics: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.
Palmer, F.R. (1981). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thornbury. S. (1999). About Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Widdowson, H.G. (1997). Linguistics. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Yule, G. (1996). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Related Websites
Lexis
History of English: http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hel/hel.html
History of English chronology:http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/chron.html
Old English (OE):http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/old_english.html
Middle English(ME): http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.html
Chaucer database: http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/tools
Shakespearean English: http://www.renfaire.com/Language/index.html
English Lexicography: http://angli02.kgw.tu-berlin.de/lexicography/b_history.html
Pidgins & creoles archive: http://www.pca.uni-siegen.de
New Englishes: http://www.postcolonialweb.org/index.html
Etymology: http://www.etymonline.com
2
Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.m-w.com
Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories:
http://www.m-w.com/whist/etyterm.htm
Lexicography: Samuel Johnson http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Johnson/Guide
Lexicolgraphy: Noah Webster http://www.lexrex.com/bios/nwebster.htm
Morphology & Semantics
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~eng101/workbook/semantics/contents/index.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Cool
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/morphology/index.html
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/semantics/index.html
Homophones http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/ps4glehomy.htm
http://www.taupecat.com/personal/homophones
homographs http://www.quia.com/cb/8285.html
http://www.opundo.com/homographs.htm
http://d2.dir.dcn.yahoo.com/social_science/linguistics_and_human_languages/words_and_wordpla
y
Jabberwocky http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/jabberwock.html
Euphemisms: http://www.westwords.com/GUFFEY/euquiz.html
Concordancing
http://www.edict.com.hk/concordance/
http://cobuild.collins.co.uk/CorpusSearch.aspx
Teaching ideas and materials
http://www.englishpage.com/lessonarchive/lessonarchive.html
http://www.nanana.com/content/complete.php
http://www.hkedcity.net/english/english-centre/vocabulary/archive/
Related Journals
Nil
3