English Semantics Essay

The Use of Semantics in College English Vocabulary Teaching Abstract: Vocabulary teaching is the foundation of English teaching. As university English learning has entered an advanced stage, traditional English vocabulary teaching methods are often unable to solve the problems that often arise in students' vocabulary learning. This paper combines the principles of semantics and teaching practice, and focuses on the use of juxtaposition theory, structural semantics, frame semantics, semantic component analysis, and grammatical syntax in university English vocabulary teaching, aiming at improving the quality of university English vocabulary teaching. Keywords: semantics, university English vocabulary teaching, the use of semantics, vocabulary teaching quality, I. The Problem With the development of quality education and the implementation of the new curriculum reform, China's university English teaching has made a new breakthrough, and the focus of teaching has begun to shift to improve the English application ability of students, and vocabulary has become the key to improve the English application ability of students. The traditional English vocabulary teaching method only requires students to memorize the pronunciation, spelling and Chinese meaning of words, which leads to the isolation of the words learned by the students, thus students are unable to identify near-synonyms, improper collocation of words, and the phenomenon of "sinicization" of English, etc. How to make students learn vocabulary correctly and quickly? How to let students learn vocabulary correctly and quickly is a topic that every college English teacher should pay attention to. In this paper, we summarize the following teaching methods to stimulate students' interest and improve the quality of college English vocabulary teaching in view of the problems that often occur in students' vocabulary learning and the combination of the author's teaching experience and semantics theory. The use of semantics in college English vocabulary teaching (a) The theory of juxtaposition is the study of the relationship between certain words and other words in English. For example, the word mother is often used with the words nail varnish, son, father, etc., but seldom used with shave. Thus, the theory of juxtaposition does not refer to the meaning of words, but to the collocational relationship between words. This kind of collocation is the customary usage of people in the process of using language for a long time. However, the problem of improper collocation of words is common among college students in learning English. Students only memorize the Chinese meanings of English vocabulary, but do not understand the customary usage and potential meanings of the words. For example: grow children (should be rear children). In addition, due to the interference of Chinese thinking, students tend to match words according to Chinese habits. For example, I very like to play football. (I like to play football very much.) Therefore, in the process of teaching English vocabulary in college, English teachers can use the theory of juxtaposition to guide students to learn the reasonable collocation of words. In the process of instruction, teachers should make it clear to students that the partnership of words has both possibilities and limitations, and that the reasonable collocation of words is subject to many factors. For example, sometimes it is determined by grammar, sometimes by the semantic characteristics of words, sometimes by convention, and so on. These need to be taught by teachers according to the specific situation. In addition, teachers need to point out to students the unusual combinations of words. Some words do not normally go together, but they do in special cases. For example: lash the waves. In addition, there are many broken collocations in idioms, literature and new words, so students need to pay attention to the accumulation of them. (II) Structural Semantics Structural Semantics mainly studies the "Implicational Relations", which pays more attention to the "semantic relations" between some words or phrases and others, rather than the traditional semantics. This theory pays more attention to the "semantic relations" between some words or phrases and other words or phrases, instead of studying the semantic phenomenon of words in isolation and ignoring the semantic relations between words as traditional semantics does. Implicit semantic relations are mainly divided into Hyponymy, Antonym and Relativeness. Hyponymy is also called semantic inclusiveness, which refers to the inclusiveness of individual concepts. For example, the word flower (flower), the word tulip (tulip), violet (violet), rose (rose) and so on. The upper words are general words of the same kind, and the lower words are relatively specific words. tulip, violet, rose are similar words in semantic relationship. In the process of college English vocabulary teaching, teachers use the concept of similar relationship words to help students generalize and organize similar words to expand their vocabulary, and to help students use similar general words to make their writing concise. By analyzing the relationship between the meaning of words, students can avoid confusion and exercise their logical thinking ability. Antonyms mainly refer to: ① words with contradictory or opposing meanings, such as male-female; dead-alive; ② words with opposite meanings, such as: young-old; cold-hot. The former is semantically contradictory and cannot co-exist at the same time, while the latter is not semantically contradictory, they represent words of the same nature but different degrees. In English vocabulary teaching, the introduction of antonyms can help students understand the meaning of words more clearly. Usually when explaining words, teachers generally use near-synonyms to explain, in fact, some words are not easy to explain with near-synonyms, but by using antonyms to explain, students will understand more easily. For example, the antonym of rude is polite (rude is a new word, the students do not know the meaning, guide the students polite is the antonym of rude, the students will soon understand the basic meaning of the new word). By guiding students to distinguish between words with contradictory or opposing meanings and words with opposite meanings, teachers can help them to choose appropriate words for English expression. In addition, antonyms can also be used to modify the text to avoid dullness. Relative relations, also called converses, exist between pairs of words that are both opposite and interdependent. For example: husband-wife; above-below, the two are opposites and unity of the relationship, the semantics of this is called "strong relative relationship". There is another kind of relative relation between three words, which is called "weak relative relation". Students can expand their vocabulary by learning relativity, and they can utilize vocabulary and sentence patterns flexibly. Therefore, the application of structural semantics theory in college English vocabulary teaching can help students understand and utilize implicit vocabulary, so as to improve their ability of expression and use of English. (Frame Semantics Frame semantics is a unique semantic concept, which belongs to the cognitive linguistics. It can provide a new method for teaching English vocabulary. Vocabulary is a roadblock for college students to learn English. Although teachers and students spend a lot of energy on learning vocabulary, the result is often unsatisfactory. How to solve this problem, frame semantics provides us with a new way of thinking. In short, frame semantics is based on human cognition, and from different perspectives, English verbs are categorized and put into corresponding frames, and then for each corresponding frame, similar nouns are categorized according to their familiarity, and then taught in a hierarchical manner. As for other words, we can also follow the practice of nouns and verbs. For example, to learn the word money, you can set up a framework for buying and selling transactions, according to different perspectives (sell, send, buy, etc.) into two categories of buyers and sellers, and each framework has different elements that can be incorporated into the framework of the words to be learned, according to the degree of familiarity with the systematic and methodical learning. (Semantic Component Analysis In the process of English teaching, students may make wrong collocations because they can't recognize the meanings of near-synonyms. How can we help students to recognize the meaning of near-synonyms so that they can make correct collocations? Teachers can introduce the theory of semantic component analysis in the classroom to solve this problem. The theory of semantic component analysis has a long history of studying linguistics. It mainly studies Conceptual-lexical Relations (conceptual lexical-semantic relations), and the viewpoint is that the "meaning" of any word can be decomposed into some different "semantic components". The idea is that the "meaning" of any word can be decomposed into some different "semantic components", and these "semantic components" can be systematically categorized. We can use this theory to explain words, for example: bachelor - [Human] + [Male] + [Unmarried]. This theory is also helpful to help students recognize the differences between synonyms and collocations so that they can use the vocabulary correctly and skillfully in different contexts. In addition, semantic component analysis also helps to improve students' translation ability. When translating between English and Chinese, the choice of words is not arbitrary, but limited by semantic components. Accurate and proper translation should be based on recognizing the correct meaning of words. In the current English vocabulary teaching, how to make students correctly grasp the vocabulary is every English teacher's frustration, semantic component analysis provides a method for English teachers, it can help students accurately and firmly grasp the words, for vocabulary teaching has a certain significance, thus solving the teacher's problem to a certain extent. This theory was first put forward by the famous American linguist Fillmore in 1968, he summarized a new conclusion: every language has a table of deep structure of the "Semantic Case" (Semantic Case), each semantic case is associated with a preposition. Each semantic case is associated with a preposition. For example, Agent case is associated with the preposition by; Object case is associated with the preposition with; Instrument case is associated with the preposition with. Fillmore also believes that, from the point of view of deep structure, all noun phrases are prepositional phrases, which can not only be shifted in the sentence, but can even be omitted. Verbs are an important component of English sentences, and Fillmore believes that in deep structure, verbs are always used in conjunction with certain semantic frames, so he advocates that verbs should be dealt with in the way of deep frames. This is of great significance for semantic research, and we can categorize different verbs in this way. In addition, he proposed three test rules to determine the interrelationships of semantic frames in a sentence and to explore the status of semantic frames in a sentence. After Fillmore's theory was put forward, some semantic scholars carried out in-depth research and improved this theory. In English vocabulary teaching, teachers introduce the theory of semantic frame and deep frame to help students analyze English syntax from the semantic point of view and apply certain verbs correctly. For example: hit--[+-AO(I)]; enjoy--[+-EO], from which it can be seen that the relationship between a certain kind of verbs and certain semantic frames is clearly indicated in the deep frame. are explicitly represented. If students master the deep frame of verbs, they can learn the correct usage of verbs and sentence patterns. Effective university vocabulary teaching cannot be guided by correct linguistic theories, and the use of semantics in vocabulary teaching can better guide students to learn vocabulary efficiently. The author has discussed the application of five contemporary semantic theories in English vocabulary teaching. In fact, the role of semantics in college English vocabulary teaching is more than these, which still needs English teachers to explore in the actual study and work, in order to improve the level of English teaching in China. [2] Du Yu, Li Jing, Structural Semantics and English Vocabulary Teaching[J]. China Science and Education Innovation Guide,2007,(476). [3]Liu Yinglian. The application of English pragmatics and semantics[J]. Journal of Liaoning University of Engineering and Technology (Social Science Edition),2004,VOL 6,(3). [4] QIAN Deming,ZHOU Qingfang. Implications of Frame Semantics for the Teaching and Learning of English Vocabulary[J]. Journal of Suzhou Institute of Education,2005,VOL 22,(2). [5] Proceedings of Research on English Teaching in Universities of Shandong Province [M]. Petroleum University Press, 1995.