English Vocabulary Today

Barry J. Blake is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at La Trobe University, Australia, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is well known for a range of publications on Australian Aboriginal languages and language in general. His books include Case, Playing with Words, All about Language and Secret Language.

• Table of contentsIntroduction1 A brief history2 The dictionary2.1 About the size of it2.2 Part-of-speech2.3 Set phrases2.4 Spelling and pronunciation2.5 Etymology3 The mental lexicon3.1 An entry in the mental lexicon3.2 View of the world4 Extension4.1 Metaphor and metonymy4.2 Verbs and prepositions5 Change of meaning5.1 New meanings for old words5.1.1 Updating of the referent5.1.2 Application to a new domain5.1.3 Reinterpretation5.1.4 Frequency considerations5.1.5 Point of view5.1.6 Weakening5.1.7 Phrase abbreviation5.2 New words for old meanings5.2.1 Fashion5.2.2 Euphemism5.3 Respelling5.4 Relics6 Meaningful relations6.1 Hyponyms and hypernyms6.2 Synonyms6.3 Antonyms6.4 Homonyms (Homophones and homographs)6.5 Contronyms6.6 Retronyms7 Compounds and blends7.1 Compounds7.2 Neo-classical compounds7.3 Blends8 Affixes8.1 Prefixes and suffixes8.2 Back formation9 Zero derivation9.1 Noun to verb9.2 Noun to adjective9.3 Verb to noun9.4 Verb to adjective9.5 Adjective to noun9.6 Adjective to verb9.7 Other conversions9.8 Proper names to common nouns10 Shortening, alphabetisms and acronyms10.1 Shortening or clipping10.2 Alphabetisms10.3 Textese10.4 Acronyms11 Reduplication11.1 Plain reduplication11.2 Reduplication with vowel alternation11.3 Rhyming reduplication12 Imports12.1 Loan-words12.2 Cultural contact in Europe12.3 Contact with colonised areas12.4 Immigration into English-speaking areas13 Inclusive language13.1 A changed world13.2 The discourse of inclusion13.3 Politically correct English13.4 Talking about women13.5 Language and race13.6 Heterosexism13.7 Disability14 When sound echoes sense14.1 Onomatopoeia14.2 Vowels14.3 Consonants14.4 Sound symbolism14.5 Names14.6 Overview15 A form of words15.1 Resemblances15.2 Malapropisms15.3 Words similar in form and meaning15.4 Folk etymology15.5 Avoidance15.6 Interference15.7 Word play16 Allusion17 Slang17.1 Slang in general17.2 The inventiveness of slang17.3 The attitude of slang17.4 Is slang ephemeral?17.5 The local nature of slang17.6 Slang and jargon17.7 Argots and ‘secret languages’17.7.1 Back slang17.7.2 Rhyming slang17.7.3 Pig Latin18 English exported19 English todayFurther readingReferences