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Abstract：As is well known, English is an international language. For the changing of time, the development of science and technology and the evolution of mind, the language which is the reflection of reality should keep pace with the development of the society accordingly. Therefore, facing so many and complicated English words, a language learner can do nothing but to grasp the reasons of its development in order to learn English words better. This paper seeks to focus on the two main reasons of the lexical change of English words.
Key words: science and technology; political change; economical change ; social change
Causes of Lexical Change of English Words
I. Introduction
Nowadays, we can easily find that lexical changes in English are keeping striking our eyes. Some words have come into appearance in all aspects of our life while some words have disappeared as they lost the favor of people. Facing so many English new words, how can the English learners learn them efficiently? The answer is that they should pay more attention to the changes in lexicon. It is very helpful for English learners to learn English words when they know why words change. There are many reasons for the lexical change. The paper will discuss two main reasons.
Ⅱ.The Development of Science and Technology
“As science and technology develop, people use new words to express new concepts, new techniques as well as new inventions” (戴炜栋，何兆熊 105) . Gozzi states that between 1961-1986 forty-five percent of those new words are from the scientific and technological field (13). His study also applies to the situation today. Here are some examples in three different domains: space travel, computer and Internet and ecology.
1. Space Travel
With the development of space travel, some words and phrases have been coined to record these achievements of human civilization, such as ISS(国际空间站), deep space(远空间), black hole(黑洞), space suit(宇宙服), space station(太空战), moonscape(月球表面), hatch(舱门) and quasar(类星体).
2. Ecology
As more and more people become concerned with the preservation of the environment and natural resources, quite a lot of words have appeared in our life. The following part is an example.
我们可以看到ecoacrivist(生态学活动家)和environmentalist(环境保护家)在谈论ecocatastrophe(生态危机)，设法解决air pollution（空气污染），noise pollution(噪音污染)，thermal pollution(热污染),甚至还有visual pollution(视觉污染), cultural pollution(文化污染)，spiritual pollution(精神污染)，graffiti pollution(涂写污染)．保护生态环境显得如此重要，一直不少商品的广告里都写上了environment-friendly（不会破坏环境）、eco-friendly（不会破坏生态平衡）、planet-friendly(不会污染地球)之类的字样.（汪榕培，卢肖娟 323） 3. Computer and Internet
Computer development has also added a large number of new words to the scientific and technological field. Every day people including adults and children use computers to learn and know a lot of things happening in the world. Thus a great number of new words concerning computers are consistently appearing in modern English. Since the first invention of a computer, most of the technical words which were only known by relevant scientists have become familiar to the public in many countries, such as mainframe(主机), modem（调制解调器），CPU（中央处理器）， bus（总线）， browsers（浏览器），hyperlink（超链接），explorer（浏览器），date warehouse(数据仓库)，files（文件）and so on.
“The development of computer and internet technology has produced a new vocabulary of their own ”(戴炜栋，何兆熊 105) . That means Internet has also brought a great amount of new words，such as netspeak，hacker , cybernaut，Mouse potato，E-mail ，blog，chartroom and so on. And chattering on net has causes such new words as BTW (by the way), BRB (be right back), OTF (on the floor), JK (just kidding).
III. Political, Economical and Social Changes
Since the end of the Second World War, social, economical and political changes have supplied the English vocabulary with a large number of new words and expressions, especially the new words in political changes. Here are some examples in political, economical and social changes.
1. Politic Change
These years, wars and conflicts constantly happened in the world such as Iran-Iraq war, the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, the gulf war, the war in Kosovo, ethnic conflicts, the conflicts in the Middle East, 9-11 and other terrorist attacks. These political disturbance and development in the world have added new words to the English language, such as desert storm， Gulf War Syndrome，ethnic cleansing，shuttle diplomacy, humanitarian disaster, Post-September 11, Evil Doers, takedown，baricthemal and so on.
The changes of ruling parties in Britain and America have also brought some new words. For example, Watergate is connected to Nixon, zippergate and Clintonism are related to Clinton and Blairism is connected to Charles Blair.
The struggles between parties in some way add many new words as well. “如英国保守党人Michael Portillo在人头税（poll tax）问题上提出要“placing clear blue water(思想截然不同)”；又如英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔经常用TINA(There is no alternative, 别无选择) 这个表达方式，TINA这个词也随之流传开来”（何艳群 1:104）.
2. Economic Change
With the development of global economy, many new words have been created in the economic field. Such words as multinational corporation，global marketing, CEO，angel investor, trade war，level paying field, dehiring and outplacement have come into the people’s life. The European Union decided to use Euro as the unified money so as to unite the Europe by single currency. The American are always talking about income gap，income inequality，wealth disparity，economic polarization，slumpflation. Moreover, cybereconomy also bring some English new words, such as Cyber Monday，e-tail, cyber-shopping，cyber-money and so on. 3. Social Change
With the development of society, people’s lifestyle also has been changing. At weekends, people can have different ways to relieve themselves. Some people chose to go to pedestrian mall for shopping. Some people would like to watch films in multiplex. Some people are likely to do aerobics in the fitness center. Some people may take on a tourism such as urban tourism, ecotourism，suburb tourism，heritage tourism, business tourism, sports tourism. Some adventurous young people become love the bungee jumping and rocking climbing.
The development of society also has brought some changes in educational field. “Even in education, one can find new expressions in circulation such as underachiever, open classroom, TA, grade-point average, CAI, pass-fall grading and others”(胡壮麟 96-97). People can receive education in polyversity, or megaversity, or Open University.
IV. Conclusion
As a widely used language, English is keeping changing. At the same time, people constantly produce new words to express new things. From the explanation above, we can see that new words are formed in certain contexts. When we know about the backgrounds lexical change, we can learn words more quickly. So as an English learner, one should pay more attention to the reasons of lexical change so as to keep pace with the times.
Works Cited
【1】Gozzi, Raymond. English Words and a Changing American Culture. The Universityof South Carolina Press, 1990.
【2】戴炜栋，何兆熊. 新编简明英语语言学教程[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社,2002.
【3】何艳群. 英语新词产生的社会背景及主要形成方式[J]. 浙江万里学院学报，2008，（1）：104-06.
【4】胡壮麟. 语言学教程[M]. 北京: 北京大学出版社,2001.
【5】汪榕培，卢肖娟. 英语词汇学教程[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社,1997 (2001重印).
张少敏，女，汉，1986年4月，滁州卫生学校，助理讲师，文学学位
Key words: science and technology; political change; economical change ; social change
Causes of Lexical Change of English Words
I. Introduction
Nowadays, we can easily find that lexical changes in English are keeping striking our eyes. Some words have come into appearance in all aspects of our life while some words have disappeared as they lost the favor of people. Facing so many English new words, how can the English learners learn them efficiently? The answer is that they should pay more attention to the changes in lexicon. It is very helpful for English learners to learn English words when they know why words change. There are many reasons for the lexical change. The paper will discuss two main reasons.
Ⅱ.The Development of Science and Technology
“As science and technology develop, people use new words to express new concepts, new techniques as well as new inventions” (戴炜栋，何兆熊 105) . Gozzi states that between 1961-1986 forty-five percent of those new words are from the scientific and technological field (13). His study also applies to the situation today. Here are some examples in three different domains: space travel, computer and Internet and ecology.
1. Space Travel
With the development of space travel, some words and phrases have been coined to record these achievements of human civilization, such as ISS(国际空间站), deep space(远空间), black hole(黑洞), space suit(宇宙服), space station(太空战), moonscape(月球表面), hatch(舱门) and quasar(类星体).
2. Ecology
As more and more people become concerned with the preservation of the environment and natural resources, quite a lot of words have appeared in our life. The following part is an example.
我们可以看到ecoacrivist(生态学活动家)和environmentalist(环境保护家)在谈论ecocatastrophe(生态危机)，设法解决air pollution（空气污染），noise pollution(噪音污染)，thermal pollution(热污染),甚至还有visual pollution(视觉污染), cultural pollution(文化污染)，spiritual pollution(精神污染)，graffiti pollution(涂写污染)．保护生态环境显得如此重要，一直不少商品的广告里都写上了environment-friendly（不会破坏环境）、eco-friendly（不会破坏生态平衡）、planet-friendly(不会污染地球)之类的字样.（汪榕培，卢肖娟 323） 3. Computer and Internet
Computer development has also added a large number of new words to the scientific and technological field. Every day people including adults and children use computers to learn and know a lot of things happening in the world. Thus a great number of new words concerning computers are consistently appearing in modern English. Since the first invention of a computer, most of the technical words which were only known by relevant scientists have become familiar to the public in many countries, such as mainframe(主机), modem（调制解调器），CPU（中央处理器）， bus（总线）， browsers（浏览器），hyperlink（超链接），explorer（浏览器），date warehouse(数据仓库)，files（文件）and so on.
“The development of computer and internet technology has produced a new vocabulary of their own ”(戴炜栋，何兆熊 105) . That means Internet has also brought a great amount of new words，such as netspeak，hacker , cybernaut，Mouse potato，E-mail ，blog，chartroom and so on. And chattering on net has causes such new words as BTW (by the way), BRB (be right back), OTF (on the floor), JK (just kidding).
III. Political, Economical and Social Changes
Since the end of the Second World War, social, economical and political changes have supplied the English vocabulary with a large number of new words and expressions, especially the new words in political changes. Here are some examples in political, economical and social changes.
1. Politic Change
These years, wars and conflicts constantly happened in the world such as Iran-Iraq war, the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, the gulf war, the war in Kosovo, ethnic conflicts, the conflicts in the Middle East, 9-11 and other terrorist attacks. These political disturbance and development in the world have added new words to the English language, such as desert storm， Gulf War Syndrome，ethnic cleansing，shuttle diplomacy, humanitarian disaster, Post-September 11, Evil Doers, takedown，baricthemal and so on.
The changes of ruling parties in Britain and America have also brought some new words. For example, Watergate is connected to Nixon, zippergate and Clintonism are related to Clinton and Blairism is connected to Charles Blair.
The struggles between parties in some way add many new words as well. “如英国保守党人Michael Portillo在人头税（poll tax）问题上提出要“placing clear blue water(思想截然不同)”；又如英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔经常用TINA(There is no alternative, 别无选择) 这个表达方式，TINA这个词也随之流传开来”（何艳群 1:104）.
2. Economic Change
With the development of global economy, many new words have been created in the economic field. Such words as multinational corporation，global marketing, CEO，angel investor, trade war，level paying field, dehiring and outplacement have come into the people’s life. The European Union decided to use Euro as the unified money so as to unite the Europe by single currency. The American are always talking about income gap，income inequality，wealth disparity，economic polarization，slumpflation. Moreover, cybereconomy also bring some English new words, such as Cyber Monday，e-tail, cyber-shopping，cyber-money and so on. 3. Social Change
With the development of society, people’s lifestyle also has been changing. At weekends, people can have different ways to relieve themselves. Some people chose to go to pedestrian mall for shopping. Some people would like to watch films in multiplex. Some people are likely to do aerobics in the fitness center. Some people may take on a tourism such as urban tourism, ecotourism，suburb tourism，heritage tourism, business tourism, sports tourism. Some adventurous young people become love the bungee jumping and rocking climbing.
The development of society also has brought some changes in educational field. “Even in education, one can find new expressions in circulation such as underachiever, open classroom, TA, grade-point average, CAI, pass-fall grading and others”(胡壮麟 96-97). People can receive education in polyversity, or megaversity, or Open University.
IV. Conclusion
As a widely used language, English is keeping changing. At the same time, people constantly produce new words to express new things. From the explanation above, we can see that new words are formed in certain contexts. When we know about the backgrounds lexical change, we can learn words more quickly. So as an English learner, one should pay more attention to the reasons of lexical change so as to keep pace with the times.
Works Cited
【1】Gozzi, Raymond. English Words and a Changing American Culture. The Universityof South Carolina Press, 1990.
【2】戴炜栋，何兆熊. 新编简明英语语言学教程[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社,2002.
【3】何艳群. 英语新词产生的社会背景及主要形成方式[J]. 浙江万里学院学报，2008，（1）：104-06.
【4】胡壮麟. 语言学教程[M]. 北京: 北京大学出版社,2001.
【5】汪榕培，卢肖娟. 英语词汇学教程[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社,1997 (2001重印).
张少敏，女，汉，1986年4月，滁州卫生学校，助理讲师，文学学位