[简答题]Illustrate the difference of synchronic study and diachronic study of English lexicology with an example.

参考答案: The synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as it exists at a given time; it is the special descriptive lexicology that deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular language at a certain time. The diachronic approach deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time; it is the special historical lexicology that deals with the evolution of the vocabulary units of a language as time passes. From a synchronic point of view, the word wife, for example, now means "a married woman, especially in relation to her husband" without any consideration of the changes in the past. But if we take a diachronic perspective, we will consider the word historically, looking into its origin and changes in form and meaning: the word wife evolved from the Old English form "wif", meaning "woman", but later it became specialized in the course of development to the modem meaning "a married woman".