Abstract: Thanks to the fast development of science and technology, people from different countries have more communications than ever before. English, known as the "world language", plays a key role in international communication. As the basic element of the English language, lexicon affects the changes of English directly. Many changes have occurred in the lexicon such as the change of pronunciations, the borrowings from other languages and even the creation of many totally new words. This makes the English language more convenient to understand and easier to use. This paper aims to analyze the changes of lexicon through history and try to find the rules of changes in the future. What's more, it will help people to have a better understanding of the development of the lexicon. This paper is composed of five parts. The first part is an introduction. The second part describes all kinds of changes in detail. The third part analyzes the reasons of these changes. The fourth part tries to find the trend of development and the last part is conclusion. It is hoped that the paper will provide some basic knowledge to the English learners and help them to have a better understanding of the lexicon.
Key words: English language; lexicon; development ; change; trend

摘要：随着经济发展社会变迁，不同国家的人们之间的交流日益频繁。作为“世界语言”，英语在这个交流过程中扮演着举足轻重的角色。作为英语语言的基本要素，词汇的变化直接影响着语言的变化。英语词汇已经发生了很多变化，像发音的变化，借用其他语言的词汇甚至是创造出全新的单词。这些改变使英语更容易被理解和运用。本文旨在分析词汇发展过程中的变化和未来发展规律。使人们对词汇的发展历程有更全面的了解。本文由五部分组成。第一部分是绪论，第二部分详细阐述了词汇的各种变化，第三部分分析了变化的原因，第四部分描绘未来发展趋势，最后一部分是本文的结论。希望本文能帮助英语学习者了解一些词汇的基本知识以便能更好的了解英语词汇。
关键词：英语语言；词汇；发展；变化；趋势

Since the appearance of the English language, the development and changes have never stopped. During that long period, English experienced Old English, Middle English and Modern English which we are using now. There is no doubt that the language will develop into another new form in the near future. The aspects of the changes are various: phonological change, lexical change and semantic change and many other changes. Each of these changes also consists of several subsidiary parts. The main reasons of these changes are also obvious: historical reason, pragmatic and psychological reason and political and social reasons. Science and technology are developing so fast in this time and the trends of words are also associated closely with them, these trends have a feature of modern society.