- •English lexicology a course of lectures
- •Introduction
- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linquistics
- •2. Kinds of lexicology
- •3. Links of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics
- •Lecture 1. Word-meaning
- •1.1. Semantics as a branch of Lexicology studing meanihg
- •1.2. Approaches to the study of meaning
- •1.2.1. Referential approach to meaning
- •1.2.2. Functional approach to meaning
- •1.3. Types of word-meaning
- •1.3.1. Grammatical meaning
- •1.3.2. Lexical meaning
- •1.3.3. Part-of-speech meaning
- •1.3.4 Denotative, significative and connotative meanings
- •1.3.5. Connotative meaning
- •1.3.6. Emotive charge and sociostylistic reference of words
- •1.3.7. Pragmatic meaning
- •1.4. Types of morpheme-meaning
- •1.4.1. Lexical meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.2. Functional or part-of-speech meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.3. Differential meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.4. Distributional meaning of morphemes
- •1.5.2.2. Morphological motivation of words
- •1.5.2.3. Semantic motivation of words
- •Lecture 2. Change of Meaning
- •2.1. Causes of semantic change
- •2.1.1. Extralinguistic causes of semantic change
- •2.1.2. Linguistic causes of semantic change
- •2.2. Nature, results and types of semantic change
- •2.2.1. Similarity of meanings or metaphor
- •2.2.2. Contiguity of meanings or metonymy
- •2.2.3. Types of semantic change without the transfer of name
- •2.2.3.1. Specialization and generalization of meanings
- •2.2.3.2. Amelioration and pejoration of meaning
- •2.2.3.3. Hyperbole, litotes, irony, euphemism, disphemism, taboo
- •Lecture 3. Polysemy
- •3.1. The notion of polysemy
- •3.2. Approaches to polysemy
- •3.2.1. Diachronic approach to polysemy
- •3.2.2. Synchronic approach to polysemy
- •Lecture 4. Homonymy
- •4.1. Definition of homonymy
- •4.2. Homonymy of words and homonymy of word-forms
- •4.3. Classification of homonyms
- •4.3.1. Full and partial homonymy
- •4.3.2. Classification of homonyms by the type of meaning
- •4.3.3. Classification of homonyms by the sound-form, graphic form and meaning
- •4.4. Sources of homonymy
- •4.4.1. Diverging meaning development
- •4.4.2. Converging sound development
- •4.5. Differentiation of polysemy and homonymy
- •Lecture 5. Word-meaning in syntagmatics and paradigmatics
- •5.1. Definition of syntagmatics and paradigmatics
- •5.2. Conceptual or semantic fields
- •5.3. Hyponimic (or hierarchical) structures and lexico-semantic groups
- •5.4. Synonymy and antonymy
- •Lecture 6. Word-structure
- •6.1. Segmentation of words into morphemes
- •6.2. Classification of morphemes
- •6.3. Procedure of morphemic analysis
- •6.4. Morphemic types of words
- •6.5. Derivative structure of words
- •7.3. Composition or compounding
- •7.4. Conversion
- •7.5. Shortening and abbreviation
- •7.5.1. Shortening or contraction
- •7.5.2. Abbreviation
- •7.6. Back-formation or reversion
- •8. Word-groups and phraseological units
- •8.1. Lexical and grammatical valency
- •8.2. Definition of phraseological units
- •8.3. Classification of phraseological units
- •Literature
- •Contents
- •Introduction 1
1.3.2. Lexical meaning
Lexical meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system.
If we compare the word-forms of one and the same word we can observe that besides grammatical meaning they possess another component of word-meaning.
Let us compare, for example the following word-forms: go, goes, went, going, gone. They all have different grammatical meanings of tense, person and aspect, but each of these forms contains one and the same semantic component denoting the process of movement. This is the lexical meaning of the given verb-forms.
So lexical meaning may be described as the component of word-meaning proper to the word as a linguistic unit and recurrent in all the forms of this word.
By lexical meaning we designate the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions, while by grammatical meaning we designate the meaning proper to sets of word-forms common to all words of a certain class.
Both the lexical and grammatical meanings make up the word-meaning as a whole because neither of them can exist without the other. The lexical meaning of a word is dependent upon its grammatical meaning.
1.3.3. Part-of-speech meaning
Lexical items or words are generally classified into major word-classes such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and into minor word-classes such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions and so on.
All members of the same word-class share a distinguishing semantic component which can be viewed as the lexical component of part-of-speech meaning. The grammatical aspect of part-of-speech meaning is conveyed as a rule by a set of forms. Here we may speak about the meaning of lexico-grammatical groups or classes of words and, consequently, about lexico-grammatical meaning.
A lexico-grammatical class may be defined as a class of lexical elements possessing the same lexico-grammatical meaning and a common system of forms in which the grammatical categories inherent in these units are expressed. So every lexico-grammatical group or class is characterized by its own lexico-grammatical meaning forming the common denomenator of all the meanings of the words which belong to this group. The lexico-grammatical meaning may be also regarded as the feature according to which these words are grouped together.
As it was mentioned above, the lexical meaning of every word depends upon the part of speech to which this word belongs. In the lexical meaning of every separate word the lexico-grammatical meaning common to all the words of the class to which this word belongs is enriched by additional features and becomes particularized.
Let us take, for example, such words as bright, clear, good. These adjectives denote the properties of things capable of being compared and so have degrees of comparison. In the lexical meanings of these words in the forms brighter, clearer and better the lexico-grammatical meaning of qualitative adjectives common to all the words of this class is enriched the additional meaning of the comparative degree of the quality these words denote.
If we describe the word as a noun we mean to say that it is bound to possess a set of forms expressing the grammatical meanings of number, case, sometimes gender and so on. A verb is understood to possess sets of forms expressing the grammatical meanings of tense, aspect, mood and so on.
The part-of-speech meaning of words that possess only one form, for example, prepositions, is observed only in their distribution; compare, for example, to come in and in the table.
One of the levels at which grammatical meaning operates is that of minor word class like articles, prepositions and pronouns.
One criterion for distinguishing these grammatical items from lexical items is in terms of closed and open sets of units.
Grammatical items form closed sets of units usually of small membership, such as articles, prepositions, pronouns. New items are practically never added there.
Lexical items proper belong to open sets of units which have indeterminately large membership; new lexical items which are constantly coined to name new objects of reality are added to these open sets of units.
The interrelation of the lexical and grammatical meanings within the word-meaning and the role played by each of them varies in different word-classes and even in different groups of words within one and the same class. In some parts of speech the prevailing component of the word-meaning is the lexical meaning, in others – the grammatical meaning.