Лекция 1 лексикология

Лекция от 4 сентября, первое занятие по предмету.

Lexicology.

“Lexicology” – the word is of Greek origin (lexis and logos). The subject of lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word combinations.

The term “vocabulary” is used to denote the system of words and word combinations that the language possesses.

The term “word” denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of a group sounds with a meaning; this unit can be used in certain grammatical functions.

The term “word combination” denotes set expressions similar to words in the unity of its meanings, their syntactical functions and in the fact that they are not created in the process of speech, but are taken as ready-made units, ex. as loose as a goose.

Lexical units

Words can be divided into smaller sense units – morphemes. They are not independent sense units as words or set expressions are. The morpheme is always used as a part of a word. There are 3 types of morphemes:

1. Roots – express the lexical meaning of the word;

2. Inflexions (endings) – change the grammatical meaning of the word;

3. Affixes – modify the lexical meaning of the word; subdivided into:

• Prefixes;

• Suffixes.

Affixes, as a rule, have some lexical meaning of their own, but these meaning is more general than the lexical meaning of the root. They are always depended lexically on the root to which they are added. In English we have so called semi-affixes, especially among new words.

We should distinguish between free and bound morphemes. Free morphemes can be found only among roots, they coincide with the independent word, ex. run. Bound morphemes don’t coincide with words, that’s why all affixes and inflexions are bound morphemes. There are some bound morphemes among roots, ex. territory, present and so on.

Morphemes can also have different phonetic shape, ex. please – pleasant, pleasure.

We should distinguish between suffixes and inflexions. Suffixes form one part of speech from another and can also change lexical meaning of the same part of speech. Inflexions have only grammatical meaning, so they are used only to form a grammatical form.

Example: custom (обычай) – customs (форма мн. числа) and customs (таможня).

Inflexions of a certain part of speech constitute the paradigm of a word.

Apostrophe with “s” can denote the possessive case of a noun in the singular form. It is used as a suffix with apostrophe. It can also denote some trade, office, firm or place.

Example: I sent my coat to dry cleaner’s.

There are 4 structural types of words depending on the morphemes used in the word:

№	Type	Morphemes used	Example
1	simple	root+inflexion	table, sun
2	derived	root+affix(-es)+inflexion	derestrictive, teachers
3	compound	2/more roots+inflexion	waterproof, a no-no
4	compound-derived	2/more roots+affix(-es)+inflexion	middle-of-the-roader, housekeeper

The stem of the word is the part of it which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm. The stem differs from the root morpheme, which is a common part within a group of derivates and the lexical centre of the word, ex. act: action, actor, activity, activise. The root act has no grammatical meaning, but the stem apart from the lexical meaning has a definite part of speech meaning. We can add to it only an inflexion.

Stems can have different structure. They can be:

№	Type	Morphemes used	Example
1	simple	1 root morpheme	table, bed
2	derived	1 root morpheme+affix(-es)	girlishness
3	compound	2/more simple stems	sunlight, babymoon
4	compound-derived	2/more simple stems+affix(-es)	absentmindness

Simple stems are usually semantically non-motivated; phonetically they coincide with the root of the word. Derived stems are semantically motivated by the root and the meaning of the affix.

The ways of appearing of a word in the language:

1. Wordbuilding;

2. Semantic changes;

3. Forming phraseological units;

4. Borrowing lexical units from other languages.

Wordbuilding

There are 4 main ways of wordbuilding:

1. Affixation;

2. Composition;

3. Conversion;

4. Abbreviation.

Affixation is the most productive way; it consists in adding affixes to the stem. Suffixation – mainly characteristic of nouns and adjectives in English. There are different classifications of it:

№	Classification	Group of suffixes	Examples of suffixes
1	Part-of-speech classification	Noun forming	ance, once, er, ism, ness
		Adjective forming	less, ful, able
		Verb forming	ise, y
		Adverb forming	ly, vise
2	Classification according to the lexical-grammatical meaning of the stem	Suffixes added to the verb stem	er, able
		Suffixes added to the noun stem	ful, less
		Suffixes added to the adjective stem	ise
3	Semantic classification (mainly about noun)	Denoting the doer of the action	ist, er, or
		Denoting nationality	ian, ese, ish
		Denoting collectivity	ry
		Diminutive	let, ling
4	Classification according to the productivity	Highly productive	ist, ly, ster, ise
		Semi-productive	eer, ette
		Non-productive	th, ive, ard
5	Classification according to the origin	Native suffixes	er, ful, less, ly, ward, ster
		Romanic origin	ess, ous, ion, ese, able
		Greek origin	ise, ism
		Russian origin	nik

Suffixes can be polysemantic because they can change their meaning in the course of time. For example, at first suffix –er denoted only professional occupation, but now it also denotes a devise or a tool, ex. boiler, transmitter.

Compound suffixes consist of 2 suffixes which are added to a stem to form a derived word.

Example: adaptation – “-ation” is a compound suffix.

Disputal cases: sometimes it is impossible to tell exactly whether a certain morpheme is a suffix or an inflexion. In these cases that morpheme is called a semi-suffix.

Example: a postman – “-man” is semi-suffix.