Учебное пособие

ПО ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИИ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

ПРИДНЕСТРОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙЙ

УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ИМ. Т. Г. ШЕВЧЕНКО

Рыбницкий филиал

кафедра иностранных языков

УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ

ПО ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИИ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

для студентов 4 курса специальности «Иностранный язык» с дополнительной специальностью

«Иностранный язык»

Рыбница

2009

УДК 373.167.1:802.0

ББК 81.2 Англ-3

А72

Учебное пособие по лексикологии английского языка: Учебное пособие для студентов/Сост. В. Г. Егорова – Рыбница, 2009. - 88с.

Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов 4 курса специальности «Иностранный язык» с дополнительной специальностью «Иностранный язык». Учебное пособие включает разделы: словообразование, семантология, фразеология, синонимия, антонимия и этимологический состав современного английского языка. Теоретический материал тесно увязан с материалом для практической и самостоятельной работы и работы на семинарах.

Рецензенты:

О. В. Щукина, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент кафедры английской филологии ПГУ им. Т. Г. Шевченко

В. Г. Аргунова, ст. преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков РФ ПГУ им. Т. Г. Шевченко

Утверждено НМС ПГУ им. Т. Г. Шевченко

© Егорова В. Г., составление, 2009

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

1. The object of Lexicology…………………………………………….6

2. General problems of the theory of the word…………………………8

3. Methods of Lexicological Research…………………………………10

4. Morphological structure of English word……………………………13

5. Morphological structure of English words…………………………...18

6. Compound words…………………………………………………….20

7. Shortened words. Types of lexical oppositions………………………23

8. Conversion……………………………………………………………27

9. Semantic structure of English words…………………………………30

10. Semasiology. Semantic structure of English words…………………..33

11. Semantic Structure of the Word. Polysemy………………………….37

12. Homonyms in English………………………………………………...45

13. Synonymy in English…………………………………………………48

14. Antonyms in English………………………………………………….52

15. Set expressions………………………………………………………..54

16. Set expressions………………………………………………………...56

17. Proverbs, sayings, familiar quotations and clichés……………………58

18. Local varieties of English on the British Isles………………………...60

19. Borrowings……………………………………………………………68

20. Lexicography………………………………………………………….76

Seminars…………………………………………………………………….79

Sources………………………………………………………………………86

1. The object of Lexicology

1. The object of Lexicology. General and special lexicology. Branches of Lexicology. The notion of lexical system

2. The theoretical and practical value of Lexicology. The connection of Lexicology with Phonetics, Stylistics and Grammar

I

Lexicology (from Greek lexis `word` and logos learning) is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of words as the main units of language.

The term vocabulary means the system formed by the sum total of all the words that the language possesses.

The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language characterized by definite phonetic and grammatical form. There is another term – word equivalent. It denotes set expressions similar to words semantically, and treated like single words syntactically.

The term word will be described at length later on.

We should differentiate between general and special Lexicology.

General Lexicology deals with the general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.

Special Lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristics peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language.

It goes without saying that every special Lexicology is based on the principles of general Lexicology and General Lexicology is a part of general Linguistics.

We’ll speak of historical lexicology. This branch of Lexicology discusses the origin of various words, their change and development and investigates the forces modifying their structure and meaning.

Descriptive Lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions of words, their specific structure.

There are two different ways in which language may be viewed – historical or diachronic (through time) and the descriptive or synchronic (together with).

Both approaches are interdependent and cannot be understood without one another.

The notion of lexical system

The term system doesn’t denote the sum total of English words. It’s the talk of Lexicography.

The term system denotes a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted by interdependent elements of the same order related in certain specific ways. Lexicology studies this whole by determining the properties of its elements and the different relationships existing between them within a language, as well as the ways in which they are influenced by extra linguistic reality.

E.g. the word sea denotes not only a great expanse of salt water as opposed to dry land or fresh water, as in the expression by sea and land but also the local motion or state of the sea, a wave as in the mountainous seas, a quantity of something a sea of troubles. It may also be used as an attribute: sea air.

Linguistic relationships between words are classified into syntagmatic and paradigmatic.

Syntagmatic relationships are based on the linear character of speech, i.e. on the influence of context. The term context means the smallest stretch of speech necessary to determine which of the possible meanings of a polysemantic word is used.

E.g. From `Pickwick Club` Ch. Dickens: There were Blue shops and Buff shops, Blue inns and Buff inns`. To understand it a reader must know from the context that Blues and Buffs were two rival leading parties of the town.

Syntagmatic relationships are studied by means of contextual, distributional, transformational and some other types of analysis.

Paradigmatic relationships may be subdivided into 1) the independence of elements within words; 2) the interdependence of words within the vocabulary; 3) the interdependence of other aspects of the same language.

These points will be discussed later on when dealing with morphology, semasiology and lexicography.

II

The theoretical value of Lexicology becomes obvious if we realize that it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of language: its vocabulary, grammar and sound system.

1) Lexicology not only gives a systematic description of the present make-up of the vocabulary, but also helps to master the literary standards of word usage. The correct use of words is an important counterpart of expressive and effective speech.

2) An exact knowledge of the vocabulary system is also necessary in connection with technical teaching means (before to teach a teacher must have a program).

3) Lexicology plays a prominent part in the general linguistic training of every philologist by summing the knowledge acquired at the English lessons during all his years of study.

4) It also imparts the necessary skills of using different kinds of dictionaries and referent books and also improving one’s vocabulary.

From the theoretical point of view, it came into being to meet the needs of many different branches of applied linguistics, namely of Lexicography, Literary criticism, Terminology, and of foreign language training.

The study of words in lexicology can not be separated from the study of all the other elements in the language system to which words belong. All these elements are independent and stand in definite relations to one another. We only separate them for convenience of study.

The word is studied in other branches of Linguistics and not in Lexicology only. And Lexicology in its turn is closely connected with General linguistics, the History of the language, Phonetics, Stylistics, and especially, Grammar.

The connection of Lexicology with Phonetics is also important. This importance is easily understood if we think of the fact that on the acoustic level words consist of phonemes, and therefore phonemes participate in signification. They have no meaning of their own: the form-meaning unity is introduced only on a higher level, on the level of morphemes. Phonemes are used to build up morphemes and they serve to distinguish between meanings.

E.g. Our queer old dean – our dear old queen (compare).

All these examples are not exhaustive, they give only a general idea of the possible connection between the two branches of linguistics.

Stylistics, although from a different angle, studies many problems treated in lexicology. These are the problems of meaning, synonymy, differentiation of vocabulary according to the sphere of communication and some other issues.

The difference and interconnection between Grammar and Lexicology is one of the important controversial issues in Linguistics. Some authors have been extremely vague on this point, others, like H.Sweet and O.Jesperson affirmed that `Grammar deals with the general facts of language, and Lexicology with special facts`.

The point is illustrated by the formation of the plural in nouns by adding –s. This is considered a general fact because the opposition cat-cats is not isolated, it is repeated in many other words –pan-pans…

But there are difficulties presented by such irregularities as ox- oxen, child-children. He (O.Jesperson) overcomes it by claiming that these irregularities are not excluded from Grammar because they indicate the limits within which general rules hold good, and as dictionaries mention such irregularities under the word concerned, it may be said that Grammar and Lexicology deal with the same facts in some respects. In fact no doubt that grammatical form usually changes the lexical meaning of the word.