Q-1: Lex-gy as a Branch of Linguistics.

Lex-gy is a branch of Ling-cs studying the words or voc-ry of the lang-ge. According to Arnold Lex-gy is a part of Ling-cs dealing with the voc-ry of the lang-ge and the words as the main units of lang-ge.

The term “Lex-gy” was introduced in the French encyclopedia in 1765. The term “Lex-gy” is composed of two Greek morphemes – “lexis” (meaning word/phrase) and “logos” (meaning learning/a department of knowledge. The word is the subject matter of Lex-gy. All the words in a lang-ge make up what is generally called the voc-ry of the lang-ge. The English voc-ry is the sum of all the words in the English lang-ge.

The basic task of Lex-gy is the study and systematic description of voc-ry in respect to it origin, development and current use. Distinction is maid b/w General Lex-gy and Special Lex-gy. General Lex-gy is the part of General Ling-cs. General Lex-gy is the general study of words and voc-ry. Special Lex-gy is the Lex-gy of a particular lang-ge. Special Lex-gy is the study and description of the voc-ry of a given lang-ge. English Lex-gy is Special Lex-gy dealing with English voc-ry.

There are 2 principle approaches in Ling-cs to the study of any lang-ge: the diachronic approach (from Greek “dia”=through, “cronos”=time) and the synchronic approach (“syn”=together, with; “cronos”=time), or descriptive.

Distinction is maid b/w Historical Lex-gy and Descriptive. Historical Lex-y studies the voc-ry as a system in its evolution. It describes the origin of words that changes and development in the course of time. Descriptive Lex-gy studies the voc-ry at the given stage of its development. The diachronic and synchronic approaches should not be contrasted and in fact they are interconnected viewing one and the same phenomenon from different angles, e.g. diach-ly the word “friendship” is a compound word but synchronically it is derivative as the element “ship” has lost its states of a root morpheme and it’s considered to be a suffix now.

Comparative Lex-gy studies the voc-ry of closely related lang-ges from the point of view of their typological identity.

Contrastive Lex-gy is a new type of studies aimed at establishing facts of similarities and differences b/w the voc-ries of both related and unrelated lang-ges.

The Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology.

is determined by its subject matter, the voc-ry of lang-ge which forms one of the three main aspects of lang-ge. The other two aspects of lang-ge are its grammar and sound system. One of the key questions in linguistics and philosophy,the relationship between the name and the thing named is studied within semaceology and onomaceology parts of Lex-gy dealing with the m-ng of the word. Lex-gy came into being to meet the needs of many different branches of applied ling-cs: Lexicography, standardization of terminology, Information Retrieval, machine translation, the study of professional jargons, and of foreign lang-ge teaching. Lexicography deals with compiling and describing dictionaries. The Practical Value of Lex-gy in teaching foreign lang-ges lies in the fact that it helps to stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of voc-ry and expose the peculiarities of the words of a foreign lang-ge in comparison with the words of the native tongue. The choice of methods of teaching is largely dependant upon the typological features of the native and foreign lang-ges and their voc-ry systems.

Q-2 -The word as a basic unit of language

The word is the subject matter of Lexicology. The word may be described as a basic unit of language. The definition of the word is one of the most difficult problems in Linguistics because any word has many different aspects. It is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. Accordingly the word may be defined as the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. This definition based on the definition of a word given by the eminent French linguist Arthur Meillet does not permit us to distinguish words from phrases. We can accept the given definition adding that a word is the smallest significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability and semantic integrity. In Russian Linguistics it is the word but not the morpheme as in American descriptive linguistics that is the basic unit of language and the basic unit of lexical articulation of the flow of the speech. The word is independent, self-contained and definitely moulded unit; in contrast to the morpheme it can be used a free standing item within sentences and utterances to express all kinds of meaning, being capable by referring individually to a certain piece or fragment of reality. They are global units which belong to a higher level and compared with morphemes. Thus, the word is a structural and semantic entity within the language system. The word is the basic unit of the language system, the largest on the morphological level and the smallest on the syntactic level of linguistic analysis. As any language unit the word is a two facit unit possessing both its outer form (sound form) and content (meaning) which is not created in speech but used ready-maid. As the basic unit of language the word is characterized by independence or separateness (отдельность), as a free standing item, and identity (тождество).

The word as an independent free standing language unit is distinguished in speech due to its ability to take on grammatical inflections (грамматическая оформленнасть) which makes it different from the morpheme.

The structural integrity (цельная оформленнасть) of the word combined with the semantic integrity and morphological uninterruptability (морфологическая непрерывность) makes the word different from word combinations.

The identity of the word manifests itself in the ability of a word to exist as a system and unity of all its forms (grammatical forms creating its paradigm) and variants: lexical-semantic, morphological, phonetic and graphic.

The system of showing a word in all its word forms is called its paradigm. The lexical meaning of a word is the same throughout the paradigm, i.e. all the word forms of one and the same word are lexical identical while the grammatical meaning varies from one form to another (give-gave-given-giving-gives; worker-workers-worker’s-workers’).

Besides the grammatical forms of the words (or word forms), words possess lexical varieties called variants of words (a word – a polisemantic word in one of its meanings in which it is used in speech is described as a lexical-semantic variants. The term was introduced by A.I. Smernitskiy; e.g. “to learn at school” – “to learn about smth”; man – мужчина/человек). Words may have phonetic, graphic and morphological variants:

often – [Þfən]/[ Þftən] – phonetic variants

birdy/birdie – graphic variants

phonetic/phonetical – morphological variants

Thus, within the language system the word exists as a system and unity of all its forms and variants. The term lexeme may serve to express the idea of the word as a system of its forms and variants.

Every word names a given referent and another one and this relationship creates the basis for establishing understanding in verbal intercourse (общение). But because words mirror concepts through our perception of the world there’s no singleness in word-thing correlations.

As reality becomes more complicated, it calls for more sophisticated means of nomination. In recent times Lexicology has developed a more psycho-linguistic and ethno-cultural orientation aimed at looking into the actual reality of how lexical items work.

Q-3:The Connection with Other.

Lex-gy is closely connected with: Phonetics, Grammar, Stylistics and History of the Lang-ge. Phonetics studies the sound form of the word, the intonation patterns of utterances, since phonemes serve to distinguish b/w m-gs, we may say that phonemes participate in signification. The importance of the phonemic make up of the word may be illustrated by spoonerisms, words which appear as a result of an accidental transposition of the initial sounds of two or more words. E.g. Half-warmed fish/Half-formed wish. Phonetic means are used in word building; the formation of new words is studied by Lex-gy. Phonetic word building means are: sound interchange and shift of the stress. Sound interchange is alternation of the root which serves to differentiate b/w different words: e.g. blood – to bleed, life – to live. Sound interchange is often combined with affix-n, e.g. long – length. Shift of stress sometimes is the only means of discrimination b/w the words. The noun `conduct (behavior) is distinguished from the verb con`duct (lead) due to the position of stress. Though Sound Interchange and Shift of Stress are not productive as word building means they serve as a basis for contrasting different words.

The relationship b/w Lex-gy and Grammar is determined by the close ties b/w the objects of their study. Every word belongs to some part of speech and has certain lexical-gram-al characteristics of the word class to which it belongs. Words possess both lexical and grammatical m-gs and sometimes no rigid line of demarcation can be drawn b/w them, e.g. fruit (an uncountable noun) becomes countable and forms the –s plural “fruits” only when m-ng different kinds of fruit. The plural form may also be used figuratively as in a “fruits of labour”. Some nouns have 2 plurals, different plural forms have acquired different lexical m-ngs, e.g. brother/brothers/brethren.The ties b/w Lex-gy and Grammar are strong in the sphere of WB. Sometimes purely grammatical means are used for building new words. The suffix of plurality “-s” is often used to form not only the plural form but also a new word with a new m-ng. This process is also called lexicalization of a grammatical form, e.g. colour (means tint) – colours (means tints) but it has acquired a new lexical m-ng – a flag.

relationship with Stylistics- studies different functional styles of human speech. Functional styles are defined as systems of linguistic expressive means (phonetic, grammatical, lexical) peculiar to certain spheres of com-n. Lex-gy dealing with the voc-ry studies lexical means, that is words’ characteristic of different functional styles. Some words are more general and neutral in tone or stylistically unmarked. These words may be used in any situation, formal or informal, others are stylistically marked, they may be used only in certain situations. According to these peculiarities of their m-ngs and prevalent use in this or that functional style words fall into different stylistic strata within the system of stylistic differentiation of the voc-ry, e.g. “I am in excellent shape”, or “I’m in tip-top shape” – it expresses the same idea but informally, in the colloquial style as the word “tip-top” – coll.

with the History of the Lang-ge - serves to explain a lot of peculiarities in the voc-ry of present-day English. It reveals the origin of homonyms and synonyms; it traces the routs of etymological doublets - are words different in form and m-ng in present-day English but originating from one and the same word, e.g. securus (from Latin)→ secure, sure; discus – disc, dais, dish, discus. Lex-gy is one of the most important branches of Ling-cs dealing with the voc-ry of lang-ge and closely connected through its subject with other branches.

Q-4: systematic character.

Paradigmatic relations are those that exist b/w words within the voc-ry as a system. they define the word m-ng through its interrelation with other members of the subgroup it belongs to within the voc-ry system. The systematic character of the voc-ry isn’t so clearly seen as in Grammar & phonetics. But as words are the elemnts of the general system of the lang they form 1 of the most important level of the lang that co-exists with the sysrems of other levels of the lang – phonetics & grammar. Thus, the voc-ry of Modern Eng must be presented as a system, the elements of which are interconnected but independent. The possibility of classifying words within the voc-ry proves the systematic character of the voc-ry. Words may be classified in various ways.

1. According to their m-ng, syntactical function, & morphol-l characteristics words are divided into large lexico-grammatical parts of speech, which are divided into notional words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and functional words. Notional words constitute the bulk of the existing word stock.(93% of the hole vocabulary) Functional words make a specific group of about 150 units, which is a group of the most frequent words in Eng. The 1^st ten words in order of frequency are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, -was, he. Funct words make up about half of the lexical items of any Eng text.

1. According to their morphol-l structure words in Modern Eng are classified into 4 main groups: 1) simple or root words: big, floor, go cat; 2) derived words or derivatives: driver, listener, unfreeze, to rejoin; 3) compound words: timetable, Anglo-Saxon; 4) compound derivatives: honey-mooner, broad-shouldered. Those types of words are not of equal significance in the lang. derived words numerically constitute the largest group of words, the words, which are most frequently used in speech, are root-words. Root words form the backbone of the Eng voc-ry and are of great importance in speech. There are various types of semantic paradigmatic relations of words within the Eng voc-ry. The systematic character of the Eng voc-ry can be clearly seen in the lexical semantic groups or paradigms into which voc-ry units naturally fall according to the peculiarities of their m-ngs.

3. According to their origin, words can be divided into native and borrowed.

4. Acc. To the ability to have more than 1 meaning, all words can be divided into monosemantic and polysemantic.

5.Lexico-semantic groups are comparatively small groups of words belonging to the same part of speech & linked by a common concept expressed in 1 or more common components of the lexical m-ngs of the words: adj slrong-mighty-powerfitl, weak-feeble-powerless form a lexico-semantic group of the quality of strength.

Within lexico-semantic paradigms the most important semantic groupings of words are those based on the relations of similarity (synonyms) and polarity (antonyms) of m-ngs, on the relations of inclusion (hyponyms). A polysemantic word enters this or that group or set only in one of its m-ngs. All these relations: synonymic, antonymic, hyponymic are called paradigmatic. E.g: within the lexico-semantic "group of the quality of strength the adj-s strong-mighty-powerful represent a synonymic set as opposed to the antonymous synonymic set: weak-feeble-powerless, denoting weakness.

6.According to semantic fields, words may be classified according to the common concept underlying their m-ng. The term 'semantic fields' is used to denote closely knit sectors of voc-ry each characterized by a common concept. E.g the words green, black, blue, reef, yellow make up the semantic field of colours; the words father, mother, son, daughter make up the semantic field of terms of kinship. The problem is that not all the words may be so easily classified. The members of the semantic fields are not syn-ms but they have some common semantic component, which is called the common denominator of m-ng. The word-m-ng is to a great extent determined by the place it occupies in its semantic field. Within the semantic field the m-ng of a word is determined by the co-presence of the other words. E.g, we know what the word captain means only if we know whether his subordinate is called mate or first officer (merchant service), commander (navy) or lieutenant (army). Semantic fields may be very extensive and may cover big conceptual areas, i.e. space, matter, intellect, etc. Words making up such semantic fields or such semantic groups may belong to different parts of speech. E.g, in the semantic field of space we find nouns: expanse, extent, surface; verbs: extend, spread, span; adj: spacious, roomy, vast, broad. In this respect lexico-semantic groups mentioned above are smaller groups of words belonging to the same part of speech though also linked by a common concept reflected in a common component of m-ng representing the given group.

7. Another type of the classification of voc-ry items widely used in teaching foreign lang-ges is thematic grouping-is based on the co-occurrence of words in certain repeatedly used contexts. Words in thematic groups are joined together by common contextual associations (within the framework of the sentence) & reflect the interlinking of things or events of real life. Words making up thematic groups belong to diff-nt parts of speech and do not possess any common denominator of m-ng but their m-ngs reflect notions referring to certain spheres of reality. E.g, the words journey, train, taxi, bags, ticket; to book, to reach; fast, slow form the thematic group associated with traveling

Q-5: The Etymological Background of the English Vocabulary. Native Words in English

Etymology – is a branch of Linguistics studying the origin of words, their change and development, their linguistic and extra-linguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. The term “Etymology” is derived from the Greek word – “etymon” – which means the true, original meaning of a word. According to the etymological principle the English vocabulary is usually divided into two uneven classes: native words which make up about 30% of the English vocabulary and borrowed words which make up about 70% of the English vocabulary.

Native words are words which belong to the original word stork. Words adopted from foreign languages are known as borrowed words, or loan words, or borrowings. Though, native words constitute only about 30% of the English vocabulary they make up the greatest part of the basic word stork (лексикологическое ядро словаря).

The Basic Word Stork – is the stable stork of the most frequently used three or four thousand words which constitute the core of the vocabulary, preserving the national peculiarities of the language. The changes in the Basic Word Stork are very slow and not easily perceptible.

Native words have a higher frequency value than most of the borrowings. They occur in any spoken or written speech forming the foundation and framework of the English language, e.g. words of native origin include most of the conjunctions, numerals, prepositions, pronouns and strong verbs, the definite and indefinite articles are also of native origin.

The native element in modern English is mostly monosyllabic but as for their meanings they are usually polysemantic. They show great word building power and make up the majority of proverbs and set expressions, e.g. water – to water, watery, waterproof, waterfall, “blood is thicker than water” (свой своего не обидит); milk – milky way, milkman etc.

According to their origin native words may be divided into 3 groups: