Беляева Елена Петровна

Lexicology and its links with other branches of linguistics.

Definition of lexicology.

The word lexicology is Greek. It consists of two morphemes: lexis (“word”) + logos (“science”). Lexicology is the science of the word.

Another definition: lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies the vocabulary and characteristic features of words. It investigates various meaning relations existing in the language and how words provide and support meaningful communication.

The basic task of lexicology is the study and systematic description of the vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.

Different branches of lexicology:

General lexicology is a part of linguistics (общее языкознание). It studies the vocabulary in general irrespective of (безотносительно) the specific features of any particular language.

Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (частная лексикология).

Historical lexicology studies the historic changes of words in the course of language development. It studies the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words, their semantic relations in the course of time and the development of their meaning. The word “diachronic” consists of two morphemes: dia (“through”) and chronos (“time”), i.e. in the course of time.

Descriptive lexicology studies the vocabulary of a particular language at a definite stage of its development. The word “Synchronic” consists of two morphemes: syn (“together with”) and chronos (“time”).

The first person who spoke about the distinction of synchronic and diachronic was Saussure. Today these two approaches are closely interconnected because the synchronic state of a language is the result of the historical development.

One more subdivision of the lexicology. Lexicology can be comparative and contrastive. Comparative lexicology studies closely related languages from the point of view of their similarities and differences. Contrastive lexicology studies both related and nonrelated languages and establishes its differences and similarities.

Applied lexicology (прикладная) studies how the knowledge of lexicological problems can be applied to such spheres as translation, lexicography and so on. Lexicography is the science of dictionary making.

The links of lexicology with other branches of linguistics.

1) Lexicology is closely connected with phonetics because they have the same object of studies, they both studies the word, but phonetics studies the outer form and lexicology studies the inner form of the word.

2) Lexicology is connected with grammar because lexicology studies words and grammar studies the grammatical relations between words and how words are combined into phrases and sentences. Meaningful communication is not possible without knowing the grammar rules.

3) Lexicology is connected with the history of language because the history of language studies the changes and the development of the vocabulary in the course of time.

4) Lexicology is connected with stylistics because stylistics studies the differentiation of the vocabulary according to the sphere of communication.

5) Lexicology is connected with the sociolinguistics because sociolinguistics studies the extra linguistic and social causes of the changes in the vocabulary of a language.

The word.

Word and its meaning.

The lexicologists were ancient Greeks. And actually they really did quite a lot. They tried to give a definition to word:

1) words are label for things (Plato)

2) word is the smallest significant unit of speech (Aristotle)

They also made first classifications of words.

Aristotle classified words into full words and form words. Full words are words with independent meaning, they preserve their meaning even in isolation. Form words have no independent meaning proper, their meaning always depends on the way they are used, and they acquire (приобретают) their meaning only in conjunction with other words (f.e.: if, for, it). Later this classification was developed by Henry Smith. And nowadays we still have it – notional and function words (знаменательные и служебные слова).This division is not strict enough because sometimes form can become full words and v.v., f.e.: to get a present, to get tired, to get cold. The process in the cause of witch full words start to be used as form words is called grammaticalisation.

The second classification. Ancient Greeks classified words into transparent (прозрачный) and opaque (непрозрачный). Is it easy to understand the meaning of transparent words from the meaning of their parts, f.e. driver – someone who drives, etc. Opaque words are not motivated. They are conventional. F.e. desk, dog, table. Nowadays this classification is the classification into motivated and non-motivated words. Motivation is the relationship existing between the phonemes or the morphemic composition, or the structural pattern of the word on the one hand and its meaning on the other hand. Types of motivation:

1) phonetic motivation - when there is a certain similarity between the sound form of a word and its meaning. Such words are called sound imitating / onomatopoeic (звукоподражательный). F.e. whistle, to bang the door, etc. Onomatopoeia is sound imitation.

2) morphological motivation – all derivatives are always motivated by the parent word. F.e. driver, wooden, washable, etc. All derivatives are transparent words.

3) semantic motivation – is based on the co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of a word. F.e. the foot of a person and the foot of a mountain.