- •Lexicology
- •Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Types of lexicology. The relation of lexicology with other linguistic disciplines.
- •2. Etymological characteristics of the English Vocabulary. Definition of terms native, borrowed. Words of native origin and their characteristics.
- •Etymological characteristics of the English Vocabulary. Foreign elements in Modern English. Scandinavian Borrowings, classical elements – Latin and Greek. French borrowings.
- •Etymological characteristics of the English vocabulary. Assimilation. Types and degrees of assimilation. Etymological doublets, hybrids.
- •5. Word formation in Modern English. Morphological structure of a word. Morpheme. Types of morphemes. Structural types of words(simple,derived,compound)
- •Word formation (словообразование)
- •2 Major groups of word formation:
- •Compounding
- •Prefixation
- •Suffixation
- •6 Ways of suffixing in English:
- •6. Productivity. Productive and non – productive ways of word formation.
- •7. Referential and functional approaches to meaning. Definition of meaning. Meaning and concept.
- •8. Types of word meaning: lexical, grammatical, part-of-speech meaning. Denotational and connotational components of lexical meanings. There are 2 main types of word-meaning:
- •The grammatical meaning
- •The lexical meaning.
- •Grammatical m-ng:
- •Lexical m-ng:
- •9. Polysemy. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word.
- •10. Change of meaning. It causes. Types of semantic change (specialization, generalization, positive and negative connotations)
- •11. Transference of meaning. Metaphor and metonymy.
- •12. English vocabulary as a system. Synonymy. Sources of synonymy. A synonymic group and its dominant member.
- •13. Synonymy. Problems of classification of synonyms (criteria, types of classification)
- •14. English vocabulary as a system. Hyponymy. Hyperonymy. The theory of semantic field.
- •15. Synonymy and euphemisms.
- •16. English vocabulary as a system. Antonyms. Types of antonyms.
- •17. Homonyms. Origins of homonymy. Classification of homonyms. Homonymy and polysemy.
- •18. Fundamentals of English lexicography. The main problems of lexicography. Types of dictionaries.
- •19. Phraseological units. Problem of definition. Essential features of phraseological units.
- •20. How to distinguish phraseological units from free word groups.
- •21. Problem of criteria and classification of Phraseological units.
Lexicology
Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Types of lexicology. The relation of lexicology with other linguistic disciplines.
The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» - «word» and «logos» - «science». Lexicology is the part of linguistics, which deals with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.
The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language possesses.
The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language, which can stand alone as a complete utterance.
The term «word-group» denotes a group of words which exists in the language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function, e.g. the word-group «as loose as a goose» means «clumsy» and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as a goose/.
Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical lexicology. Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics – the science of language. The literal meaning of the term “lexicology” is “the science of the word”. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims & methods of scientific research. Its basic task – being a study & systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development & its current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units & morphemes, which make up words.
Distinction is made between GENERAL LEXICOLOGY & SPECIAL LEXICOLOGY. General lexicology is a part of General linguistics. It is concerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language. Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (Russian, German, French, etc.).
Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistics: phonetics, for example, investigates the phonetic structure of language & is concerned with the study of the outer sound-form of the word. Grammar is the study of the grammatical structure of language. It is concerned with the various means of expressing grammatical relations between words as well as with patterns after which words are combined into word-groups & sentences. There is also a close relationship between lexicology & stylistics, which is concerned with a study of a nature, functions & styles of languages.
Lexicology – 'science of the word', a branch of linguistics, which basic task is a study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.
general lexicology – part of general linguistics, is concerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language;
special lexicology – the lexicology of a particular language, i.e. the study and description of its vocabulary and vocabulary units, primarily words as the main units of language.;
special lexicology is based on the principles worked out and laid down by general lexicology, a general theory of vocabulary. Special lexicology employs synchronic (q.v.) and diachronic (q.v.) approaches: - special descriptive lexicology (synchronic lexicology) – deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular language at a certain time - special historical lexicology (diachronic lexicology) – deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time.
Lexicology presents a wide area of knowledge.
Historical lexicology deals with the historic change of words in the course of lang. development.
Comparative lexicology studies closely relative languages from the point of view of their identity and differentiation.
Contrastive - both relative and unrelative languages establishes differences and similarity.
Applied lexicology - translation, lexicography, pragmatics of speech.
The word, as it has already been stated, is studied in several branches of linguistics and not in lexicology only, and the latter, in its turn, is closely connected with general linguistics, the history of the language, phonetics, stylistics, grammar and such new branches of our science as sociolinguistics, paralinguistics, pragmalinguistics and some others.
Paralinguistics — the study of non-verbal means of communication (gestures, facial expressions, eye-contact, etc.).
Pragmalinguistics — the branch of linguistics concerned with the relation of speech and its users and the influence of speech upon listeners. See: Leech G. Principles of Pragmatics. London, 1985.
The importance of the connection between lexicology and phonetics stands explained if we remember that a word is an association of a given group of sounds with a given meaning, so that top is one word, and tip is another. Phonemes have no meaning of their own but they serve to distinguish between meanings. Their function is building up morphemes, and it is on the level of morphemes that the form-meaning unity is introduced into language. We may say therefore that phonemes participate in signification.
Word-unity is conditioned by a number of phonological features. Phonemes follow each other in a fixed sequence so that [pit] is different from [tip]. The importance of the phonemic make-up may be revealed by the substitution test which isolates the central phoneme of hope by setting it against hop, hoop, heap or hip.
Stylistics, although from a different angle, studies many problems treated in lexicology. These are the problems of meaning, connotations, synonymy, functional differentiation of vocabulary according to the sphere of communication and some other issues. For a reader without some awareness of the connotations and history of words, the images hidden in their root and their stylistic properties, a substantial part of the meaning of a literary text, whether prosaic or poetic, may be lost.
The difference and interconnection between grammar and lexicology is one of the important controversial issues in linguistics and as it is basic to the problems under discussion in this book, it is necessary to dwell upon it a little more than has been done for phonetics and stylistics.
A close connection between lexicology and grammar is conditioned by the manifold and inseverable ties between the objects of their study. Even isolated words as presented in a dictionary bear a definite relation to the grammatical system of the language because they belong to some part of speech and conform to some lexico-grammatical characteristics of the word class to which they belong. Words seldom occur in isolation. They are arranged in certain patterns conveying the relations between the things for which they stand, therefore alongside with their lexical meaning they possess some grammatical meaning. Сf. head of the committee and to head a committee.