2. Lexicology
(from Gr lexis “word” and logos
“learning”)
is the part of linguistics dealing with the
vocabulary of the language and the
properties of words as the main units of
language.
Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its
own aims and methods of scientific research,
its basic task being a study and systematic
description of vocabulary in respect to its
origin, development and current use.
Lexicology is concerned with words, variable
word-groups, phraseological units, and with
morphemes which make up words.
3. 2 types of lexicology
General Lexicology is
concerned with the
general study of words
and vocabulary
irrespective of the
specific features of
any particular
language.
Special Lexicology is
concerned the study and
description of vocabulary
and vocabulary units of a
given language.
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.
4. The subject matter of
lexicology
is separate words, their morphological
and semantic structure, and the
vocabulary of the language, which
includes words, word combinations, their
origin, development and current use.
5. Lexicology has lots of connections
with other branches which also
have word as a central unit.
If lexicology studies the meaning of the word,
Grammar studies grammatical problems. Both study
roots, morphemes, affixes. But, unlike grammar,
lexicological function is to name objects. Word is the
smallest part of the sentence, and the sentence in its
turn is the smallest communicative unit.
6. Also lexicology has connections with
Phonetics. If we change the stress, we
change the meaning of the word and even
part of the speech: rEcord – recOrd, cOment
– comEnt; blackboard – black board,
blackbird – black bird.
7. Also it has some links with Stylistics. One of
the problems of lexicology is stylistic
characteristics. Stylistics studies different
stylistic styles. The reflection of the style is in
the text. E.g. bookish style we often can find
in classical fiction or textbooks; collocations
– in speech.
8. And the last connection is with Social
Linguistics (Cultural Studies): language is a
part of the culture, it’s a reflection of the
mentality of people. There are some
specific word combinations and
associations in every language. E.g.
professions: kindness is associated with
social workers.
10. Semasiology
(Gr. “Sema” = “sign”, “Semantikos” =
“significant”, “Logos” = “learning”) is a
brunch of linguistics which deals with the
meaning of words and word equivalents.
Word is made up of many components and
they are usually described as types of
meaning. Among the word’s various
characteristics, meaning is certainly the
most important.
11. Types of word meaning.
Conceptual
Meaning
Associative
Meaning
Stylistic meaning
Collocative meaning
Affective meaning
Connotative meaning
Grammatical
Meaning
Lexical
Meaning
12. Grammatical meaning is an expression in
speech of relationships between words based on
contrasting features of arrangement in which they
occur. The grammatical meaning is more abstract
and more generalized than the lexical one. It unites
words into big groups such as parts of speech or
lexico-grammatical classes. Such word form as ‘girls’,
‘tables’ denote completely different objects but
have the common element, the grammatical
meaning of plurality.
Lexical meaning is the realization of concept
or emotion by means of a definite language system.
This type of meaning is identical in all the forms of the
word. The lexical meaning of every word depends
upon the part of speech to which the word belongs.
(ex: drive – drives – drove – driven possess different
grammatical meaning of tense, person, etc. but
each form has the same semantical component
denoting the process of movement).
13. Lexical meaning has two
components: conceptual and
associative.
Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative
meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and
forms the core of word meaning. Conceptual
meaning forms the basis for communication as the
same word has the same conceptual meaning to all
the speakers of the same language.
Associate meaning is the secondary meaning
supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It differs
from the conceptual meaning in that it is liable to the
influence of such factors as culture, experience,
religion, geographical region, class background,
education, etc.
14. Associative meaning
comprises four types:
Connotative meaning.
In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to
the overtones or associations which a word suggests or implies.
Stylistic meaning.
Words may have stylistic features, which make them appropriate
for different contexts. This stylistic difference is especially true of
synonyms. It is observed that there are few words which have both
the same conceptual meaning and stylistic meaning.
Affective meaning.
Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the
person or thing in question.
Collocative meaning.
Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquires
in its collocation. In other words, it is that part of the word meaning
suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion.
16. Semantics is the study of
meanings of words, phrases and
sentences.
Semantics is a subfield of
linguistics that is traditionally
defined as the study of meaning of
(parts of) words, phrases,
sentences, and texts.
17. Synonymy
Synonyms are two or more forms with very closely related
meanings, which are often, but not always,
intersubstitutable in sentences.
For example: broad=wide, almost=nearly
Synonyms may differ:
- in emotional colouring: alone – lonely (sad, longing for
company)
- in valency: win (a victory, a war) – gain (a victory, not a
war!)
- in style: begin (neutral) – commence (literary)
There are words that are similar in meaning only under some
specific conditions – contextual synonyms.
E.g. buy and get in a sentence: “I’ll go to the shop and
get/buy some bread.”
18. Antonymy
Antonyms are two (rarely more) words of the
same language belonging to the same part of
speech with contradictory meaning (alive –
dead, love –hate, useful - useless).
Unlike synonyms, antonyms do not differ in style,
emotional coloring or distribution.
The same word may have different antonyms
when used with different words: single ticket –
return ticket,
she is single – she is married.
19. Homonyms
Homomymy is recognized as a language
universal. It creates lexical ambiguity in
that a single form has two or more
different meanings.
Homonyms – the words of one and the
same language which are identical
phonetically or graphically in all or several
grammar forms (and in all or several
phonetic and graphic variants) but which
have essential difference in lexical or
grammatical meanings.
21. Phraseology
is a branch of linguistics which studies
different types of set expressions, which
like words name various objects and
phenomena.
They exist in the language as ready-made
units.
22. A Phraseological unit can be defined as a
non-motivated word-group that cannot be
freely made up in speech, but is reproduced
as a ready-made unit.
It is a group of words whose meaning cannot
be deduced by examining the meaning of
the constituent lexemes.
The essential features are:
1) lack of motivation;
2) stability of the lexical components.
23. Free-word groups and
Phraseological units.
The free word-groups are only relatively free
as collocability of their member-words is
fundamentally delimited by their lexical and
syntactic valency.
Phraseological units are comparatively
stable and semantically inseparable.
24. Distinctive features of
free-word groups and phraseological units
Free word-groups Phraseological units
1. are formed in the
process of speech
according to the
standards of the
language;
1. exist in the language
side-by-side with
separate words;
2. are constructed in the
process of
communication by
joining together words
into a phrase;
2. are reproduced in
speech as ready-made
units;
25. Free word-groups Phraseological units
3. substitution is possible; 3. no substitution is
possible;
4. each of its components
preserves its
denotational meaning;
4. the denotational
meaning belongs to the
word group as a single
semantically
inseparable unit;
26. Free word-groups Phraseological units
5. less structural unity; 5. greater structural unity;
6. components may have
any of the forms of
their paradigm.
6. components often have
just one form of all the
forms of their
paradigm.
27. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS (V.V. Vinogradov)
is based on the motivation of the unit
Phraseological fusions are units whose
meaning cannot be deduced from the
meanings of their component parts. The
meaning of PFs is unmotivated at the
present stage of language development,
e.g.
red tape (бюрократизм, волокита),
a mare’s nest (иллюзия, нечто
несуществующее)
28. 2. Phrasological unities are expressions the meaning
of which can be deduced from the meanings of
their components; the meaning of the whole is
based on the transferred meanings of the
components, e.g.
to show one’s teeth (to be unfriendly),
to stand to one’s guns (to refuse to change one’s
opinion), etc.
They are motivated expressions.
29. 3. Phraseological collocations are not only
motivated but contain one component
used in its direct meaning, while the
other is used metaphorically, e.g. to
meet requirements, to attain success.
In this group of PUs some substitutions are
possible which do not destroy the meaning of
the metaphoric element, e.g. to meet the
needs, to meet the demand, to meet the
necessity; to have success, to lose success.
30. The characteristic features of
phraseological units are:
1. ready-made reproduction,
2. structural divisibility,
3. morphological stability,
4. permanence of lexical composition,
5. semantic unity,
6. syntactic fixity.
32. Word formation is the
creation of a new word
It is s a branch of science of the
language, which studies the patterns
on which a language forms new lexical
items (new unities, new words)
It’s a process of forming words by
combining root and affixal morphemes.
33. Different types of word
formation:
There are 2 ways of word formation:
productive and non-productive ways.
Productive ways includes affixation, word
composition, conversion, abbreviation.
Non-productive way includes sound
interchange, stress interchange, sound
imitation, blending, back formation.
34. Productive way.
Affixation.
It consists of adding an affix to the stem of a
definite part of speech. The main function of
suffixation is to form one part of speech from
another.
The secondary function is to change the lexical
meaning of the same part of speech.
Affixation is divided into suffixation and
prefixation.
35. Prefixation
A prefix is an affixation process that
includes adding a morpheme at the beginning
of the word. There are different types: negative
prefixes(unfair, non-stop), pejorative prefixes(to
misbehave), prefixes of place (Locative
prefixes)(midway, transatlantic), prefixes of size,
degree and status(micro-, macro-, mini-, co-,
vice-), prefixes of time and order(ex-wife,
midnight, preview), prefixes of number (mono-,
poly-, semi-, tri-) and others.
36. Suffixation
It is a formation of new words by adding
suffixes to the stem.
There are 5 groups of suffixation:
- Noun-forming –er, -dom, -ism
- Adjective-forming –able, -less, -ous
- Verb-forming -ize, -ify, -en
- Adverb-forming –ly, -ward, -wise
- Numeral-forming –teen, -ty, -fold
37. Compounding
It refers to the joining of two separate
words to produce a single word. The
two words don’t lose their individual
sounds.
Bookcase
Fingerprint
Sunburn
Doorknob
Basketball
38. Conversion
This is the change of the function of the
word. For example when a noun
comes to be used as a verb.
Bag – to bag
Back – to back
Bottle – to bottle
39. Abbreviation
Word groups can be shortened.
Examples:
professor-prof.
Fantasy-fancy.
Abbriviation can be graphical (a.m.- in
the morning, i.e.- that is) and Initial
(J.V.- joint venture, BBC, UK, UNESCO)
Abbreviation of words consists in
clipping a part of a word.
40. Clipping
Clipping a synonym of reduction. In this
process a word that has more than one
syllable is reduced to a shorter form
Brassiere (bra)
Fanatic (fan)
Situation Comedy (sitcom)
41. Non-productive way.
Blending.
New words are formed from a word
group or two synonyms by clipping the
end of the first component and the
beginning of the second component
medical + care = medicare
Spanish + English = Spanglish
Modulator + demodulator = Modem
43. Sound imitation
Other terms for sound imitation are
onomatopoeia and echoism.
Words coined by this type of word
building are made by imitating different kinds
of sounds that may be produced by animals,
birds, human beings and inanimate objects.
Dogs – bark
cocks – cock-a-doodle-doo
cats – mew (miaow, meow)
cows – moo (low).
44. Stress interchange
is one of the ways of word building,
based on a shift of stress
'conduct – to con'duct
'present – to pre'sent
'frequent - to fre'quent
