It deals with the morphological structure of the word

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
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 (неуклюжий) and is used in a sentence as a predicative (именная часть составного сказуемого) (He is as loose as a goose).

      Lexicology
can be general and special. General lexicology is the lexicology

of any language, part of General Linguistics. It is
aimed at establishing language

universals – linguistic phenomena and properties
common to all languages.

      Special
lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (English,

German, Russian, etc.).

      
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 and its Connection
with Other Linguistc Disciplines

Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of
linguistcs:

1. It is connected with Phonetics because the word‘s
sound form is a fixed

sequence of phonemes united by a lexical stress.

2. Lexicology is connected with Morphology and
Word-Formation as the

word‘s structure is a fixed sequence of morphemes.

3. It is connected with Morphology because the word‘s
content plane is a

unity of lexical and grammatical meanings.

4. The word functions as part of the sentence and
performs a certain

syntactical function that is why it is also connected
with Syntax.

5. The word functions in different situations and
spheres of life therefore it

is connected with Stylistics, Socio- and
Psycholinguistics.

            But
there is also a great difference between lexicology and other linguistc

disciplines. Grammatical and phonological systems are
relatively stable. Therefore

they are mostly studied within the framework of
intralinguistics.

Lexical system is never stable. It is directly
connected with extralinguistic

systems. It is constantly growing and decaying (распадаться). It is immediately reacts to changes in social
life, e.g. the intense development of science and technology in the 20^th
century gave birth to such words as computer, sputnik, spaceship. Therefore
lexicology is a sociolinguistic discipline. It studies each particular word,
both its intra- and extralingiustic relations.

Lexicology is subdivided into a number of autonomous
but interdependent

disciplines:

1. Lexicological Phonetics. It studies the expression
plane of lexical units in

isolation and in the flow of speech.

2. Semasiology. It deals with the meaning of words and
other linguistic

units: morphemes, word-formation types, morphological
word classes and

morphological categories.

3. Onomasiology or Nomination Theory. It deals with
the process of

nomination: what name this or that object has and why.

4. Etymology. It studies the origin, the original
meaning and form of words.

5. Praseology. It deals with phraseological units.

6. Lexicography. It is a practical science. It
describes the vocabulary and

each lexical unit in the form of dictionaries.

7. Lexical Morphology. It deals with the morphological
structure of the word.

8. Word-formation. It deals with the patterns which
are used in coining new

words.

Modern
English lexicology investigates the problems of word structure and word
formation; it also investigates the word structure of English, the classification
of vocabulary units; the relations between different lexical layers4 of the
English vocabulary and some other. Lexicology came into being to meet the
demands of different branches of applied linguistic!

  2.
 Language units

The main unit of the lexical system of a language
resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is used in
grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest language unit
which can stand alone as a complete utterance.        

The modern approach to word studies is based on
distinguishing between the

external and the internal structures of the word.

         By
external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For

example, in the word post-impressionists the following
morphemes can be

distinguished: the prefixes post-, im-, the root
press, the noun-forming suffixes –

ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of plurality –s.

         The
external structure of the word, and also typical word-formation patterns,

are studied in the framework of word-building.

         The
internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly

referred to as the word‘s semantic structure. This is
the word‘s main aspect.

         The
area of lexicology specialising in the semantic studies of the word is

called semantics.

         One of
the main structural features of the word that it possesses both

external (formal) unity and semantic unity.

         A
further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility- восприимчивость) to grammatical employment. In speech most
words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations
are realized.

4.  Word-Combination

What is a Word-Combination?

The word-combination (WC) is the largest two-facet
lexical unit observed

on the syntagmatic level of analysis. By the degree of
their structural and semantic

cohesion(kouhizhn связь)

         
Lexical combinability (collocation) is the aptness of a word to appear
in

certain lexical contexts, e.g. the word question
combines with certain adjectives:

delicate, vital, important.

          Each
word has a certain norm of collocation. Any departure from this norm

is felt as a stylistic device: to shove a question.

          The collocations
of correlated words in different languages are not identical,

e.g. both the English flower and its Russian
counterpart цветок
can be combined

with a number of words denoting the place where the
flowers are grown: garden-

flowers, hot-house flowers; садовые цветы, оранжерейные цветы. But the

English word cannot enter into combination with the
word room to denote flowers

growing in the rooms, cf.: комнатные цветы – pot flowers.

         
Grammatical combinability (colligation) is the aptness of a word to
appear

in certain grammatical contexts, e.g. the adjective
heavy can be followed by a noun

(heavy storm), by an infinitive (heavy to lift). Each
grammatical unit has a certain

norm of colligation: nouns combine with pre-positional
adjectives (a new dress),

relative adjectives combine with pre-positional
adverbs of degree (dreadfully

tired).

          The
departure from the norm of colligation is usually impossible:

mathematics at clever is a meaningless string of words
because English nouns do

not allow of the structure N + at + A.

Categories of
Word-Combinations

 The study of
WCs is based on the following set of oppositions each

constituting a separate category:

      1. Neutral
and stylistically marked WCs: old coat – old boy;

      2.
Variable and stable WCs: take a pen – take place;

      3.
Non-idiomatic and idiomatic WCs: to speak plainly – to call a spade a

          spade;

         4.
Usual and occasional WCs: blue sky – angry sky;

         5.
Conceptually determined and conceptually non-determined WCs: clean

           
dress – clean dirt;

         6.
Sociolinguistically determined and sociolinguistically non-determined

            WCs:
cold war – cold soup.

                     
II.   Meaning of Word-Combinations

      Meaning of
WCs is anlysed into lexical and grammatical (structural

components).

Lexical meaning of the WC is the combined lexical
meanings of its component

words: red flower – red + flower. But in most cases
the meaning of the whole

combination predominates over the lexical meaning of
its constituents, e.g. the

meaning of the monosemantic adjective atomic is
different in atomic weight and

atomic bomb.

     
Polysemantic words are used in WCs in one of their meanings: blind man

(horse, cat) – blind type (print, handwriting). Only
one meaning of the adjective

blind (unable to see) is combined with the lexical
meaning of the noun man

(human being) and only one meaning of man is realized
in combination with blind.

The meaning of the same adjective in blind type is
different.

      Structural
meaning of the WC is conveyed by the pattern of arrangement of

the component words, e.g. the WCs school grammar and
grammar school consist

of identical words but are semantically different
because their patterns are

different. The structural pattern is the carrier of a
certain meaning quality-

substance that does not depend on the lexical meanings
of the words school and

grammar.

     III.   Interdependence of Structure and Meaning in
Word-Combinations

      The
pattern of the WC is the syntactic structure in which a given word is

used as its head: to build + N (to build a house); to
rely + on + N (to rely on sb).

The pattern and meaning of head-words are
interdependent. The same head-word

is semantically different in different patterns, cf.:
get+N (get a letter); get+to+N

(get to Moscow); get+N+inf (get sb to come).

      In these
patterns notional words are represented in conventional symbols

whereas form-words are given in their usual graphic
form. The reason is that

individual form-words may change the meaning of the
word with which it is

combined: anxious+for+N (anxious for news),
anxious+about+N (anxious about

his health).

     
Structurally simple patterns are usually polysemantic: the pattern
take+N

represents several meanings of the polysemantic
head-word: take tea (coffee), take

neasures (precautions). Structurally complex patterns
are usually monosemantic:

the pattern take+to+N represents only one meaning of
take – take to sports (to sb).

                       
IV.   Motivation in
Word-Combinations

      Motivation
in WCs may be lexical or grammatical (structural). The WC is

motivated if its meaning is deducible from the
meaning, order and arrangement of

its components: red flower – red+flower –
quality+substance – A+N. Non-

motivated WCs are indivisible lexically and
structurally. They are called

phraseological units.

      The WC is
lexially non-motivated if its combined lexical meaning is not

deducible from the meaning of its components: red tape
–bureaucratic methods.

The WC represents a single indivisible semantic
entity.

      The WC is
structurally non-motivated if the meaning of its pattern is not

deducible from the order and arrangement of its
components: red tape – substance

– N. The WC represents a single indivisible structural
entity.

                       
V.    Categories of
Word-Combinations

      The study
of WCs is based on the following set of oppositions each

constituting a separate category:

      1. Neutral
and stylistically marked WCs: old coat – old boy;

      2.
Variable and stable WCs: take a pen – take place;

      3.
Non-idiomatic and idiomatic WCs: to speak plainly – to call a spade a

          spade;

         4.
Usual and occasional WCs: blue sky – angry sky;

         5.
Conceptually determined and conceptually non-determined WCs: clean

           
dress – clean dirt;

         6.
Sociolinguistically determined and sociolinguistically non-determined

            WCs:
cold war – cold soup.

Федеральное агентство по образованию Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования Тульский государственный университет Кафедра лингвистики и перевода

Лекции по лексикологии английского языка

для студентов, обучающихся по направлению 031100 – лингвистика и перевод

по специальности 031202 – перевод и переводоведение

Автор: кандидат филологических наук, доцент Гусева Галина Владимировна

Тула 2007

Lecture 1

What is Lexicology?

I.The Subject of Lexicology

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 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 be general and special. General lexicology is the lexicology of any language, part of General Linguistics. It is aimed at establishing language universals – linguistic phenomena and propeties common to all languages.

Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (English, German, Russian, etc.).

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.

II.What is a Word?

First, the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the purposesof human communication. Thus, the word can be defined as a unit of communication.

Secondly, the word can be perceived as the total of the sounds which comprise it.

Third, the word, viewed structurally, possesses several characteristics.

The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between the external and the internal structures of the word.

By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For example, in the word post-impressionists the following morphemes can be distinguished: the prefixes post-, im-, the root press, the noun-forming suffixes – ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of plurality –s.

The external structure of the word, and also typical word-formation patterns, are studied in the framework of word-building.

The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as the word‘s semantic structure. This is the word‘s main aspect.

The area of lexicology specialising in the semantic studies of the word is called semantics.

One of the main structural features of the word that it possesses both external (formal) unity and semantic unity.

A further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. In speech most words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are realized.

Thus, the word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity.

III.The Problem of Word-Boundaries

The difference between words and other two-facet units is not always clear. There are:

1.Form words. On the one hand, they fuse with notional words phonetically and do not function as sentence-members. On the other hand, they are positionally mobile, e.g. a, to, and.

2.Loose compounds, e.g. speech sound, stone wall. On the one hand, theya are built in speech. On the other hand, they have one lexical stress.

3.Phrasal words: his I-love-you‘s. On the one hand, they are built in speech and

are not reproducible. On the other, they have one lexical stress.

The difference between variants of the same word and different words is also not always clear. Within the language system the word is a lexeme – an abstract unit which unites all its variant:

a)lexico-semantic variants – different meanings of the same polysemantic word: to give a pen, to give a smile, to give an answer;

b)phonetic variants – different pronouncation of the same word: neither, either, often;

c)orthographic variants – different spelling of the same word: jail – gaol;

d)morphological variants – different morphemic structure of the same word: learned – learnt, geographic – geographical.

IV. Lexicology and its Connection with Other Linguistc Disciplines

Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistcs:

1.It is connected with Phonetics because the word‘s sound form is a fixed sequence of phonemes united by a lexical stress.

2.Lexicology is connected with Morphology and Word-Formation as the word‘s structure is a fixed sequence of morphemes.

3.It is connected with Morphology because the word‘s content plane is a unity of lexical and grammatical meanings.

4.The word functions as part of the sentence and performs a certain syntactical function that is why it is also connected with Syntax.

5.The word functions in different situations and spheres of life therefore it is connected with Stylistics, Socioand Psycholinguistics.

But there is also a great difference between lexicology and other linguistc disciplines. Grammatical and phonological systems are relatively stable. Therefore they are mostly studied within the framework of intralinguistics.

Lexical system is never stable. It is directly connected with extralinguistic systems. It is constantly growing and decaying. It is immediately reacts to changes in social life, e.g. the intense development of science and technology in the 20th century gave birth to such words as computer, sputnik, spaceship. Therefore lexicology is a sociolinguistic discipline. It studies each particular word, both its intraand extralingiustic relations.

Lexicology is subdivided into a number of autonomous but interdependent disciplines:

1.Lexicological Phonetics. It studies the expression plane of lexical units in isolation and in the flow of speech.

2.Semasiology. It deals with the meaning of words and other linguistic units: morphemes, word-formation types, morphological word classes and morphological categories.

3.Onomasiology or Nomination Theory. It deals with the process of nomination: what name this or that object has and why.

4.Etymology. It studies the origin, the original meaning and form of words.

5.Praseology. It deals with phraseological units.

6.Lexicography. It is a practical science. It describes the vocabulary and each lexical unit in the form of dictionaries.

7.Lexical Morphology. It deals with the morphological stricture of the word.

8. Word-formation. It deals with the patterns which are used in coining new words.

Lecture II

Meaning. Concept

I.Approaches to Lexical Meaning

There are two main approaches to lexical meaning: referential and functional. The referential approach studies the connection between words and thins or concepts they denote. Functional approach studies relations between words.

The referential model of meaning is the so-called basic semantic triangle. it consists of:

1.The sound-form (Sign) of the word: [bз:d].

2.The referent (Denotatum) – the object which the word names: the actual bird.

3.The concept (Designatum) – The essential properties of this object which are reflected in human mind: “a feathered anial with wings“.

Meaning is closely connected with all parts of the semantic triangle but cannot be equated with any of them. Generally speaking, meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and absract notions.

The functional approach assumes that the meaning of a linguistic unit can be studied only through its relation to other linguistic units and not through its relation to concept or referent, e.g. we know that the meaning of “bird n“ and “bird v“ is different because they function in speech differently. Analysing various contexts in which these words are used we can observe that they have different distribution. As the distribution of the two words is different, their meanings are different too.

The same is true of a polysemantic word: Look at me – You look tired. Consequently, semantic investigation is confined to the analysis of the difference or sameness of meaning. the functional approach is a valuable complement to the referential theory.

II.Lexical Meaning and Concept

Meaning and concept are very closely associated but not identical. Meaning is a linguistic category. Concept is a logical and psychological category, a unit of thinking.

Meaning and concept coincide only in scientific terms that have no general meanings (morpheme, phoneme, amoeba) and in terminilogical meanings of polysemantic words, e.g. legal, medical or grammatical usages of the word case. In other aspects meaning and concept do not coincide:

1.Concept is emotionally and stylistically neutral. Meaning may include non-conceptual parts: kid, gorgeous, birdie.

2.One and the same concept can be expressed differently: die – pass away, kick the bucket.

3.The number of concepts does not correspond to the number of words and meanings. One concept may be expressed by several synonymous words: child, kid – infant. One polysemantic word may express several concepts: draw – “move by pulling“ (draw a boat out of the water), “obtain from a source“ (draw water from a well), “make with a pen, pencil or chalk“ (draw a straight line). Some words do not express concepts at all: well, must, perhaps.

4.Concepts are mostly international. Meanings are nationally specific. Words expressing identical concepts may have different meanings and different semantic structures in different languages: house – дом; blue —

синий, голубой.

III. Types of Lexical Meaning

The content plane of words includes denotative and connotative meanings. Denotative or referential meaning, the basic type of lexical meaning, is the

word‘s reference to the object. This reference may be individual (The dog is trained) or general (It‘s not a dog). That is why denotative meaning is subdivided into demonstrative and significative.

The type of denotative meaning varies in different groups of words.

The meaning of situational words is relative – it depends on the situation and context: here, son, my, this, now.

Pronominal words do not name the referent, they only point to it: he, she, they. Their meaning in isolation is very general: he – any male. but in speech their reference is always individual: he – this particular male.

The referent of proper names is always an individual object or person. They refer to each member of a particular class: London, Paris (cities), John, Bob (men).

Specific and generic terms differ in the size of the referent group: rose – flower; flower – plant. General terms have a wider meaning and can substitute for any specific term: dog – English bulldog, French poodle, cocker spaniel.

The referent of abstract words can be perceived by the mind and not by the senses: miracle, polite, to manage.

Connotative meaning includes various additional meanings: emotional, evaluative intensifying and expressive, e.g. hillock, to devour. As a rule, connotation co-exists with denotation. However, sometimes it comes to the fore and weakens the word‘s denotative meaning.

Words also may have a certain stylistic value. It means that they refer to this or that situation or functional style: science, everyday life, business: get – obtain – procure; child – kid – infant.

IV. Lexical and Grammatical Meaning

The word is a lexical-grammatical unity. Its content plane includes two types of meaning: lexical and grammatical.

Lexical meaning is individual, unique. It does not belong to any other word in the same language: bicycle – a vehicle with two wheels, handle-bars to guide it with, a seat, and two pedals to make it go. Grammatical meaning is general, standard. It belongs to a whole class of words and word-forms: bicycle – a noun in the common case, singular.

At the same time lexical and grammatical meanings co-exist in the word and are interdependent:

1.Lexical meaning affects grammatical meaning: abstract or mass nouns have no plural form (joy, sugar), relative adjectives have no degrees of comparison (watery), statal verbs are not used in progressive tenses (see, understand).

2.Grammatical meaning affects lexical meaning. Different meanings of the polysemantic word go have their own grammatical peculiarities: He has gone to China – moved (go + adverb of place); They are going to get married soon – are planning (be going + to-infinitive); The children went wild with eycitement – became (go + adjective).

3.Combinability of the word depends both on its lexical and grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, e.g. the noun tea combines with strong but not with strongly.

4.Grammatical form may be isolated from the paradigm and become lexicalized: works – factory.

5.Lexical meaning may be grammaticalized, e.g. some notional verbs may be used as link-verbs: give a smile, turn red.

Lecture III

Semantic Changes

I.The Causes of Semantic Changes

The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.

The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic: the change of the lexical meaning of the noun pen was due to extra-longuistic causes. Primarily pen comes back to the latin word penna (a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still later any instrument for writing was called a pen.

On the other hand, causes may be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some other language one of them may specialize in its meaning. The noun tide in Old English was polysemantic and denoted time, season, hour. When the French words time, season, hour were borrowed into English they ousted the word tide in these meanings. It was specialized and now means regular rise and fall of the sea caused by attraction of the moon. The meaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis: the word-group a train of carriages had the meaning of a row of carriages, later on of carriages was dropped and the noun train changed its meaning, it is used now in the function and with the meaning of the whole word-group.

Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The most complete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul. It is based on the logical principle. He distinguishes two main ways where the semantic change is gradual (specialization and generalization), two momentary conscious