Lexicology as a branch of linguistics word and meaning

LECTURES

1. The object of lexicology.

2. General and special
   lexicology. Historical and descriptive lexicology.

3. Links of lexicology with
   other branches of linguistics.

4. The word as the main language
   unit.

5. Main approaches to the study
   of lexical units.

1.1. The
term «lexicology»
is comprised of two Greek morphemes: lexis
«word, phrase» and logos
«learning, word». Thus the literal meaning of the term
«lexicology» is «the study of the word».

Lexicology
as a branch of linguistics studies the vocabulary of a language as a
system of lexical units, primarily words. Another term for vocabulary
is «word-stock»,
i.e. the word store, the sum total of words.

Traditionally,
vocabulary units include words, e.g. dog,
get, silly;
morphemes, e.g. unfairly
consists of the morphemes un-,
-fair-, -ly;
phraseological units, e.g. red
tape,
to
break the ice.

The English vocabulary is
enormous, it includes more than 600.000 words.

1.2.
Distinction is made between general
and special
lexicology.

General
lexicology
is a part of general linguistics, it studies universal features of
vocabularies of all or most languages,

Special
lexicology
is concerned with the vocabulary of a particular language,

e.g.
Russian,
English, French, etc.

Historical
lexicology
studies the origin and development of vocabulary as well as its
separate units.

Descriptive
lexicology
deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a particular stage
of its development,

e.g.
lexicology
of Modern English.

1.3.
Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistics,
such as phonetics,
grammar, stylistics,
which also study words from various angles.

Lexicology
is connected with Phonetics
because the word is a two-facet unit which has both a form and
meaning. Thus, the word can be defined as a series of sounds making
up its form, and phonetics is concerned (among other things) with the
study of the sound-form of words.

The
link between phonetics and lexicology is
based on the following:

(a)
The recognition and understanding of a word is impossible without its
proper pronunciation.

(b) The position of stress is
used to distinguish words of identical sound-forms but different
parts of speech,

e.g.
‘rebel,
n. — re’bel,
v.; ‘frequent,
a. — fre’quent,
v.

(c)
Stress may also be used to distinguish between compound words and
word groups made up of identical components,

e.g. a
‘dark ‘room
(a phrase, each component has its own stress),

a
‘dark-room
(a compound, only one stress).

Lexicology
is linked with Grammar
because the word is used in speech as a grammatical unit, in certain
grammatical forms and functions. Grammar studies means of expressing
grammatical relations between words in speech and patterns after
which words are combined into word-groups and sentences.

The
connection between lexicology and grammar
is seen in the following:

(a) Each word belongs to some
part of speech and has characteristics typical of it.

(b) The grammatical form and
function of a word may determine its lexical meaning,

e.g.
brother
— brothers
«sons of the same parents», brethren
«fellow
members of a religious society, trade union, regiment, guild, order,
etc.»

(c) A
grammatical form of a word may split off and acquire a new lexical
meaning, becoming a new word. This is called lexicalization
of grammatical forms,

e.g. arm
— arms
(pl) , arms
«weapons»; developments
«events».

(d) Words are divided into
notional words and form words. A word in one meaning may function as
a notional word and in another as a form word,

e.g. He
looked indifferently
at
the food. He looked indifferent.

(e)
The morpheme is the central unit of morphology, a branch of grammar,
and also a unit of which words are built, thus studied also in
lexicology.

(f)
The system of all grammatical forms of a word is called its paradigm.
The paradigm is used as a derivational means in conversion, one of
the ways of word-building.

There is
also a close link between lexicology and Stylistics.
Stylistics is concerned with the study of stylistic devices, on the
one hand, and functional styles, on the other. Stylistics studies
meaning, synonymy, antonymy, etc. not as such, but for the purpose of
analysing texts, the effect they produce on the reader, in order to
help the reader grasp the author’s message.

1.4.
The word is the basic unit of language. The principle characteristics
of the word are as follows:

1) The word
is a unity of the
external
and the
internal structure,
i.e. a unity of form and content; thus, it is a two-facet unit.

By the
external structure
of the word we mean its sound form, morphemic composition, and
derivational structure.

The
internal (or semantic) structure
of the word is all its meanings together.

2) The word
is characterized both by external
(formal) unity and
internal unity.

Its
external
unity
means that a word possesses a single grammatical framing,

e.g.
blackbird
– blackbirds (pl).
The first component black
can’t have any grammatical forms of its own, whereas in a word-group
each constituent can have its own grammatical forms, e.g. the
blackest birds I’ve ever seen.

In
a word-group, other constituents can be inserted between its
components,

e.g. a
black night bird, which
is impossible so far as the word is concerned. Its component
morphemes are permanently linked together, unlike word-groups, whose
components possess a certain amount of structural freedom.

Semantic
(internal) unity
means that each meaningful word conveys one concept,

e.g. in the
word-group a
green house each
word conveys its own concept: green
«coloured like grass», house
«a building». The word greenhouse
conveys only one concept «a building of glass for rearing
delicate plants».

3) The word
is a cluster of forms
and
variants:

a) phonetic
variants, e.g. schedule
[‘skedju:l], again
[ə’geın]
;ʒʒə

b)
morphological variants, e.g. dreamed/dreamt,
dived/dove
(AmE);

c) parallel
formations of the type geographic/geographical;

(but
compare historic
— historical,
which are separate words);

d) lexico-semantic variants,
by which we mean one polysemantic word in its different meanings,

e.g. bird
1)
a feathered living creature

2) (sl) young woman

3) (coll) person.

In
speech, a certain variant of a word is used in every speech act, but
all its variants are identified by language users as making up one
and the same word.

4) The word is capable of
grammatical employment. In speech, it is used in one of its
grammatical forms, which are the smallest units at syntactic level,
in a certain function.

The word
is
a
nominative language unit, an association of a particular meaning with
a particular series of sounds, capable of grammatical employment.

1.5.
There are several approaches
to the study of the word.

1) Some
decades ago lexicology was characterized by an atomistic
approach,
which is now obsolete, i.e. lexical units were studied as unconnected
separate items.

2) The
vocabulary is studied as a system (systemic
approach),
i.e. the word is studied in its relations to other words in the
vocabulary as a component of various sets, groups, fields.

e.g. the
word high
is studied through its relations to other words: high
— tall
(synonymy), high
— low
(antonymy), high
— highly,
highness
(derivational cluster), etc.

(3) The
word is studied through its relation to its referent as a nominative
unit (nominative
approach).
The nominative approach is concerned with how things get their names.

e.g. The
escalator
began life as the «Reno
Inclined Elevator«,
named after its inventor, Jesse Reno, who installed the first one in
1896. «Escalator»
was the trade name used by the Otis Elevator Company when it joined
the market with a version of its own four years later, but for years
afterwards most people called it «a
movable stairway«.

4) The
functional
approach
studies how words are combined in speech, i.e. a word is observed,
studied and described in its typical contexts,

e.g. the
notion «group of the same kind of living things» is
expressed by the words herd,
flock, flight, shoal, school, pack, troop, colony,
but flock
is used only with sheep,
goats,
or birds.

5) The
communicative
approach
studies how words are used for purposes of communication, e.g. it
studies pragmatic conventions about language use (social and
cultural), speech etiquette, i.e. the appropriate use of language
unites in various situations.

e.g. OK
is
one of the most important discourse markers in English.

a) It indicates you accept an
offer, suggestion, request.

b) It serves as a bridge
between two topics or stages of a talk.

c) It shows the talk is
drawing to a close, etc.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller elements known as phonemes, or distinguishing sounds. Lexicology examines every feature of a word – including formation, spelling, origin, usage, and definition.^[1]

Lexicology also considers the relationships that exist between words. In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is composed of lexemes, which are abstract units of meaning that correspond to a set of related forms of a word. Lexicology looks at how words can be broken down as well as identifies common patterns they follow.^[2]

Lexicology is associated with lexicography, which is the practice of compiling dictionaries.^[3]

Etymology[edit]

The term lexicology derives from the Greek word λεξικόν lexicon (neuter of λεξικός lexikos, «of or for words»,^[4] from λέξις lexis, «speech» or «word»^[5]) and -λογία -logia, «the study of» (a suffix derived from λόγος logos, amongst others meaning «learning, reasoning, explanation, subject-matter»).^[6]
Etymology as a science is actually a focus of lexicology. Since lexicology studies the meaning of words and their semantic relations, it often explores the history and development of a word. Etymologists analyze related languages using the comparative method, which is a set of techniques that allow linguists to recover the ancestral phonological, morphological, syntactic, etc., components of modern languages by comparing their cognate material.^[7] This means many word roots from different branches of the Indo-European language family can be traced back to single words from the Proto-Indo-European language. The English language, for instance, contains more borrowed words (or loan words) in its vocabulary than native words.^[8] Examples include parkour from French, karaoke from Japanese, coconut from Portuguese, mango from Hindi, etc. A lot of music terminology, like piano, solo, and opera, is borrowed from Italian. These words can be further classified according to the linguistic element that is borrowed: phonemes, morphemes, and semantics.^[7]

Approach[edit]

General lexicology is the broad study of words regardless of a language’s specific properties. It is concerned with linguistic features that are common among all languages, such as phonemes and morphemes. Special lexicology, on the other hand, looks at what a particular language contributes to its vocabulary, such as grammars.^[2] Altogether lexicological studies can be approached two ways:

1. Diachronic or historical lexicology is devoted to the evolution of words and word-formation over time. It investigates the origins of a word and the ways in which its structure, meaning, and usage have since changed.^[9]
2. Synchronic or descriptive lexicology examines the words of a language within a certain time frame. This could be a period during the language’s early stages of development, its current state, or any given interval in between.^[10]

These complementary perspectives were proposed by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.^[10] Lexicology can have both comparative and contrastive methodologies. Comparative lexicology searches for similar features that are shared among two or more languages. Contrastive lexicology identifies the linguistic characteristics which distinguish between related and unrelated languages.^[9]

Semantics[edit]

The subfield of semantics that pertains especially to lexicological work is called lexical semantics. In brief, lexical semantics contemplates the significance of words and their meanings through several lenses, including synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, and polysemy, among others. Semantic analysis of lexical material may involve both the contextualization of the word(s) and syntactic ambiguity. Semasiology and onomasiology are relevant linguistic disciplines associated with lexical semantics.^[9]

A word can have two kinds of meaning: grammatical and lexical. Grammatical meaning refers to a word’s function in a language, such as tense or plurality, which can be deduced from affixes. Lexical meaning is not limited to a single form of a word, but rather what the word denotes as a base word. For example, the verb to walk can become walks, walked, and walking – each word has a different grammatical meaning, but the same lexical meaning («to move one’s feet at a regular pace»).^[11]

Phraseology[edit]

Another focus of lexicology is phraseology, which studies multi-word expressions, or idioms, like ‘raining cats and dogs.’ The meaning of the phrase as a whole has a different meaning than each word does on its own and is often unpredictable when considering its components individually. Phraseology examines how and why such meanings exist, and analyzes the laws that govern these word combinations.^[12]

Idioms and other phraseological units can be classified according to content and/ or meaning. They are difficult to translate word-for-word from one language to another.^[13]

Lexicography[edit]

Lexicologists[edit]

• Dámaso Alonso (October 22, 1898 — January 25, 1990): Spanish poet, literary critic, and philologist
• Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 — March 25, 1980): French writer, critic, and semiotician
• Ghil’ad Zuckermann (born June 1, 1971): Israeli linguist and language revivalist

See also[edit]

• Calque
• Computational lexicology
• Lexicostatistics
• Lexical semantics
• Lexical analysis
• English lexicology and lexicography
• List of lexicographers
• List of linguists
• Lexical Markup Framework

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Societies[edit]

• Association for Automatic Language Processing (ATALA), Paris, France
• International Society for Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, University of Leicester

Theory[edit]

• Lexicology vs. lexicography – an explanation
• Lexicography, lexicology, lexicon theory

Glossary[edit]

• ‘L’ entries (from lexeme to lexicon) at SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics)’s glossary of linguistic terms

Teaching material[edit]

• English and General Historical Lexicology (by Joachim Grzega and Marion Schöner

Journals[edit]

• Lexis, E-Journal in English Lexicology (by Denis Jamet)

1. Lexicology as the science of vocabulary

LEXICOLOGY
AS THE SCIENCE OF VOCABULARY
1.
2.
3.
4.
Lexicology as the science of
vocabulary
The English vocabulary as a system
The word as a basic linguistic unit
Motivation of words

2. 1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics

1. LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF
LINGUISTICS
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the science
of language.
The term Lexicology is composed of two Greek
morphemes:
lexis means ‘word, phrase’ (hence lexicos ‘having
to do with words’) and
logos which denotes ‘learning, a department of
knowledge’.
Thus, the literal meaning of the term
Lexiсolоgу is ‘the science of the word’.

3.

Lexicology is a part of general linguistics dealing
with the vocabulary of a language.
Lexicology studies and describes the vocabulary as
to its origin, development and current use.
The term vocabulary denotes the system formed
by the sum total of all the words and word
phrases that a language possesses.

4. There are several parts in lexicology which deal with different aspects of words:

THERE ARE SEVERAL PARTS IN LEXICOLOGY WHICH
DEAL WITH DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF WORDS:
Grammar
studies
grammatical
relations between
words and the
patterns after
which words are
combined into
word-groups and
sentences.
Etymology
studies the
origin of words.
Phonetics is
concerned
with the study
of the outer
sound form of
the word.
lexicology
Lexicography is
the theory and
practice of making
dictionaries
Semasiology
(semantics)
investigates
the word
meaning.
Word-building
studies the
structure of words
Linguo-Stylistics
studies the
nature, functions
and structure of
stylistic devices
and the effect it
produces.

5.

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.

6. Distinction is naturally made between General Lexicology and Special Lexicology

DISTINCTION IS NATURALLY MADE BETWEEN
GENERAL LEXICOLOGY AND
SPECIAL LEXICOLOGY
General Lexicology is
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
(e.g. English, Russian,
etc.), i.e. the study and
description of its
vocabulary and
vocabulary units,
primarily words as the
main units of language.

7. There are two principal approaches in lexicology to the study of language material:

THERE ARE TWO PRINCIPAL APPROACHES IN
LEXICOLOGY TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
MATERIAL:
the synchronic (Gr. syn —
‘together, with’ and chronos —
‘time’)
The synchronic approach is
concerned with the vocabulary of
a language as it exists at a given
time, for instance, at the present
time. It is descriptive.
diachronic (Gr. dia —
‘through’) approach
The diachronic (historical)
approach deals with the changes
and the development of vocabulary
in the course of time, with the
evolution of words, how they
originate, change their meaning
and usage.
Ex. To tell one’s money – считать деньги
(OE tellian – считать)

8. 2. The English vocabulary as a system

2. THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY AS A
SYSTEM
Vocabulary is the system formed by all the
words and word equivalents that the language
has.
The term system is not merely the sum total of
English words, it denotes a set of elements
associated and functioning together according to
certain laws.
It is a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted
by interdependent elements of the same order
related in certain specific ways.

9. There are two fundamental types of relations:

THERE ARE TWO FUNDAMENTAL TYPES OF
RELATIONS:
syntagmatic and paradigmatic.
Syntagmatic relationships are linear. A word is
studied in relationships with other neighbouring
lexical units in connected speech.
Ex. The structure of a word: teach-er-s
Collocability (combinability) a white rose (colour) –
white coffee (with milk) – white lie (harmless) –
white meat (poultry).

10.

paradigmatic relations are contrastive. Paradigm
< Lat paradigtna < Gr paradeigma ‘model’ ‘to
compare’.
They occur in the words of similar meaning but of
different functional properties. The words form
an opposition. A lexical opposition is defined as a
semantically relevant relationship of partial
difference between two partially similar words.
Labour – work; man – chap; doubt : : doubtful
The main problems of paradigmatics are polysemy,
synonymy, antonomy, functional styles.

11.

In the vocabulary one can find the following
oppositions:
1. native words – borrowed (corn, milk – pizza,
pasta)
2. formal – informal (begin – commence; abandon –
give up)
3. emotionally coloured – emotionally neutral
(daddy – father)
4. common words – terms (metaphor)
5. obsolete (words that are not used any longer),
archaisms (words that once were common but
now are replaced by synonyms) – neologisms
(new words) – eve, morn – laptop (ноутбук), to
network, filmnik.

12. The English vocabulary is different from the vocabularies of other languages in the following features:

THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY IS DIFFERENT
FROM THE VOCABULARIES OF OTHER
LANGUAGES IN THE FOLLOWING FEATURES:
monomorphemic structure of most important
words (man, go)
2.
widespread development of homonymy (sent –
scent – cent, lead – lead)
3.
widespread polysemy (a word has several
meanings)
way – track, road; direction;
progress (to push one’s way);
a course of actions (I like it this way);
manner, behavior (I don’t like his way);
respect or degree (the photos are in all way
similar). http://www.visualthesaurus.com/app/view
1.
4. very limited antonomy of English words (fire can
be a noun and a verb).

13. 3. The word as a basic linguistic unit

3. THE WORD AS A BASIC LINGUISTIC
UNIT
UNIT is one of the elements into which a whole
may be divided or analysed and which possesses
the basic properties of this whole.
Lexical units are two-facet elements possessing
form and meaning.
apartment – a furnished dwelling
The basic lexical units are the word, the
morpheme, the phoneme and set
expressions.
The borderline between various linguistic units is
not always sharp and clear.

14. Morphemes

MORPHEMES
are parts of words, into which they may be
analysed.
They function in speech only as constituent parts of
words.
They cannot be divided into smaller meaningful
units.
The meaning of morphemes is more abstract and
more general than that of words and at the same
time they are less autonomous.
use – ful
broad – en
use – less
re – cycle – ing
use – ful – ness
seven – teen – th

15. Words

WORDS
are the central elements of language system.
The word is a complex phenomenon, because it is a
phonological, semantic and grammatical unit at
the same time.
The word can consist of only one morpheme (ex. I).
It can be equal to one morpheme (boy, go).
It can be an equivalent of a phrase (red tape –
бюрократия).
The word can comprise a sentence (Silence!).
Words are indivisible and fulfil the nominative,
significative, communicative and pragmatic
functions.

16.

The word has many different aspects.
1) It has a sound form because it is a certain
arrangement of phonemes;
2) it has its morphological structure, being also a
certain arrangement of morphemes;
3) when used in actual speech, it may occur in
different word forms, different syntactic functions
and signal various meanings.
4) In the spelling system of the language words are
the smallest units of written discourse: they are
marked off by solid spelling.

17.

The word is the smallest meaningful language
unit capable of functioning alone and
characterised by morphological indivisibility,
semantic integrity and positional mobility within
a sentence.
The weak point of that definition is that it does
not establish the relationship between language
and thought.
the word is a dialectical unity of form and content,
of the outer side and inner side. The outer side is
the sound and graphical form. The inner side is
the meaning rendering the emotion or the
concept in the mind of the speaker which he
intends to convey to his listener.

18. The triangle of reference

THE TRIANGLE OF REFERENCE
It is also known as the triangle of meaning and the
semiotic triangle.
It is a model of how linguistic symbols are related
to the objects they represent. The triangle was
published in The Meaning of Meaning (1923) by
Ogden and Richards.

19. 4. Motivation of words

4. MOTIVATION OF WORDS
The term motivation is used to denote the
relationship existing between the phonemic or
morphemic composition and structural pattern of
the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the
other.
Motivation is the way in which a given meaning is
represented in the word.
There are three main types of motivation:
phonetical motivation
morphological motivation
semantic motivation

20. The motivation is phonetical

THE MOTIVATION IS PHONETICAL
when there is a similarity between the sounds that
make up the word and those referred to by the sense.
This phenomenon is called onomatopoeia.
Ex.: bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, gurgle, hiss, purr,
whistle.
Here the sounds of a word are imitative of sounds in
nature because what is referred to is a sound or at
least, produces a characteristic sound (cuckoo).
There’s the variability of echo-words within one
language and between different languages. Gf. cuckoo
(Engl), Kuckuck (Germ), кукушка (Russ).
also: purr (of a cat), moo (of a cow), crow (of a cock),
bark (of a dog), neigh (of a horse) and their Russian
equivalents.

21.

Some linguists consider one more type of motivation
closely akin to the imitative forms, namely sound
symbolism. Some words are supposed to illustrate
the meaning more immediately than do ordinary
words.
Ex.: flap, flip, flop, flitter, flicker, flutter, flash, flush,
flare;
glare, glitter, glow, gloat, glimmer;
sleet, slime, slush,
where fl- is associated with quick movement,
gl- with light and fire,
sl- with mud.
Thus, phonetically such words may be considered
motivated.

22. morphological motivation

MORPHOLOGICAL MOTIVATION
Its main criterion is the relationship between
morphemes.
Hence all one-morpheme words, e.g. sing, tell, eat,
are by definition are non-motivated. It is
observed in derived words built by affixation,
conversion and compounding.
Thus, the prefix ex- means ‘former’ when added to
human nouns: ex-filmstar, ex-president, ex-wife.
vitaminise, re-think, finger-ring, ring-finger

23. semantic motivation

SEMANTIC MOTIVATION
It is based on the co-existence of direct and
figurative meanings of the same word within the
same synchronous system.
Ex.: Mouth as a part of the human face,
and any opening or outlet
(used metaphorically): the mouth of a river,
of a cave, of a furnace.
Jacket is a short coat and also a protective cover for
a book, a phonograph record or an electric wire.

24.

Some words seem unmotivated (go, face, boy).
The word is said to be non-motivated for the
present stage of language development when the
connection between the meaning of the word and
its form is conventional that is there is no reason
for the word having this particular phonemic and
morphemic composition. They have lost their
motivation. It can be restored in diachronic
researches.
the history of not which is a reduced form of
nought from OE nowiht <nowiht ‘nothing’.

25. Folk Etymology

FOLK ETYMOLOGY
The changing of the form of a borrowed word so as to
give it a connection with some well-known word in an
attempt to find motivation for it.
These cases of mistaken motivation are called folk
etymology.
A nightmare is not ‘a she-horse that appears at night’
but ‘a terrifying dream personified in folklore as a
female monster’ (OE таrа ‘an evil spirit’.)
The international radio-telephone signal may-day
corresponding to the telegraphic SOS used by
aeroplanes and ships in distress has nothing to do
with the First of May but is a phonetic rendering of
French m’aidez ‘help me’.
asparagus – sparrow grass
pigeon language