- •Outlines of english lexicology
- •Introduction
- •Two Approaches to Language Study
- •Lexical Units
- •Referential Approach to meaning
- •Meaning in the Referential Approach
- •Functional Approach to Meaning
- •Types of meaning
- •Part-of-Speech Meaning
- •Emotive charge
- •Stylistic Reference
- •Change of meaning
- •Causes of semantic changes
- •Linguistic causes
- •Nature of Semantic Change
- •Results of Semantic Change
- •Changes in the denotational meaning
- •Changes in the connotational meaning
- •Interrelation of Causes, Nature and Results of Semantic Change
- •Meaning and polysemy
- •The semantic structure of polysemantic words
- •Diachronic Approach
- •Synchronic Approach
- •Polysemy and homonymy
- •Homonymy of Words and Homonymy of Word-Forms
- •Classification of homonyms
- •Graphic and Sound-Form of Homonyms
- •Sources of Homonymy
- •Word-meaning in syntagmaTlCs and paradigmatics
- •Polysemy and Context
- •Lexical context
- •Grammatical Context
- •Extra-Linguistic Context (Context of situation)
- •Common Contextual Associations. Thematic Groups
- •Meaning relations in paradigmatics and semantic classification of words
- •Conceptual (or Semantic) Fields
- •Semantic Equivalence and Synonymy
- •Patterns of Synonymic Sets in Modern English
- •Connotations of synonyms
- •Dominant synonym
- •Euphemisms
- •Semantic contrast and Antonymy
- •Word groups
- •Some basic features of word-groups
- •Grammatical Valency
- •Structure of word-groups Distribution as the Criterion of Classification
- •Meaning of word-groups
- •Lexical Meaning
- •Structural Meaning
- •Interrelation of Lexical and Structural Meaning in Word Groups
- •Motivation in Word Groups
- •Phraseological units
- •Free Word-Groups Versus Set-Phrases. Phraseological Units, Idioms, Word-Equivalents
- •1. Criteria of Stability and Lack of Motivation (Idiomaticity)
- •2. Criterion of Function
- •3. Criterion of Context
- •Phraseological Units and Idioms Proper
- •Classification
- •Word-structure Segmentation of Words into Morphemes
- •Principles of Morphemic Analysis. Types of Word Segmentability
- •Classification of morphemes
- •Morphemic Types of Words
- •Word-formation
- •Various ways of forming words
- •Word-formation: definition
- •Conversion
- •Synchronic Approach
- •Typical Semantic Relations
- •I. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs).
- •II. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives).
- •Diachronic Approach of Conversion. Origin
- •Word-composition
- •Structure
- •Meaning
- •Structural Meaning of the Pattern
- •The Meaning of Compounds. Motivation
- •Classification
- •Relations between the iCs of Compounds
- •Different Parts of Speech
- •Means of Composition
- •Correlation between Compounds and Free Phrases
- •Productive Types of Compound Adjectives
- •Sources of Compounds
Outlines of english lexicology
Introduction
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the science of language. The literal meaning of the term Lехiсоlоgу is 'the science of the word'. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with morphemes which make up words.
Two Approaches to Language Study
There are two principal approaches in linguistic science to the study of language material: the synchronic and the diachronic approach.
- The synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as it exists at a given time, for instance, at the present time.
- The diachronic approach deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time.
A good example illustrating both the distinction between the two approaches and their interconnection is furnished by the words to beg and beggar.
Synchronically, the words to beg and beggar are related as a simple and a derived word, the noun beggar being the derived member of the pair (the derivative correlation between the two is the same as in the case of to sing—singer, to teach—teacher, etc.). When we approach the words diachronically, however, we learn that the noun beggar was borrowed from Old French (1225, from O.Fr. begart, originally a member of the Beghards, lay brothers of mendicants in the Low Countries, from M.Du. beggaert "mendicant," with pejorative suffix) and only presumed to have been derived from a shorter word, the verb to beg, as in the English language agent nouns are commonly derived from verbs with the help of the agent suffix -er.
Lexical Units
Lexicology studies various lexical units but the basic unit it investigates is the word. Other units are morphemes - parts of words into which words may be analysed, and set expressions (idioms) or groups of words into which words may be combined.
Words are the central elements of a language system. They are:
- the biggest units of morphology and the smallest of syntax.
- units that can be separated in an utterance by other such units and can be used in isolation.
- linguistic structures possessing a regular stress pattern.
- uninterruptible units – the elements that are added to a word to modify its meaning are never included within that word: they are added either at the beginning as prefixes of the word or at the end as suffixes.
- linguistic structure that may consist of one or more morphemes. When a word consists of one morpheme only, then it cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units, e.g. dog, hand, man, out, work, Such words are called 'simple' words, (minimum free forms) in the sense that they may stand by themselves and yet act as minimally complete utterances, e.g. in answer to a question. If they consist of more than one morpheme they are called complex words and may be broken down into one free form and one or more bound forms: e.g. happi-ly, quick-er, work-ing,
- linguistic structures that may occurs typically in the structure of phrases (morphemes are used to build words, words to build phrases, phrases to build clauses, and clauses to build sentences)
- written as a sequence of letters bounded by spaces on a page
Unlike words, morphemes cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units: they function in speech only as constituent parts of words. The meaning of morphemes is more abstract and more general than that of words and at the same time they are less autonomous.
Idioms or Set expressions are word groups consisting of two or more words whose combination is integrated so that they are introduced in speech ready-made as units with a specialised meaning of the whole that is not understood as a mere sum total of the meanings of the elements.
WORD MEANING
There are mainly two schools of thought in present-day linguistics representing the main lines of contemporary thinking on the problem of meaning - the one is the referential approach, which seeks to formulate the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and the things or concepts they denote, and the functional approach, which studies the functions of a word in speech and is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works.