Lexicology presents a wide area of knowledge.

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.

COMPOUNDING

Is joining together 2 or more stems.

Types:

1) Without a connecting element
headache, heartbreak

2) With a vowel or consonant as a linking element
speedometer, craftsman

3) With a preposition or conjunction as a linking element
down-and-out (в ужасном положении, опустошенный)
son-in-law

Compounds can be classified according to their structure:

consisting of simple stem
heartbreak
compounds where at least one stem is a derived one
football player
where one stem is clipped
Xmas
H-bag (handbag)
where one of the elements is also a compound
wastepaper basket
compound nouns, adjectives, verbs.
There are also the so-called reduplicative compounds:
Tick-tick, chow-chow

PREFIXATION

Prefixes are such particles that can be prefixed to full words. But are they not with independent existence.

Native prefixes have developed out of independent words; there is a small number of them.

a-
be-
mid-
fore-
mis-

Prefixes of foreign origin have come into the language ready-made
Some scholars: the system of English word formation was entirely upset by the Norman Conquest.

Normans have paved the way for the non-Germanic trend the language has taken since that time.

From French English borrowed many words with suffixes & prefixes, they became assimilated in the language & started to be used in word building. It led to enormous cut down of the traditional word formation out of native material. Old prefixes (some of them) disappeared forever (too weak phonetically)
Æ t-
Ed-

Nowadays English has no prefixed equivalents for some German prefixes
Er-
Ver-
Zer-

A lot of borrowed prefixes in English:
Auto-
Demi-
Mono-
Multi-
Semi-
Post-

SUFFIXATION

A suffix is a derivative final element, which is or was productive in forming new words.
It has semantic value, but doesn’t occur as an independent speech use.
The contact of English with foreign languages has led to the adoption of countless foreign words, which started to be used in word building.
→ we have many hybrid types of derivatives.

A hybrid is a word different element of which are of etymologically different origin.
2 groups:

1) A foreign word is combined with a native affix
- full
- less
- ness
clearness, faithless, faithful

2) Foreign affixes are added to native words
- ance
- al
- ity
- able

As for the first 3 they have never become productive in English; - able was assimilated in English very early and has became productive in many words.
Eatable
Loveable

Semi suffixes are elements, which stand midway between full words & suffixes
- like
- worthy
- way
- wise

a Godlike creature
trustworthy
clockwise
midway

6 ways of suffixing in English:

1) Derivation by native suffixes without changes in stress, vowels, consonants
Godlike

2) Derivation by borrowed suffix without changes in stress, vowels, consonants
loveable

3) Derivation by imported suffixes, which involves the change in
Japan Japanese

4) The suffix is added to a Latin stem which closely related to an English word
science – scientist

5) The suffix is added to a Latin stem, which has no English equivalent
lingua – lingual

6) Words borrowed separately but have the same patterns of word building
candidate – candidacy
president – presidency

This is called correlative derivation.

CONVERSION (zero derivation) A certain stem is used for the formation of a categorically different word without a derivative element being added.
Bag – to bag
Back – to back
Bottle – to bottle
This specific pattern is very productive in English
The most popular types are noun → verb or verb → noun
To take off – a take off
Conversion can be total or partial
Partial: the then president (тогдашний)
An adverb is used as an adjective, only in this particular context.
Total: work – to work

Classification of Synonyms

According to whether the difference is in denotational or connotational component synonyms are classified into ideographic and stylistic. Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality. They are nearly identical in one or more denotational meanings and interchangeable at least in some contexts, e.g. beautiful - fine - handsome -pretty Beautiful conveys, for instance, the strongest meaning; it marks the possession of that quality in its fullest extent, while the other terms denote the possession of it in part only. Fineness, handsomeness and prettiness are to beauty as parts to a whole.

In the synonymic group choose, select, opt, elect, pick the word choose has the most general meaning, the others are characterised by differences clearly statable: select implies a wide choice of possibilities (select a Christmas present for a child), opt implies an alternative (either this, or that as in Fewer students are opting for science courses nowadays); pick often implies collecting and keeping for future use (pick new words), elect implies choosing by vote (elect a president; elect smb (to be) chairman).

Stylistic synonyms differ not so much in denotational as in emotive value or stylistic sphere of application.

Pictorial language often uses poetic words, archaisms as stylistic alternatives of neutral words, e.g. maid for girl, bliss for happiness, steed for horse, quit for leave.

Calling and vocation in the synonymic group occupation, calling, vocation, business are high-flown as compared to occupation and business.

In many cases a stylistic synonym has an element of elevation in its meaning, e.g. face - visage, girl - maiden.

Along with elevation of meaning there is the reverse process of degradation: to begin - to fire away, to eat - to devour, to steal - to pinch, face - muzzle. According to the criterion of interchangeability in context synonyms are classified into total, relative and contextual.

Total synonyms are those members of a synonymic group which can replace each other in any given context, without the slightest alteration in denotative meaning or emotional meaning and connotations. They are very rare. Examples can be found mostly in special literature among technical terms and others, e.g. fatherland - motherland, suslik - gopher, noun - substantive, functional affix -flection, inflection, scarlet fever - scarlatina Relative Synonyms

Some authors class groups like ask - beg - implore, or like - love - adore, gift -talent - genius, famous - celebrated- eminent as relative synonyms, as they denote different degree of the same notion or different shades of meanings and can be substituted only in some contexts.

Contextual or context - dependent synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific distributional conditions. It may happen that the difference between the meanings of two words is contextually neutralised, E.g. buy and get would not generally be taken as synonymous, but they are synonyms in the following examples: I'll go to the shop and buy some bread.

I'll go tothe shop and get some bread.

The verbs bear, suffer, stand are semantically different and not interchangeable except when used in the negative form: I can't stand it, I can't bear it.

One of the sources of synonymy is borrowing. Synonymy has its characteristic patterns in each language. Its peculiar feature in English is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin.

Native English (to ask to end to rise teaching belly)

French Borrowings (to question to finish to mount guidance stomach)

Latin borrowings (to interrogate to complete to ascend instruction abdomen)

There are also words that came from dialects, in the last hundred years, from American English, in particular, e.g. long distance call AE - trunk call BE, radio AE - wireless BE.

Synonyms are also created by means of all word - forming processes productive In the language.

Synonymic differentiation

It must be noted that synonyms may influence each other semantically in two diametrically opposite ways: one of them is dissimilation or differentiation, the other - the reverse process, i.e. assimilation.

Many words now marked in the dictionaries as " archaic" or " obsolete" have dropped out of the language in the competition of synonyms, others survived with a meaning more or less different from the original one. This process is called synonymic differentiation and is so current that is regarded as an inherent law of language development.

The development of the synonymic group land has been studied by A.A. Ufimtseva. When in the 13 century soil was borrowed from French into English its meaning was " a strip of land".

OE synonyms eorpe, land, folde ment " the upper layer of earth in which plants grow".

Now, if two words coincide in meaning and use, the tendency is for one of them to drop out of the language.

Folde became identical to eorpe and in the fight for survival the letter won. The polysemantic word land underwent an intense semantic development in a different direction and so dropped out of this synonymic series.

It was natural for soil to fill this lexical gap and become the main name for the notion " the mould in which plants grow". The noun earth retained this meaning throughout its history whereas the word ground, in which this meaning was formerly absent, developed it. As a result this synonymic group comprises at present soil, earth, ground.

The assimilation of synonyms consists in parallel development. This law was discovered and described by G. Stern,, H.A. Treble and G.H. Vallins in their book " An ABC of English Usage", Oxford, 1957, p. 173 give as examples the pejorative meanings acquired by the nouns wench, knave and churl which originally ment " girl", " boy", and " labourer" respectively, and point out that this loss of old dignity became linguistically possible because there were so many synonymous words of similar meaning. As the result all the three words underwent degradation in their meanings:

wench - indecent girl knave - rascal churl - country man.

Classification of Synonyms

Stylistic synonyms differ not so much in denotational as in emotive value or stylistic sphere of application.

Pictorial language often uses poetic words, archaisms as stylistic alternatives of neutral words, e.g. maid for girl, bliss for happiness, steed for horse, quit for leave.

Calling and vocation in the synonymic group occupation, calling, vocation, business are high-flown as compared to occupation and business.

In many cases a stylistic synonym has an element of elevation in its meaning, e.g. face - visage, girl - maiden.

I'll go tothe shop and get some bread.

The verbs bear, suffer, stand are semantically different and not interchangeable except when used in the negative form: I can't stand it, I can't bear it.

Native English (to ask to end to rise teaching belly)

French Borrowings (to question to finish to mount guidance stomach)

Latin borrowings (to interrogate to complete to ascend instruction abdomen)

There are also words that came from dialects, in the last hundred years, from American English, in particular, e.g. long distance call AE - trunk call BE, radio AE - wireless BE.

Synonyms are also created by means of all word - forming processes productive In the language.

Synonymic differentiation

The development of the synonymic group land has been studied by A.A. Ufimtseva. When in the 13 century soil was borrowed from French into English its meaning was " a strip of land".

OE synonyms eorpe, land, folde ment " the upper layer of earth in which plants grow".

Now, if two words coincide in meaning and use, the tendency is for one of them to drop out of the language.

wench - indecent girl knave - rascal churl - country man.

Synonymy and euphemisms.

Synonymy is one of the modern linguistics’ most controversial problems. The duality of synonyms is their most confusing feature. They are somewhat the same and yet they are obviously different. Their function in speech is revealing different aspects, shades and variations of the same phenomenon.

Synonyms are words of the same category of part of speech conveying the same concept, but different either in shades of meaning or in stylistic characteristics.

The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by Academician V.V.Vinogradov. In his classification there are 3 types of synonyms: 1. ideographic; 2. stylistic; 3. absolute.

Ideographic are words conveying the same concept, but different in the shades of meaning.

Stylistic are words different in stylistic characteristics.

Absolute once coincide in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics.

A more modern approach to the classification of synonyms may be based on the definition of synonyms as words differing in connotations:

1. the connotation of degree or intensity.

Can be traced in such groups of synonyms as:

To surprise- to astonish – to amaze – to astound

To like – to admire – to love – to adore – to worship

2. the connotation of duration.

Can be traced in such groups of synonyms as:

To stare – to glare – to gaze – to glance – to peep – to peer

3. the emotive connotation.

e.g. alone – single – lonely – solitary

4. the evaluative connotation conveys the speaker’s attitude labeling it as good or bad:

e.g. well-known – famous – notorious –celebrated

5. the causative connotation:

e.g. to sparkle (сиять(глаза) положительные эмоции) – to glitter (блестят, но эмоции отрицательные)

to shiver (with cold, from a chill, because of a frost) – to shudder (with fear).

6. the connotation of manner:

e.g. to stroll – to stride – to trot – to pace – to swagger – to stagger. All these synonyms denote different ways and types of walking encoded in their semantic structure: the length of space, tempo, gait, carriage, purposefulness or lack of purpose.

7. the connotation of attendant circumstances.

To peep smb. – through a hole, from behind a screen, a half-closed door, a newspaper, a fan, a curtain.

8. the connotation of attendant features.

e.g. pretty – handsome – beautiful.

9. stylistic connotation.

e.g. to leave – to be off – to clear out(col.) – to beat it – to hoof it – to take the air (col.) – to depart – to retire – to withdraw (formal).

All or at least most synonymic groups have a central word whose meaning is equal denotation common to all the synonymic groups. This word is called the dominant synonym.

e.g. to produce – to create – to fabricate –to make – to manufacture.

The following characteristic features of the dominant synonym can be underlined:

1. high-frequency of usage; 2. broad combinability (ability to be used in combination with various classes of words); 3. broad general meaning; 4. lack of connotation.

Euphemisms. There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, direct or impolite. They are often described in a round – about way by using substitutes, called euphemisms.

e.g. lavatory – powder-room, washroom, restroom, retiring-room, (public) comfort station, lady’s (room), gentlemen’s (room), water-closed, W.C., public conveniences, toilet, wind-sort castle.

The love or affection which displays itself in the excessive use of euphemisms has never been a sign of good taste. Fiction writers have often reduced pretentious people for their attempts to express themselves in too delicate and refined way.

Euphemism may be used due to genuine concern not to hurt someone’s feelings (a stupid person can be said to be not exactly brilliant).

Euphemisms are used to avoid the so-called social taboos. Superstitious taboos have their roots in the distant past of mankind, when people believed there was a supernatural link between a name and the object or creature it represented (devil – the Prince of Darkness, the Black One, the evil one, dickens(col.), dince(col.), (Old) Nick(col.)).

People are not superstitious nowadays and yet they are reluctant to use the verb “to die” which has a long chain of both solemn and humorous substitutes: to pass a way, to be taken, to breathe one’s last, to depart this life, to close one’s eyes, to yield (give) up the ghost, to go the way off all flash, to kick off(slang), to check out(slang), to keep the basket(slang)).