>BRIEFCOURSEONLEXICOLOGY

>Lecture 1

 

>Lexicology >is the science of theword anddistinguished in:

v General andspecial

vContrastive andcomparative

vDescriptive (thesynchronicapproach) andhistorical (thediachronicapproach).

>Contrastive andcomparative,descriptive andhistoricalarecloselyconnected.

>Lexicalunitsaremorphemes,words,word-groups,phraseologicalunits.

>Paradigm – thesystemshowing aword in allitsword-forms. Thelexicalmeaningis thesame; thegrammaticalmeaningvariesfromoneform toanother (totake,takes, taken,took,taking).

>Semasiology – thebranch oflexicology thatisdevoted to thestudy of themeaning.Thereare 2schoolswiththeirownapproaches to the problem of thewordsmeaning: >referential andfunctional.

>Types of themeaning

vGrammaticalmeaning

vPart ofspeechmeaning

vLexicalmeaning –maybe >denotational (>making thecommunicationpossible) and >connotational (theemotivecharge and thestylisticvalue).

>Stylisticvalueissubdividedinto >neutral,bookish andcolloquial. The lastmaybepointed outlikeslang, commoncolloquial,vulgarisms,dialecticalwords,professionalisms,jargonisms.

>Meaning >is theinnerfacet of theword,inseparablefromitsouterfacet (soundform)whichisindispensable to theexistence ofmeaning and tointercommunication.

>Motivation:

  >Morphological (->able, ->less,re-,anti-)

  >Phonetical (>boom,splash,cuckoo,pooh!)

  >Semantic

>Change ofmeaning

>Word-meaningisliable to change in thecourse of thehistoricaldevelopment oflanguage.

>Causes ofsemantic change

vExtra-linguistic

vLinguistic (>ellipsis,discrimination ofsynonyms,linguisticanalogy)

The >kinds ofassociation >involved insemanticchangesare:

1.similarity ofmeanings

2.contiguity ofmeanings

>Results ofsemantic change:

1.changes indenotationalmeaning (>specialization,extension (>generalization [>specialized, common]))

2.changes inconnotationalmeaning:

vpejorativedevelopment (>derogatoryemotivecharge)

vameliorativedevelopment (theimprovement of thecon.component)

>Causes,nature andresult ofsemanticchangesshouldberegardedas 3essentiallydifferentbutcloselyconnectedaspects of thesamelinguisticphenomenon.

>Lecture 2

>Polysemy Themain problemis the problem ofinterrelation andinterdependence of thevariousmeanings of thesameword.

>Diachronically itis a >historical change in thesemanticstructureresulting indisappearance ofsomemeaningsor/and in newmeaningsbeingadded to theonesalreadyexistingalso in therearrangement ofthesemeanings initssemanticstructure.

>Synchronically itisco-existence of thevariousmeanings of thesamewordat acertainhistoricalperiod and thearrangement ofthesemeanings in thesemanticstructure of theword.

>Diachronically:primary (>original) andsecondary (>derived)meaningsviewedchronically.

>Synchronically:central (>basic) andmarginal (>minor)meaningsaccording totheirrelativefrequency inspeech.

Thesemanticstructureisneverstatic. Therelationshipbetween thediachronic andsynchronicevaluation ofindividualmeanings of thesamewordmaybedifferent indifferentperiods of thehistoricaldevelopment oflanguage.

Thewhole of thesemanticstructure ofcorrelatedpolysemanticwords ofdifferent languagescanneverbeidentical.Wordsarefeltascorrelatediftheirbasic (>central)meaningscoincide.

>Lecture 3

>Homonymy >Fullhomonymy – ofwordsbelonging to thesamepart ofspeech.

>Partialhomonymy – ofindividualsword-forms ofdifferentpart ofspeech.

>Homonyms >maybe:

>lexical (>differ inlexicalmeaning)

>lexico-grammatical (>both inlexical andgrammatical)

>grammatical (ingrammaticalmeaningonly)

>Homonymsmaybeclassified on thebasis of 3aspectsaswell:

1. soundform

2.graphicform

3.meaning (>dew to themeaningtheyarederivedinto >homograpgs,homophones,perfect (>absolute)homonyms)

Thesources ofhomonymy:

>divergingmeaningdevelopment of apolysemanticword

>convergent sounddevelopment of 2 ormoredifferentwords (>mostpotentfactor)

Thecriteriaused in thesynchronicanalysis ofhomonyms:

1.semantic 2.spelling 3.distribution

The problem ofdiscriminatingbetweenpolysemy andhomonymy intheoreticallinguisticsiscloselyconnectedwith the problem of thebasicunitat thesemanticlevel ofanalysis.

>Word-meaning insyntagmatics andparadigmatics

>Intralinguistic relations ofwordsarebasically of 2types:syntagmatic andparadigmatic.

>Syntagmatic relations >define themeaning thewordpossesseswhen itisused incombinationwithotherwords in theflow ofspeech.

>Paradigmatic relations >arethose thatexistbetweenindividuallexicalitemswhichmake upone of thesubgroups ofvocabularyitems (>sets ofsynonyms,lexico-semanticgroups, etc.).

 

>Lecture 4

 

>Context >mayberegarded inaspectsasfollowing:

>linguistic

>lexical

>grammatical

>extra-linguistic (ofsituation)

>Conceptual (>semantic)fields.

>Hoponymic (>hierachia)structures.

>Classification ofvocabularyintothematicgroupsisbased on common >contextualassociations (theresult ofregularco-occurrence ofwords insimilar,repeatedlyusedcontexts).

Themaincriterionunderlyingsemanticclassification ofvocabularyitems on theparadigmaticaxisistype ofmeaningrelationshipsbetweenwords.

Thecriterion of commonconceptserves toclassifywordsintosemanticfields andlexico-semanticgroups.

>Semanticrelationship ofinclusionis themainfeature ofhyponymichierarchicalstructure.Semanticsimilarity andsemanticcontrastis thetype ofrelationshipwhichunderlies theclassification oflexicalitemsintosynonymic andantonymicseries.

>Synonymy andantonymy >arecorrelative andsometimesoverlappingnotions.Synonymousrelationship of thedenotationalmeaningis inmanycasescombinedwith thedifference in theconnotational (>mainlystylistic)component.

>Synonyms -wordsdifferent insound-formbutsimilar intheirdenotationalmeaning ormeanings andinterchangeableatleast insomecontexts.

>Antonyms -wordsdifferent insound-formcharacterizedbydifferenttypes ofsemanticcontrast of thedenotationalmeaning andinterchangeableatleast insomecontexts.

>Word-groups –wordsputtogether toformlexicalunitsmake upphrases orword-groups.Comedew tolexical andgrammaticalvalency of thecomponents.

>Lexicalvalency >is theaptness of aword toappear invariouscollocations.Restriction of thelexicalvalencyare tobeaccountedforby theinnerstructure of thevocabulary of the Englishlanguage.

>Differentmeanings of apolysemanticwordmaybedescribedthroughitslexicalvalency.

>Grammaticalvalency >is theaptness of aword toappear invariousgrammaticalstructures.Restriction of thegrammaticalvalencyare tobeaccountedforby thegrammaticalstructure of thelanguage. Therange of thegrammaticalvalency of thewordisdelimitedby thepart ofspeech thewordbelongs to.

>Structurally,word-groupsmaybeclassifiedby thecriterion ofdistributioninto >exocentric and >endocentric (>theyaccording to thehead-wordaredistinguished >nominal,adverbial,verbal,adjectival).

>Semantically, >word-groupsmaybeclassifiedinto >motivated and >non-motivated (>phraseologicalunits)

 

>Lecture 5

 

>Phraseologicalunits – >non-motivatedword-groups thatcannotbefreelymade up inspeechbutarereproducedasreadymadeunits.

>Classification:

1.phraseologicalfusions –completelynon-motivated

2.phraseologicalunities –partiallynon-motivated

3.phraseologicalcollocations –motivatedbutmade up ofwordspossessingspecificlexicalvalency.That’swhythereis acertaindegree ofstability insuch group.

Thecriterion ofidiomaticity;

Thecriterion offunction;

Thecriterion ofcontext;

>Phraseologicalunits >mightalsobeshared to:

v  >phrasemes –two-memberword-groups inwhichone of themembershasspecializedmeaningdependent on the secondcomponent: “>smallhours”.

v  >Idioms – theidiomaticity of thewholeword-group;unusualness ofcollocability orlogicalincompability ofmember-words;usuallyhomonymouswithcorrespondingvariableword-groups: >redtape, tolet thecat out of thebag.

Thedistinguishingfeature of the newapproachis thatphraseologyisregardedas aself-containedbranch oflinguistics andnotas apart oflexicology.According tothisapproachphraseologydealswith alltypes ofsetexpressionswhicharedivided >into 3classes:

1.phraseologicalunits

2.phraseomaticunits

3.border-linecases

>Lecture 6

 

Wordstructure

>Thereare 2levels ofapproach to thestudy ofword-structure:

v thelevel ofmorphemicanalysis

v thelevel ofderivational orword-formationanalysis

Thebasicunit ofmorphemiclevelis the >morphemedefinedas the >smallestindivisibletwo-facetlanguageunit.

Threetypes ofmorphemicsegmentability ofwordsaredistinguished:

·complete

·conditional

·defective

>Words of >conditional anddefective >segmentabilityaremade up offullmorphemes andpseudo (>quasi)morphemes. Thelatterdonotrise to the status offullmorphemeseitherforsemanticreasons orbecause oftheiruniquedistribution.

>Semantically >morphemesfallinto:

1. >root-morphemes

2. >affixationalmorphemes

>Structurally >morphemesfallinto:

1. free

2. >bound

3.semi-free (>semi-bound)

Thestructuraltypes ofwordsat themorphemiclevelaredescribed interms of thenumber andtype oftheirICs (>immediateconstituents)asmonomorphic andpolymorphicwords.

>Derivationallevel ofanalysisaimsatfinding out thederivativetypes ofwords, theinterrelationbetweenthem andatfinding out howdifferenttypes ofderivativesareconstructed.

>Derivationately allwordsform 2structuralclasses:

1.simplexes (>non-derived)

2.complexes (>derivatives)which intheirturnmaybedividedinto:

·sufficial

·prefixal

·conversions

·compounds

>Eachstructuraltype ofcomplexesshowspreferenceforone oranotherpart ofspeech.Withinpart ofspeechderivativestructuresarecharacterizedby aset ofderivationalpatterns.

>Derivationalbasisdifferfromstemsbothstructurally andsemantically.Derivationalbasesarebuilt on thefollowinglanguageunits:

·stems ofvariousstructure

·word-forms

·word-group orphrases

>Eachclass andsubsetbaseshasitsownrange ofcollocability andshowspeculiartieswithdifferentparts ofspeech.

>Derivationalaffixesformderivedstemsbyrepatteringderivationalbases.Semanticallyderivationalaffixespresent aunity oflexicalmeaning andothertypes ofmeaning:functional,distributional anddifferentialunlikenon-derivationalaffixeswhichlacklexicalmeaning.

>Derivationalpatterns (>DP)aremeaningfularrangements ofvarioustypes ofICs thatcanbeobserved in aset ofwordsbased ontheirmutualinterdependence.DPscanbeviewed interms ofcollocability ofeachIC.

>Thereare 2types ofDPs: 1) >structural thatspecifybaseclasses andindividualaffixes.

 2) >structural-semantic thatspecifysemanticpeculiarities ofbases and theindividualmeaning of theaffix.

>DPs ofdifferentlevels ofgeneralizationsignal:

· theclass ofsourceunit thatmotivates thederivative and thedirection ofmotivationbetweendifferentclasses ofwords.

· Thepart ofspeech of thederivative.

· Thelexicalsets andsemanticfeatures ofderivatives.

>Lecture 7

 

>Ways offormingwords (>according toA.I.Smirnitskiy):

>Word-formationis thesystem ofderivativetypes ofwords and theprocess ofcreating newwordsfrom thematerialavailable in thelanguageaftercertainstructural andsemanticformulas andpatterns.

>As asubject ofstudy Englishword-formationis thatbranch of Englishlexicologywhichstudies thederivativestructure ofwords and thepatterns onwhich the Englishlanguagebuilds newwords.Likeanyotherlinguisticphenomenon,word-formationmaybestudiedsynchronically anddiachronically.

>Thereare 2types ofword-formation inModern English:

1.  >word-derivationbeing of 2kindslike >affixation andconversion

2.  >word-composition

>Thereiseveryreason toexclude theshortening ofwords,lexicalization,blending,acronymyfrom thesystem ofword-formation andregardthem andotherword-formingprocessesasspecificmeans ofvocabularyrefreshment.Sound-and-stress interchange inModern Englishare ameans ofdistinguishingbetweendifferentwords,primarilybetweenwords ofdifferentpa5rts ofspeech.

Thedegree ofproductivity andfactorsfavouring itmakeanimportantaspect insynchronicdescription ofeveryderivationalpatternwithin the 2types ofword-formation.

Threedegrees ofproductivity >aredistinguishedforderivationalpatterns andindividualderivationalaffixes:

1.highlyproductive

2.productive orsemi-productive

3. non-productive