- •Theme 1: Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics. The Word as the Basic Unit of Lexicology
- •Theme 2: English Etymology
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 3: Word-building in Modern English
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 4: Lexical Meaning as a Linguistic Category. Development of Meaning
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Explain the basis for the following jokes:
- •3. Specify lexical and grammatical meaning of the following words:
- •4.Identify the denotative and connotative elements of the meanings in the following pairs of words:
- •5.Define the type of transference which has taken place:
- •6.Trace the process of narrowing of meaning in the words:
- •Theme 5: Semantic Relations of Words and Structure of the English Lexicon
- •Comment on the terms:
- •2.Write out from a dictionary all the meanings of the following words. Comment on the semantic structure of the words:
- •3.Single out the denotative and connotative components of meaning of the synonyms in the following examples:
- •Theme 6: English Phraseology
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •6. Give Russian equivalents of the phraseological units. Memorize them
- •8.Complete the following sentences, using the phraseological units given in the list below. Translate them into Russian.
- •10.Choose the idiom. Choose the word or phrase which best completes each sentence.
- •11.Complete the paired phraseological units in the sentences below.
- •Theme 7: Stylistic classification of English Vocabulary
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •7.The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to informal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary:
- •8.Compose the following brief situations. Your language and style should suit both the subject and the situation:
- •Theme 8: American English
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •2.Find:
- •3.Explain the differences in the meanings of the following words in American and British English:
- •4.Identify the etymology of the following words:
- •5.Say which of the two words is American and which is British. Translate the sentences into Russian:
- •6.Translate into English giving two variants – British and American:
- •7. Translate the following sentences:
Theme 7: Stylistic classification of English Vocabulary
1.Comment on the terms:
Literary layer: terms, poetic words, archaic words, barbarisms, foreignisms; colloquial layer: slang, jargonisms, professional words, dialectal words, vulgar words; neutral layer, nonce-words.
2.Find a word:
a) colloquial: parent, father, dad, ancestor.
b) bookish: darkness, harmony, foolish, glad.
c) slangism: wife, sister, missus, mother.
d) professionalism: shop, lab, store, barn.
e) vulgarism: bad, negative, awful, bloody.
3.Translate the following neologisms. Comment on the word-building means:
Disadvantaged, gogglebox, deterrent, redundancy, rethinking, denuclearize, parolee, detainee, sitters-in, outdoorsman, to front-page, the go-ahead, to snow-ball, mini-cruize, foodoholic, brown-bagger.
4.Pick out the archaic words from the given and translate them into Russian:
Do, dost, does, you, thee, ye, thou, horse, though, albeit, also, eke, spring, vernal, said, quoth, told, maiden, girl, perhaps, ere, before.
5.Give modern equivalents of the words. Translate them into Russian:
Bade, spouce, dire, aught, kine, swain, courser, ire, charger, thy, thine, troth, hath, whit.
6.The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to formal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general and say whether the italicized represents learned words, terms or archaisms. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary:
1.“Sir,
in re Miss Ernestina Freeman
We are instructed by Mr. Ernest Freeman, father of the above-mentioned Miss Ernestina Freeman, to request you to attend at these chambers at 3 o'clock this coming Friday. Your failure to attend will be regarded as an acknowledgement of our client's right to proceed."
(From The French Lieutenant's Woman by J. Fowles)
2."I have, with esteemed advice ..." Mr. Aubrey bowed briefly towards the sergeant, ... "... prepared an admission of guilt. I should instruct you that Mr. Freeman's decision not to proceed immediately is most strictly contingent upon your client's signing, on this occasion and in our presence, and witnessed by all
present, this document."
3. R o m e o ... So shows a snowy dove trooping with
crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
1Usually in modern correspondence you will find the form re [ri:] without the in.
2 measure (here) - dance.
7.The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to informal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary:
1….Now you are talking! I thought you would come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me last night. You’d had a drop in, hadn’t you?
2.What call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? What become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it; and what I say is, them as pinched it done her in.
3.Mind you, she’s often thought of divorcing Dad, but somehow never got round to doing it. Not that she’s got a good word to say for him, mind you. She says he was the laziest, pottiest, most selfish chap she’s ever come across in all her life.
4.My wife has been kiddin’ me about my friends ever since we was married. She says that…they ain’t nobody in the world got a rummier bunch of friends than me. I’ll admit that most of them ain’t, well, what you might call hot…But of course they are old friends and I can’t give them the air.