Variation – the act or an instance of varying of a lexical unit, the extent of this. Relevant to lexicological analysis are the following types of V.:

• accentual variation – a type of phonetic change due to the co-existing stress-pattern of the same word: 'contrary – con'trary, 'necessary – nece'ssary, 'territory – terri'tory, 'dictionary – dictio'nary (the second variant in each pair is Am.E variant);

• allonymic variation – realized in contextual pairs semantically co-ordinated like slow and careful; quick and impatient;

• 'emic' variation – a) a type of phonetic variation which occurs when there are multiple pronunciations for a single word: begin [bi'gin], [b 'gin]; explain [ik'splein], [ek'splein]; direct [dai'rekt], [di'rekt]; b) morphological variation with allomorphs of the same morpheme involved: irregular, innavigable, immovable, illegal – See Allo-emic theory; Allomorph;

• etymological variation – words of different etymology denoting one and the same referent (e.g. noun and substantive)

• lexical variation – free variation in language, in so far as they are not conditioned by contextual environment but are optional with the individual speaker. E.g. northward/norward. whoever/whosoever. Can often be determined by register features (formal/informal; spoken/written distinctions): examination – exam; gasoline – gas; laboratory – lab; often – oft;

• morphological variation – is observed when word-derivational or form-building morphemes can be alternatively used without changing the word's meaning or impairing its globality: academic – academical; stylistic – stylistical; morphologic – morphological; learned – learn;

• phonetic variation – modifications of the outer form or pronunciation of a word, often a syncategorematic word depending on the immediate context or its position in the utterance;

• regional variation/varieties of language – See Variants of the language

• register variation – See Register

• semantic variation – is caused by the polysemy of the word; when variation preserves semantic links between lexico-semantic variants (q.v.) of a word; realized by means of various semantic changes (q.v.). S.v. implies that the identity of the word remains intact as it is used in different meanings. In Do you like your tea sweet? and What a very sweet name – the difference between lexico-semantic variants of the word (its direct nominative and nominative derivative meanings) is not great enough to split it up into two different units – See Semantic development; Semantic derivation; Polysemy

Variants/varieties of the language – subordinate varieties of a language with peculiar vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammar:

• dialectal variants

• national variant

• regional variants

The English language is now viewed as existing in 4 possible variants: English as native language; English as foreign language; English as second official language, English as international language.

Variants of the word – See Identity-of-unit problem, Lexico-semantic variant, Philological topology.

Vehicle – See Metaphor

Vocabulary – 1) the totality of words in a language; 2) individual vocabulary:

• active v.;

• defining v.;

• distinctive v.;

• 'dramatic'/distinctive v.;

• general v.;

• marginal v.;

• passive v.;

• specialised v.;

• working v.

Vocabulary control movement – public movement aiming to control the unprecedented growth of the vocabulary by borrowing (creolization of the language) and the process of its vulgarisation.