- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics, its aims and significance. Links with other branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study.
- •2. Methods of lexicological analysis: componential analysis, ic – uc analysis, contrastive analysis etc.
- •Immediate constituents analysis
- •3. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.
- •4. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.
- •5. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.
- •6. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.
- •7. Latin borrowings. Features of Latin borrowings. Periods of borrowings from Latin.
- •8. Celtic elements (5-6 c. Ad) in the English vocabulary.
- •9. Scandinavian loan-words(8-11 c.Ad) in Modern English.
- •10. French elements in the English vocabulary. Features of French borrowings. Periods of borrowings from French.
- •11. Greek borrowings. Features of Greek borrowings.
- •12. Morphology as a branch of linguistics. The morphemic structure of English words. Typology of morphemes. Structural and semantic classifications of morphemes.
- •Ivan Alexandrovich
- •Inflections
- •13. The derivative structure of English words. The distinction between morphological stem and derivational base. Morphemic analysis vs derivational analysis.
- •14. General description of word-formation in Modern English. Productive and nonproductive means.
- •15. Affixation. Classifications of affixes. Productive and non-productive affixes, dead and living affixes.
- •16. Word-composition. Types of compound words. Criteria for their classification.
- •17. Shortening. Types of shortening.
- •18. Conversion. Different views on conversion. Semantic relations within converted pairs.
- •20. Semantics as a branch of linguistics, its aims and basic notions. Semasiological and onomasiological perspectives of the English lexicon.
- •21. Approaches to the definition of word meaning: functional, referential and others.
- •22. Types and aspects of word meaning.
- •23. The nature and causes of semantic change. Types of semantic change.
- •24. Transference of meaning.
- •25. Traditional lexicological groupings of words: thematic and ideographic groups, lexicosemantic groups, semantic fields.
- •26. Dynamics of the English vocabulary. Neologisms: their sources and formation.
- •Idiomatic Neologisms
- •27. Polysemy. Semantic structure of English words. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy. Types of polysemy.
- •28. Homonyms. Classifications and sources of homonyms.
- •29. Syntagmatic vs paradigmatic relations among English words.
- •In psycholinguistics these terms are used in a different sense.
- •30. Synonyms. The notion of a synonymic dominant. Types of synonyms. Sources of synonymy.
- •31. Antonyms. Definition. Morphological and semantic classifications of antonyms.
- •32. Grammatical and lexical valency. Grammatical and lexical context.
- •33. Lexical syntagmatics. Free word-groups vs phraseological units.
- •34. Free word-groups. Definition. Classifications.
- •35. Phraseological units: a variety of terms and the problem of definition. Characteristic features of phraseological units.
- •36. Approaches to the classifications of phraseological units in modern linguistics.
- •37. Polysemy, synonymy and stylistic features of phraseological units.
- •38. Origins and sources of phraseological units.
- •39. Dialectology as a branch of linguistics, its aim and basic notions. A dialect vs a variant.
- •40. Standard English: characteristic features and the problem of definition.
- •41. Local dialects in the British Isles. Scottish English. Irish English.
- •Variants
- •42. Characteristic features of the American English lexicon.
- •43. Lexicography as a branch of linguistics, its aim, basic notions and main problems.
- •44. Typology of dictionaries.
- •45. Important milestones in the history of British and American lexicography.
26. Dynamics of the English vocabulary. Neologisms: their sources and formation.
Language is never stationary. New words are constantly being formed; living words are constantly changing their meanings, expanding, contracting, gaining or losing caste, taking on mental, moral, or spiritual significance; and old words, though long sanctioned by custom, sometimes wither and die.
An archaism (Gr. archáios ‘ancient’) is a word that was once common but is now replaced by a synonym; it remains in the language, but mostly belong to the poetic style and are used for creating a stylistic effect, e.g.
betwixt, prep. ‘between’;
A historism is a word which denotes a thing that is no longer used; unlike archaisms, they are not replaced by synonyms. Historisms are very numerous as names for social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of the past, e.g. transport means:
brougham /'bru:(ə)m/, n. ‘a horse-drawn carriage with a roof, four wheels, and an open driver's seat in front ’;
A neologism (Gr néos ‘new’ and logos ‘word, study’) is a new lexical unit introduced into a language to denote a new object or phenomenon. The term is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event.
In January 2002 Collins Gem English Pocket Dictionary editorial board have registered 140 neologisms.
Collins Essential English Dictionary (2003) contains 5,500 new words.
The Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1999) includes articles on 2,000 new words and phrases prominent in the media or public eye in the 80s -90s.
While the typical lexical growth areas of the 1980s were the media, computers, finance, money, environment, political correctness, youth culture and music, the 1990s saw significant lexical expansion in the areas of politics, the media and the Internet.
Nonce words (occasional words) (an ellipsis of the phrase for the nonce ‘for the once’) are lexical units created by the speaker on the spur of the moment, for a given occasion only, and may be considered as ‘potentially’ existing in the English vocabulary, e.g. what-d’you-call-him /-her/-it/-them, n. is used instead of a name that one cannot remember.
A lot of neologisms resulted from nonce words, e.g. yuppie, n. ‘a well-paid young middle-class professional who works in a city job and has a luxurious lifestyle’; coach potato, soap opera, generation X, thirty-something, glass ceiling ‘an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities’; gerrymander /'dʒɛrɪ‚mandə/, v. ‘manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favour one party or class’.
Lexical Neologisms
Two common elements used to produce new words related to the Internet are cyber- and e-:
cybercafé, n. ‘a cafe that offers its customers computers with Internet access’; cyberterrorist, n. ‘a criminal who uses the Internet to do damage to computer systems’;
Semantic neologisms – new meanings of already existing words – result from semantic derivation due to the functional mobility of the vocabulary:
virus, n. ‘a piece of code which is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data’;