- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Subject matter. Links with other branches. Problems.
- •2. General and special lexicology. Historical and modern lexicology.
- •3. Word as a language unit.
- •4. Meaning. Different approaches to the problem.
- •5. Types of Meaning. The semantic structure.
- •6. Motivation. Types of Motivation.
- •7. Notion and meaning.
- •8. Semantic change. Causes of Semantic Change.
- •9. Types of Semantic change. Result.
- •10. Polysemy in synchronic approach. Types of meaning.
- •11. Diachronic approach to polysemy.
- •12. Homonymy. Classification of homonyms.
- •13. Origin of homonyms.
- •14. Polysemy and homonymy.
- •15. Semantic classification of vocabulary. Synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms.
- •16. Synonym. Problem of definition.
- •18. Phraseology: different approaches.
- •19. Phraseological units vs. Free word-combinations. Criteria of distinction.
- •20. Synchronic and Diachronic approaches to phraseology.
- •21. Word-structure. Types of morphemes.
- •22. Structural Types of Words. Morphemic structure vs Derivational structure.
- •23. Affixation.
- •27. Etymological survey of the English vocabulary. Native words vs borrowings.
- •29. Ways of replenishment of the vocabulary.
- •26. Minor ways of word-formation.
- •24. Compounding.
- •25. Conversion.
- •30. Stylistic characteristics of the vocabulary.
- •33. Word structure. Types of morphemes.
- •31. Territorial variants of English in the lexicological aspect.
- •32. Lexicography as a science. Historical background.
- •34. Reduplication as a minor way of word formation.
- •28. Assimilation of Borrowings.
5. Types of Meaning. The semantic structure.
Generally we distinct grammatical and lexical meanings. Grammatical meaning is expressed by grammatical morphemes or other grammatical means often more than one. Lexical meaning is expressed by words and lexical morphemes. Lexical meaning within itself possesses connotational and denotational meanings. Denotational component — shows the relation of the sound-form to the outer world. Consists of referential meaning (the relation of the sound-form to the referent or to the class of objects) and conceptual meaning (the relation of the sound-form to the idea or concept). Connotational component — shows the relation of the sound-form to other words or to the speaker. Reflects associations or emotions aroused by the word. Consists of emotive charge and stylistic reference (neutral — a father, colloquial - daddy, literary — a parent).
6. Motivation. Types of Motivation.
Motivation is the relationship between morphemic structure and meaning. There are 4 types of Motivation: 1) Phonetic Motivation – the similarity between the sound the word made of and the meaning of the word: bees – buzz, sakes – hiss. In English initial “p” means disapproval: phy – фу. Sound symbolism – some combinations of letters may mean smth other: sting – a quick movement; initial “fl” – also: flop; “gl”: glare, glited – associated with fire. 2) Morphological motivation: there can be Fully motivated, Partially motivated and Non-motivated words: blackbird – fully motivated, because all the morphemes are clear; repeat is non-motivated: all one-syllable words are non-motivated; strawberry – partially motivated, cause straw has no connections with berries, also: T-shirt, U-turn. 3) Semantic motivation: there can be Direct and Figurative meaning. Figurative: a foot of the mountain, a mouth of the river. Direct meaning: flowers and colours: pink – розовый, гвоздика. Humming bird – produces this long continuous sound. 4) Graphical motivation –+ or – more or less.
7. Notion and meaning.
Meaning (a component of a word through which a concept is communicated) belongs to linguistics, while Notion (concept) belongs to the category of logic. Logic is international category, but the meaning is national. Notions may be represented with different meanings. Notion is neutral, but meaning may express people attitude to what they are talking about. E.G. with the help of synonyms: look, stare... There are also some words in English, which have meaning but no notion: Articles, Prepositions, Interjections.
8. Semantic change. Causes of Semantic Change.
Semantic change is the development of the word and its semantic structure. The language is a system, its body develops and all the units too. If we try to compare the meaning of the word of different languages or of different times, they are different: I’m fond of reading: In O.E. fond meant foolish – no connection.
Linguists paid a great attention on Semantic change. At the end of the 19th – beginning of the Af20th century Brill and Poll investigated Semantic change and noticed that some words specialize their meaning and some – generalize. Specialize means narrowing: case (event) – becomes case in medicine. Generalize – when a word extends its meaning: to fly – to move with the help of wings – becomes to move quickly, without any wings.
As any problem, Semantic change has its nature, reasons, problems and as a result – Causes. There are two types of Semantic changes: 1) Linguistic; 2) Extra-linguistic (any change in the society which results the change in naming objects: inventing a new word (on the basis of existing linguistics), borrowing, to name with the help of existing word-association): a box (ложа) – association, cause it looks like a box; black box – mysterious: in real it’s orange. 1) Linguistic cause may be: a) Syntagmatic; b) Paradigmatic. a) Syntagmatic. There is a term – ellipsis, when instead of two components we use only one: to starve, to propose; b) Paradigmatic level – discrimination of synonyms. It means that there existed two or more synonymic words but in the course of time they changed their meaning: deer denoted any beast, then a word animal appeared. First, the coincided, but then they became two different words: deer – special beast, animal – general beast.