1. The word as the basic unit of the language

The term “lexicology” is of Greek origin: from “lexic” – word; and “logal” – science.

L is the part of linguistic which deals with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word groups.

Modern English L gives assystematic description of the vocabulary of Modern English.

The term “vocabulary” is used to mean the system of words and wordgroups that the language has.

The central problem of L is meaning the practical value of L: it helps to get information about laws which govern the formation and usage of English words and wordgroups (wg).

Branches of L: general and special (historical, discriptive)

General L studies vocabulary on the home.

Special L is the L of the particular language (Russian, German, French)

Historical L studies the development of the vocabulary the origin of words and wg, the development of there sound form and meaning.

Descriptive L studies the vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.

L is connected with other branches of linguistics:

1. Phonetics. If we change some sounds in the word we get the word with the different meaning. (ship-sheep, bed - bad)

2. Grammar. The grammatical form of the word is changed and the meaning is changed too. (colour – colours , цвет - флаги, arm – arms, рука - оружие)

3. Stylistics. It studies the style of languages. And L studies the words used in these styles.

4. The history of the language. In Old English the word “stool” meant any kind of seat. Later the French word “chair” came and word “stool” changed its meaning. Now “stool” means the seat without back.

THE WORD IS A BASIC LEXICAL UNIT. Many scholars tried to defined a word as a linguistic phenomenon. It is the most difficult task of lexicology. The word is a speech unit which serves the purposes of human communication.

We can only describe the word:

1. The word has asound form (it consists of phonemes)

2. The word consists of one or more morphemes. When an affix is added a new word is formed.

3. In sentences words are syntactically organized. (each word has its position in the sentence). They have different syntactic function.

4. The word has meaning.

5. The word can be used as a sentence.( e.g. Listen!!)

The word has its structure:

1. The external structure means morphological structure.

2. The internal structure of the word is its meaning.

3. The word has formal unity.

We can’t change the position of morphemes or insert anything between the elements of the word (e.g. a lion – it is a word group, because we can insert other words: a big lion, a dead lion; alive – it is a word, we can’t insert anything)

4. The word has semantic unity. It conveys one concept (a black bird – it is a wordgroup because each word conveys a separate conses: black – colour, bird – living creature. A blackbird – дрозд, it is a word because it conveys one concept: the type of a bird.)

5. The word has its paradigm. It is the system of grammatical forms of the word. In speech the word functions in one of its forms (e.g. nice-nicer-the nisest. Look-looked-looking-have looked)

Word structure: - external (morphological)

• Internal (meaning)

• Unity: formal (we can’t insert anyth), semantic (one concept)

Thus, the word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, it represents a group of sounds has meaning and the system of grammatical forms and characterized by formal and semantic unity.