1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Lexical m units.

Lexicology (from Gr lexis ‘word’ and logos ‘learning’) is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of language.

Lexicology has an object of its research, which is lexicon or vocabulary.The term lexicon was previously referred to as a book containing a selection of language units and meanings (dictionary). It is still used today in this meaning.

The term lexicon has developed a more abstract sense. Today it refers to the total stock of meaningful units in a language (parts of words, combining forms).

One of the major tasks of lexicology is to reveal how lexicon is organized, structured, systematized and how it is used for the purposes of communication.

The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are generally referred to as language universals.

Special lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language.

A relatively new branch of study is called contrastive lexicology.It provides a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be compared and described.

To study the lexicon of English is to study all aspects of the vocabulary of the language: how words are formed, how they are developed, used, related in meaning to each other, how words are handed in dictionaries.

The importance of English lexicology is based on the fact that at present it is the world’s most widely used language. It is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people in Britain, the United States, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and some other countries. The knowledge of English is widely spread geographically — it is in fact used in all continents. It is also spoken in many countries as a second language and used in official and business activities there. This is the case in India, Pakistan and many other former British colonies. English is also one of the working languages of the United Nations and the universal language of international aviation. More than a half world’s scientific literature is published in English and 60% of the world’s radio broadcasts are in English. For all these reasons it is widely studied all over the world as a foreign language.

The theoretical value of lexicology becomes obvious if we realise that it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of language, i.e. its vocabulary, its grammar (morphology, syntax) and sound system.

The treatment of words in lexicology cannot be divorced from the study of all the other elements in the language system to which words belong. It should be always borne in mind that in reality, in the actual process of communication, all these elements are interdependent and stand in definite relations to one another. So Lexicology is closely connected with Phonetics, Grammar, Stylistics, History of English.Lexical units .Linguistics is not a science in the full sense of the word. However, many linguists aim to make it a science. Any branch of research must define its basic units. Lexicology is associated with such terms as lexical item or unit, then with the term lexeme. Lexeme is an abstract unit .Narrow interpretation — it is a notion word. Broad interpretation — …+idioms, lexical phrases.In English lexeme may be a single word, a group of words, compounds (blackboard), idioms or shortened forms (flu, UK).

Aristotel — word is the smallest significant part of speech.

Blumfield — word is a minimum free form.

Ullmann — word is the smallest unit of language capable of building an utterance.

Computer — word is a sequence of graphics which can occur between spaces.

It is obvious that the term word must be defined afresh within a system of every language. As a result the word as an element of speech is language specific, not language universal.

There are word variants:Regional — colour/ color, centre/ center;Phonetic variants;Morphological.

3. Etymological survey of the English lexicon.

The term “etymology” comes from Greek and it means the study of the earliest forms of the word. Now etymology studies both: the form and the meaning of borrowed and native words. In every modern language there are native and borrowed words. It is quite natural and logical because contacts between people, and peoples are lead to the process of borrowing. As for English language many scientist consider the foreign influence to be the most important factor in the development of the Eng. language. There are more borrowed words in English than in any other European language. So we speak of the mixed character of the English vocabulary. It contains the native element and the borrowed elements. The native element includes Indo-European, Germanic element and English proper element: boy, girl, lord, lady – proper English word.

By the native element we mean words which were not borrowed from other languages. The number of native words is rather small, about 25%-30%. About 70% of words are borrowed. This fact gave ground to the assumption that English is not a Germanic language, but a Romanic-Germanic language.

Today the accepted point of view is that Eng. is a Germanic language and the mixed character of its vocabulary is one of its main features. It can be proved by the fact that in speech the correlation between native and borrow words is different. It was found out that in the works of English classics about 80% of words are native. (prepositions, modal and auxiliary verbs, a great many irregular verbs, some nouns and adjectives denoting everyday notions). The native element include Indo-European, Germanic and English proper words. Indo-European words have cognates in other I-E languages. EG: English words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. day, night, mother, father, son, daughter.

Germanic words have cognates in modern Germanic languages. EG: They denote parts of human body: hand, head, arm, bone. Animals: fox, bear.

English proper words don’t have any cognates in other languages: lord, lady, boy, girl.

The term “borrowing” may mean the process of borrowing and the result of the process-the word itself. The term source of borrowing means the language which from the word was taking into English. EG: delicious was taken from French so, French is the source of borrowing.

The term origin of borrowing denotes the language to which the word may be traced. EG: the word “school is a Latin borrowing. (It comes from Latin) of greek origin. It means that to Latin (it) came from Greek. “to adore” came from French. There are different reasons for borrowing words, linguistic and extro-lingustic (historic) reason. Historic reasons include wars and conquest and peaceful contacts as well. The main linguistic reason are the following: 1.) a gap in vocabulary. EG: potato, tomato were borrowed from Spanish, when these vegetables were brought to the British island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted. 2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view. EG: The French word “to adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of the process.

This type of borrowing enlarge groups of synonyms. Заимствование: а) время б) историч. справка в) классиф.

The classification of English borrowings includes more than ten groups. The main groups of borrowing are:

- the three layers of dating borrowing- borrowings from French- borrowing from Scandinavian

Translation-loan(s) (калька) – are borrowings which are made up by means of literally translating words and word combinations. EG: from the Russian language: пятилетка – five-year plan. from German: Wunderkind – wonder child. from Italian: prima ballerina – first dancer.

Doublets are words which have the same origin but they are different in phonetic shape and in meaning. Doublets appeared in English in different ways.

1) One of the pair may be a native word and the other a borrowed one. EG: the word “shirt” is a native one. “skirt” was borrowed from Scandinavian. (одежда)

2) Both the words are borrowed, but from different languages. EG: senior (from Latin) sir (from French)

3) Both the words are borrowed from one of the same language, but at different period of time. EG: cavalry (Normandy French) – кавалерия. Chivalry (Parisian Language) – рыцарство (ch-показывает о более позднем происхождение)

4) Shortening may bring to life etymological doublets. EG: history and story, defense and fance.

International words are the words, which borrowed by several language, among international words are names of sciences (phonetic, physics, political terms, sports, name of fruits, foods)

With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-lingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this two-hundred-years period is immense: French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings.

Administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power.

Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.

Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy.

Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.