- •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.
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.
Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’
1765 - D. Diderot
Universal Encyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences
O. O. Potebnia
members of the Prague Linguistic Circle
L. Weisberger
Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.):
-full entries for 171,476 words in current use + 47,156 obsolete words + 9,500 derivatives (in subentries);
-nouns - over half, adjectives - about a quarter, verbs -about a seventh; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.
Lexicon (syn. vocabulary, word-stock, lexis; Ukr.словниковий склад мови) is the total number of words that make up a language.
Studies of Lexicon
lexicon formation
lexicon stratification
lexicon organisation (studied by Lexicography)
Studies of Word-Groups
proper names (studied by Onomastics)
terms (studied by Terminology)
phraseological units (studied by Phraseology)
Studies relevant to words, word-groups, and lexicon
-functions of lexical units in speech (studied by Functional Lexicology)
-the meaning of lexical units (studied by Lexical Semantics)
Theoretical and Practical Value
-a systematic description of Modern English lexicon;
-a thorough study of the relations existing between various lexical layers of the English vocabulary;
-an indepth analysis of the specific laws and regulations that govern word-stock development at the present time;
-a comprehensive survey of the sources of the lexicon growth and the changes it has undergone;
-an introduction to the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.
Approaches to the Study of Language
synchronic (Gr. syn — ‘together, with’, chronos — ‘time’) or descriptive
diachronic (Gr. dia — ‘through’, chronos — ‘time) or historical
to beg – a beggar
a beggar > to beg
2. Methods of lexicological analysis: componential analysis, ic – uc analysis, contrastive analysis etc.
General observations
Statistical analysis
Contrastive analysis
-Charles Bally (Geneva School of Linguistics), Vilém Mathesius (the Prague Linguistic Circle), Robert Lado (Ann Arbor School of Ethnolinguistics) Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teacher
-a synchronic, comparative study of two or more languages or language varieties; it can be carried out at three linguistic levels: phology, grammar, and lexis;
-generally, both similarities and differences are studied although the emphasis is usually placed on differences thought to lead to interference (i.e. negative transfer, the faulty application of structures from one’s native language to the second language);
-in the focus of the study are: problem pairs (i.e. the words that denote two entities in one language and correspond to two different words in another language, e.g. BrE. clock, watch – Ukr. годинник); polysemantic words, e.g. BrE. a head of a person / bed / coin – Ukr. голова людини / узголов’я ліжка/ сторона монети; synonymic sets; difference in the collocability, e.g.тонка книга – a thin book, тонка ирония – subtle irony, тонка талія – slim / slender waist, тонкий смак – refined taste,тонкий голос – thin voice
Componential analysis
-Louis Hjelmslev (the Copenhagen School of Linguistics), Ward Goodenough Componential Analysis and the Study of Meaning (1956), Floyd Lounsbury A Semantic Analysis of Pawnee Kinship Usage Language (1956), Yuriy Apresian, Yuriy Karaulov (Moscow School of Linguistics)
-description of the meaning of lexemes as well as the inner structure of the lexicon through (structured) set of semantic features;
-the meaning of a word can be usefully broken up into a smaller number of semantic components (semantic features), each with a value (‘+’ for present, ‘-’ for absent);
-the technique is most useful for highlighting the similarities and differences in meaning between a number of words of related meaning;
-Sample analysis:
stallion [+ horse, − female, + adult]; mare [+ horse, + female, + adult]; colt [+ horse, − female, − adult]; filly [+ horse, + female, − adult]