General problems of lexicology. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics

The term lexicology is dervied from two Greek words: lexis (“word”) and logos (“theory”, “learning”). Lexicology is a separate branch of linguistics which deals with two objects of investigation:

1. words as comparatively autonomous language units, their properties, their structure

and, on the other hand,

2. vocabulary as a system, consisting of the above said units.

However, a study of this kind may deal with the words and vocabularies irrespective of a particular language. In this case this theory shall be named general lexicology.

Special lexicology devotes its attention to the words and vocabulary of some given language: as an example there is modern English lexicology.

Historical lexicology, sometimes also called etymology or etymological theory, is a separate branch of linguistics, which studies the origin of different words and the ways in which the semantic structure of such words changes in the course of time.

Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of the given language at a given stage of its development. Descriptive lexicology is also named synchronic lexicology.

Unlike descriptive, we may single out diachronic lexicology, which naturally studies the historical development of the word system.

Hence the full naming of our course sounds as “Special descriptive lexicology of the modern English language”. The complete course may be subdivided into two unequal parts according to two separate subjects of studies:

1. the theory of English word as a complex structure;

2. the study of the English vocabulary as a complex system.

Within the first part of the course the word is not only studied as a linguistic phenomenon, but also as a philosophical notion too, because included here is the semantic structure of words that is the word in the complexity of its notion that is in its permanent development.

Besides the morphological structure of the words is to be given special attention, as morphemes are also considered to be meaningful units of the language (as well as words).

All the above said phenomena are referred to the word-building theory. As the vocabulary system does not only consist of separate words, but includes any other meaningful units, the study of the English words is to be finished with the scrutiny of the English set expressions.

Anyone who studies lexicology should clearly imagine the value of the word theory. A number of factors determine the importance of modern English lexicology, which are:

1. English is among the most widespread languages on the globe today. It has the status of the global language. English is spoken as a second language by the greatest number of people in the world;

2. lexicology is one of the three basic aspects of language studies alongside with the sound system and grammar taking the intermediate between these two. So it may be named the linking element within the whole theory of language;

3. great is the philosophical and psychological singificance of such studies, as they touch upon the problems of meaning and its change and thus contact of the general theory of sign, so lexicology is linked with semasiology and onomasiologyОномасиология - отрасль семантики, изучающая наименования, использование языковых средств для обозначения внеязыковых объектов. В отличие от семасиологии (см.), отражающей направление от средства выражения к выражаемому значению, О. основывается на движении от обозначаемого предмета к средствам его обозначения, шире - от содержания к форм;

4. lexicology came into being to meet the demands of applied linguistics, so it may have, apart of its theoretical aspect, a definite practical singnificance, which may be traced to lexicography, theory of terms, vocabulary standardization, etc.;

5. the deep knowledge of lexicology is making an important basis in teaching of the English language. The word can hardly be taught if it’s separated from the other words, from the sentence, the context, the text and the speech flow. The word may only exist and function within the system of complex connections with all other units of language. Finally the word becomes valid only when it enters various relations with other words, which relations may be synonymic, antonymic, those of omonymy.

The course of modern English lexicology has versatile connections with a number of other language disciplines. It cannot be observed in isolation from them. In reality in any living language, irrespective of its historical development, words are comprized of smaller elements, which are meaningful morphemens and meaningless phonemes. On the other hand words form greater structures, which are word combinations (that is set expressions and free combinations), as well as sentences.

Words and speech always stand in definite relations with each other, hence it is cocluded that lexicology is connected with phonetics and syntax.

Another branch of linguistics showing connetions with lexicology, though from a different viewpoint, is stylistics. Stylistics also deals with some general problems of lexicology, like connotations, stylistic synonymy, functional differentiation of vocabulary, etc.

Interconnections between lexicology and general grammar are also obvious: words may be studied separately from each other, but only for experimental purposes and for the sake of analysis. They never occur in speech in complete isolation.

Besides differentiation between two kinds of meaning, which coexist in every word, that is lexical and grammatical meanings, should be observed in semasiology. In words of the natural language these two types of meaning are typically combined.

So defining in most general terms the object of study of lexicology we may say that this object is a lexical unit. Meanwhile we should bear in mind that such lexical units are extremely versatile.

An important thing is that the word occupies the central position among all other lexical units and is forming the bulk of the vocabulary. Paradoxically, however, the notion of word has not yet received any universally satisfying definition.

Morphemens, being the smallest meaningful units of languages, unlike words, are unable to form sentences.

The third type of lexical units, alongside with morphemes and words, are set expressions. Unlike free word combinations, they contain meanings which cannot be split into smaller elements, and in this way set expressions can be brought together with words.

Sintagmata may divide a sentence into several parts which express separate ideas.

One of the most complicated problems in lexicology is that of the vocabulary. A word is a system; a vocabulary should also be viewed as a complex system. Its complexity can be seen in the fact that up to our days the vocabulary of any separate language cannot be studied as a whole, but only if subdivided into quite a number of definite groups or subsystems, compiled in accordance with this or that basic principle.

Another reason for the complexity of a national vocabulary is that it is not a chaotic sum of units, but an everchangeable unity of elements, associated and functioning together, according to certain and rather rigid laws. These laws, at least some of them, may be common to quite a number of languages or the majority of languages, but sometimes they may also be specific for the given language, that is why any national vocabulary can be named an adaptive system, because it is constantly adjusting itself to the everchanging requirements and conditions of human communication and the surrounding of the speaking community.

The above said conditions may stretch far beyond the language itself and refer to this fears(?) of culture, education, technology, sports, entertainment and everyday life.