1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics; its tasks and objectives.

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the science of language. The term “lexicology” is composed of 2Greek morphemes lexic(word)& logos. Thus the literal meaning of the term “lexicology” is “the science of the word”. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims & methods of scientific research. Its basic task being a study & systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development & its current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable wordgroups, phraseological units & morphemes which make up words. Distinction is made between general& special lexicology. General is concerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language. Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (Germ,Eng)

2Relation of Lexicology to other linguistic fields. L has close ties with oth branches of linguistics as they also take into account approaching them from different angles.There is a relationship btw L and phonetics since it is also concerned with the study of the word, i.e. with the sound form of it. A close connection between L and grammar is conditioned by the ties btw the objects of their study. Even isolated words as presented in a dic bear a definite relation to the gram system of the lang because they belong to some part of speech and conform to some lexicogram characteristics of the wordclass to which they belong. L. is linked with the history of a lang since the latter investigates the changes and the development of the voc of a lang. There is also a close relationship btw L and stylistics. S-cs studies many problems treated in L. These are the problems of meaning, syn and oth issues. L is bound up with sociolinguistics. S-s investigates the extralinguistic or social causes of the changes in the voc of a lang.

3. What is a Word? The Notion of Lexeme.

Word is the principal and basic unit of the language system, the largest on the morphologic and the smallest on the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis.It has been universally acknowledged that a great many words have a composite nature and are made up of morphemes, the basic units on the morphemic level, which are defined as the smallest indivisible two-facet language units.

lexeme - A minimal lexical and abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN.

4 . Lexical Fields.Word Families. Word Classes

Lexical field or semantic field is the way of organizing related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another. For example, father, mother, uncle, and aunt,belong to one lexical field. The words in a semantic field share a common semantic property.

Word Classes - A set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution. Similar to the more traditional term part of speech.

Word families are groups of words that have a common feature or pattern - they have some of the same combinations of letters in them and a similar sound. For example, at, cat, hat, and fat are a family of words with the "at" sound and letter combination in common.The 37 most common word families in Eng are: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice.