- •1.Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Aims and the object of Lexicology. Two approaches to language studies.
- •2. Links of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics. The course of modern English Lexicology, its theoretical and practical significance.
- •3. The etymological composition of the English lexicon. Words of native origin.
- •4. Borrowings: their causes and criteria.
- •5. Assimilation of borrowings.
- •6. Classifications of borrowings: according to the borrowed aspect, according to the language from which they were borrowed.
- •8. The morpheme as the smallest meaningful language unit. Classifications of morphemes.
- •9. The word as the basic unit of the language system. Characteristics of words. Structural types of words. Word-groups. The notion of a lexeme.
- •10. Types of designation (nomination).
- •12. Types of word-meaning.
- •13. Polysemy: its nature, the main causes and sources. Meaning and context.
- •14. Polysemy. Semantic structure of words.
- •15. Change of word-meaning: the causes, nature and results.
- •16. Homonymy. Sources of homonyms.
- •17. Classifications of homonyms.
- •18. Polysemy and homonymy: etymological, semantic, distribution and spelling criteria.
- •24. Groups of words based on several types of semantic relations: conceptual (semantic or lexical) fields, lexical-semantic groups
- •25. Word-structure and morphemes. Morphemic types of words.
- •26. Segmentation of words into morphemes. Types of word segmentability. The procedure of morphemic analysis.
- •27. Derivative structure of words. The basic derivational units.
- •28. Affixation as a way of word formation. Prefixation. Classifications of prefixes.
- •29. Suffixation. Productivity of suffixes. Classifications of suffixes.
- •30.Conversion as a way of word formation. Typical semantic relations. Productivity of conversion.
- •31. Word-composition as a type of word formation. Features of compound-words. Classifications of compound-words.
- •32. Secondary types of word-formation: lexicalization, sound-imitation, reduplication, back-formation (reversion), sound and stress interchange.
- •33. Secondary types of word-formation: shortening (contraction), abbreviation, acronyms, blends, clippings.
- •34. Ways and means of enriching the vocabulary.
- •35. Neologisms: semantic groups, ways of forming.
- •36.Phraseological units and their properties. Criteria of phraseology.
- •37. Classifications of phraseological units.
- •38.Phraseological units: ways of formation. The sources of phraseology.
- •39. Historical development of British and American lexicography.
- •40. Encyclopedic dictionaries. Linguistic dictionaries: their basic features and criteria of classification.
- •41. Types of linguistic dictionaries.
- •42. Basic problems of dictionary-compiling: selection of lexical units, arrangement of entries, selection and arrangement of meanings, definition of meanings.
- •43. Basic problems of dictionary-compiling: illustrative examples, choice of adequate equivalents, setting of the entry, structure of the dictionary.
- •45. Variant vs. Dialect. General characteristics of the English language in different parts of the English-speaking world.
- •48. Methods of lexicological analysis (contrastive analysis, statistical analysis, immediate constituents analysis, distributional analysis, transformational analysis, componential analysis).
16. Homonymy. Sources of homonyms.
Ball: a sphere, any spherical body; a large dancing party
Homonyms: words which are identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning
English vocabulary is rich in such words.
Their identical forms are almost accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development.
Homonyms are usually used in puns – jokes based upon the play on homonyms. Sources of Homonyms:
1. Phonetic changes (the words undergo them in the course of their historical development)night and knight – they were not homonyms in O.E. as the initial “k” was pronounced and not dropped as in M.E.2. Borrowing (a borrowed word may in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing) rite (a Latin borrowing), to write, right (of native origin) 3. Word-building
a) conversion: comb, to comb; pale, to pale
b) shortening : fan = fanatic ; fan – an implement for waving lightly to produce a cold current of air 4. Sound imitation: bang: a loud, sudden, explosive noise; a fringe of hair combed over the forehead
In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental.
5. Split polysemy (2 or 3 homonyms originate from different meanings of the same word when the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts). The semantic structure of a polysemantic word presents a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations. If this meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings are lost and they become independent lexical units.
Board: a long and thin piece of timbre, daily meals (e.g. room and board), an official group of people who direct some activity (e.g. a board of directors)
Board (development of meanings)Board (split polysemy)
17. Classifications of homonyms.
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms:
1. Perfect homonyms (homonyms proper) – words which are the same in sound and spelling
school – 1) an institution at which children receive education; 2) a group of fish
2. Homophones – words identical in sound but different in spelling night, knight ; sea, see
3. Homographs – words identical in spelling but different in sound to bow – to incline the head in salutation ; a bow – a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows
This classification is not precise as it doesn’t reflect important features of these words. Moreover, homonyms may belong to the same and to different parts of speech.
Thus Professor A.I. Smirnitsky added to Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning. According to the type of meaning:
lexical (words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical in their grammatical meaning but different in lexical meaning); seal (n) 'a sea animal' – seal (n) 'design on a piece of paper, stamp'
2. lexical-grammatical (belong to different parts of speech, differ both in lexical and grammatical meanings but coincide in a sound and/or written form) ; seal (n) 'a sea animal' – seal (v) 'to close tightly' sea (n) – see (v)
3. grammatical (words of the same category of parts of speech, different in grammatical meaning only. Here one speaks of homonymy of forms of the same word); walked Past tense – walked Participle II; seals pl. of 'sea animal' – seal's Possessive Case of 'sea animal'
According to the degree of formal identity: full homonyms – words of the same category of parts of speech which have the same paradigm. match, n. – a game, a contest – a short piece of wood producing fire
Paradigms coincide: match – matches – match's – matches'.
2) partial homonyms – words of different parts of speech which are identical in several word-forms. seal – a sea animal – to close tightly
Though some forms are homonymous the whole paradigms are not identical: seal – seals – seal's – seals' ; seal – seals – sealed – sealing
A more detailed classification was worked out by I.V. Arnold.
She classified only perfect homonyms (according to Skeat’s classification) and suggested 4 criteria of their classification: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.
1. homonyms identical in their grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings; board in the meaning of a council and a piece of wood sawn thin
2. homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, but different in their lexical meanings and paradigms; to lie-lied- lied and to lie-lay-lain
3. homonyms different in their lexical, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms; light (lights) and light (lighter, lightest)
4. homonyms different in their lexical, grammatical meanings, in their paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms; a bit and bit (from to bite)