
- •2.Two approaches to language study
- •3. The theoretical and practical value of english lexicology
- •4. The connection of lexicology with phonetics, stylistics, grammar and other branches of linguistics
- •2 Characteristics of the word as the basic unit of a language
- •3 The notion of lexical system
- •4 The theory of oppositions
- •Chapter 3 lexicography
- •1. According to the scope of their word-list linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and restricted.
- •2. According to the information they provide all linguistic dictionaries fall into two groups: explanatory and specialized.
- •4. Dictionaries also fall into diachronic and synchronic with regard to time.
- •2 Problems of lexicography
- •1) The selection of lexical units for inclusion
- •2. Arrangement of Entries
- •3. Selection and Arrangement of Meanings
- •4. Definition of Meanings
- •5. Illustrative Examples
- •6. Choice of Adequate Equivalents
- •7. The structure of the dictionary
- •3 The development of english and american dictionary
- •Chapter 4
- •2. Borrowings
- •2.1 Structural elements of borrowings
- •2.2 Why are the words borrowed
- •2.3 The history of borrowings.
- •I. Latin Affixes
- •2.4. The influence of borrowings
- •3 Classifications of borrowings
- •Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect
- •Italian borrowings.
- •4. Etymological doublets
- •5. International words
- •2.2 Functional approach to Meaning
- •Operational or information- oriented definitions of meaning
- •3.1 Lexical meaning
- •3.2 Aspects of lexical meaning In the general framework of lexical meaning several aspects can be singled out. They are:
- •3.2.1 The Denotational aspect
- •3.2.2. The Connotational aspect
- •3.2.3. The pragmatic aspect
- •5. Causes, nature and results of semantic change
- •5.2.1 Specialization
- •5.2.2.Generalization
- •5.2.3 Metaphor
- •5.2.4. Metonymy
- •6.1. Polysemy and Context. Types of Context
- •7.Semantic classification of the english vocabulary
- •8. Synonyms
- •9. Antonyms
- •If a word is polysemantic it can have several antonyms, e.G. The word «bright» has the antonyms «dim», «dull», «sad».
- •10 Homonyms
- •10. 1 Classifications of homonyms.
- •1. Morphemes. Classification of morphemes
- •2. Types of meaning in morphemes
- •3. Morphemic types of words
- •1) Monomorphic;
- •4. Types of word-segmentabiuty
- •5. Procedure of morphemic analysis
- •6. Various Types and Ways of Forming Words
- •7.Affixation
- •7.1 Suffixation.
- •7.2 Prefixation
- •2. Origin of prefixes:
- •8. Conversion
- •8. 1. Substantivization of adjectives
- •8.2. Diachronic approach to conversion
- •8.3. Basic criteria of semantic derivation in conversion
- •9.1 Composition
- •9.1 Ways of forming compound words.
- •9.1 Classifications of english compounds
- •10 Abbreviation
- •10.1Graphical abbreviations
- •10.2 Initial abbreviations
- •10.3 Abbreviations of words
- •1. Segment the following words into morphemes. Define (a) the semantic types and (b) the structural types of morphemes constituting the given words.
- •2 Translate the following words into Russian, taking into account the lexical meaning of the root and affixational morphemes.
- •3 Define the morphemes the differential meaning of which helps to distinguish between words in the given sets.
- •5. Analyze the following words according to their morphemic types. Define the subtypes of polymorphic words. Classify polyradical words into two group:
- •8. Write pairs of words (prefixed and non-prefixed); translate them paying attention to the meaning of the prefix and the meaning of the whole word.
- •2. Determine the original components of the following blends. Define which type (additive or restrictive) the blends belong to.
- •3. Define which words have been combined to form the following computer terms. Give their
- •4. According to their pronunciation classify the given acronyms into two groups:
- •7. A) Explain the formation of the following blends.
- •8. Give the words denoting sounds produced by the animals enumerated below.
- •2. Structure and classification of word-groups
- •3. Types of meaning of word-groups
- •4. Motivation in word-groups
- •5 Classification of phraseological units
- •5. 1 Ways of forming phraseological units
- •5.2 Semantic classification of phraseological units
- •5.3 Structural classification of phraseological units
- •5.4 Syntactical classification of phraseological units
- •6. How to Distinguish Phraseological Units from Free Word-Groups
- •7. Proverbs
- •Phraseology
- •1. What is the source of the following idioms? If in doubt consult your reference books.
- •2. Show that you understand the meaning of the following phraseological units by using each of them in a sentence.
- •3. Complete the following sentences, using the phraseological units given in the list below. Translate them into Russian.
- •4. Complete the following sentences, using the words from the list below. Translate the phraseological units into Russian.
- •5. State which of the expressions are phraseological units and which are free word combinations.
- •6. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and classify them on the semantic principle.
- •7. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and classify them on the structural principle. Translate the Phraseological units into Russian.
- •Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary
- •1. Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary
- •2. Special literary vocabulary
- •3. Special colloquial vocabulary
- •2. Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary
- •3. Special literary vocabulary a) Terms
- •B) Poetic and Highly Literary Words
- •C) Archaic, Obsolescent and Obsolete Words
- •D) Barbarisms and Foreignisms
- •E) Literary Coinages (Including Nonce-Words)
- •4. Special colloquial vocabulary a) Slang
- •B) Jargonisms
- •C) Professionalisms
- •D) Dialectal words
- •E) Vulgar words or vulgarisms
- •F) Colloquial coinages (words and meanings)
- •Variants and dialects of the english language
- •Immediate Constituents Analysis
3 The notion of lexical system
The term system as used in present-day lexicology denotes not merely the sum total of English words, it denotes a set of elements associated and functioning together according to certain laws. It is a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted by interdependent elements of the same order related in certain specific ways. The vocabulary of a language is moreover an adaptive system constantly adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communications and cultural surroundings. It is continually developing by overcoming contradictions between its state and the new tasks and demands it has to meet.
A set is described in the abstract set theory as a collection of definite distinct objects to be conceived as a whole. A set is said to be a collection of distinct elements, because a certain object may be distinguished from the other elements in a set, but there is no possibility of its repeated appearance. A set is called structured when the number of its elements is greater than the number of rules according to which these elements may be constructed. A set is given either by indicating, i.e. listing, all its elements, or by stating the characteristic property of its elements. For example the closed set of English articles may be defined as comprising the elements: the, a/an and zero. The set of English compounds on the other hand is an infinite (open) set containing all the words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the language as free forms.
The lexical system of every epoch contains productive elements typical of this particular period, others that are obsolete and dropping out of usage, and, finally, some new phenomena, significant marks of new trends for the epochs to come. The present status of a system is an abstraction, a sort of scientific fiction which in some points can facilitate linguistic study, but the actual system of the language is in a state of constant change.
Lexicology studies this whole by determining the properties of its elements and the different relationships of contrast and similarity existing between them within a language, as well as the ways in which they are influenced by extra-linguistic reality.
The extra-linguistic relationships refer to the connections of words with the elements of objective reality they serve to denote, and their dependence on the social, mental and cultural development of the language community.
Even though its elements are concrete and can be observed as such, a system is always abstract, and so is the vocabulary system or, as Academician V.V. Vinogradov has called it, the lexico-semantic system. The interdependence in this system results from a complex interaction of words in their lexical meanings and the grammatical features of the language.
V.V. Vinogradov includes in this term both the sum total of words and expressions and the derivational and functional patterns of word forms and word-groups, semantic groupings and relationships between words. The interaction of various levels in the language system may be illustrated in English by the following: the widespread development of homonymy and polysemy, the loss of motivation, the great number of generic words and the very limited autonomy of English words as compared with Russian words are all closely connected with the mono-morphemic analytical character of the English language and the scarcity of morphological means. All these in their turn result, partly at least, from levelling and loss of endings, processes undoubtedly connected with the reduction of vowels in unstressed syllables.
The term sуstem as applied to vocabulary should not be understood to mean a well-defined or rigid system. As it has been stated above it is an adaptive system and cannot be completely and exactly characterised by deterministic functions; that is for the present state of science it is not possible to specify the system’s entire future by its status at some one instant of its operation. In other words, the vocabulary is not simply a probabilistic system but a set of interrelated adaptive subsystems.
All elements of the system have certain types of relationships between them. They are: syntagmatic, paradigmatic.
A word enters into syntagmatic (linear) combinatorial relationships with other lexical units that can form its context, serving to identify and distinguish its meaning. Lexical units are known to be context-dependent. E. g. in the hat on her head the noun head means ‘part of the body’, whereas in the head of the department Head means ‘chief. A word enters into contrastive paradigmatic relations with all other words, e. g. head, chief, director, etc. that can occur in the same context and be contrasted to it.
Syntagmatic relationships being based on the linear character of speech are studied by means of contextual, valency, distributional, transformational and some other types of analysis.
Paradigmatic linguistic relationships determining the vocabulary system are based on the interdependence of words within the vocabulary (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc.).
So, the course of English L. may be subdivided into two main parts: the treatment of the English word as a structure, the treatment of the Engl. vocabulary as a system.