3. The connection of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics

Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of Linguistics. Phonetics investigates the phonetic structure of language and is concerned with the study of the outer sound-form of the word. If we change some sounds in the word, we receive the word with the different meaning (sheep – ship; cow – bow).

Grammar is the study of the grammatical structure of the language. The grammatical form of the word is changed and the meaning is changed as well (book – books; work – works; arm – arms). The part of speech can be changed as well: pocket – to pocket; name – to name.

There is also a close relationship between lexicology and Stylistics which is concerned with a study of functions and styles of languages.

Lexicology connects with the History of Language. For example, in old English the word “stool” meant any kind of seats. Later on the French borrowing – the word “chair” came and the word “stool” changed its meaning. Now “stool” means the seat without back.

4. Synchronic and Diachronic Lexicology

The vocabulary can be studied by means of two approaches: descriptive and historical. Historical Lexicology deals with the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words and word-groups, and the changes of their sound form and meaning in course of time. Descriptive Lexicology is concerned with the vocabulary of a language at the given stage of its development. The two approaches should not be set one against the other. In fact, they are interconnected and interrelated because every linguistic structure and system exists in a state of constant development. The synchronic state of a language system is a result of a long process of linguistic evaluation.

Lexicology presents a wide area of knowledge.

Contrastive and Comparative Lexicology study the correlation between vocabularies of two or more languages and find out the correspondences between the vocabulary units of the languages under comparison.

Comparative Lexicology studies closely relative languages from the point of view of their identity and differentiation.

Contrastive Lexicology attempts to find out similarities and differences in both related and non-related languages. Its task is a detailed comparison of the structure of a native and a target language. Every language classifies reality in its own way by means of vocabulary units. In English, for example, there is no equivalent for word “сутки”. In English two words “arm and hand” are used to denote the word “рука”.

In contrastive analysis the smallest units of meaning are sememes and semes. For example, in the lexical unit “woman” several semes may be singled out, such as human, female, adult. The analysis of the word “girl” will show the following semes: human, female, young. The last component of the two words differentiates them and makes impossible to mix up the words.

A word has not only one meaning. The words “to like, to love, to adore” denote positive feelings. But each of them gives additional information on the so-called strength of feeling. This is the connotational aspect which shows semantic differential.

Applied lexicology deals with translation, lexicography, pragmatics of speech.

SEMINAR 1

KEY TERMS

lexicology lexeme

language diachrony

vocabulary synchrony

word word-formation

word-group seme

etymology contrastive lexicology

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND EXERCISES

1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Its aims and tasks. Its practical and theoretical value.

2. The connection of Lexicology with other branches of linguistics.

3. Lexical units. The word as a fundamental unit of the language.

4. Borrowings in English.

5. The diachronic and the synchronic approaches to the study of the vocabulary.

6. Branches of lexicology. The main problems of lexicology.

1. Translate the following into Russian. State from what languages they are borrowed:

kindergarten, tête-à-tête, Blitzkrieg, persona grata, leitmotiv, primadonna, Nazi, sputnik, ballet, football.

2. The words below are Latin words in their origin, list as many other words as you can with that word part.

recollection generation preservationist construction confluence quantifiable

Test

1. The term “lexicology” is of

   1. Greek origin

   2. Latin origin

   3. French origin

   4. German origin

2. The central problem of lexicology is

   1. word

   2. sentence

   3. sound

   4. meaning

3. The two main approaches in studying language are

   1. special and descriptive

   2. historical and comparative

   3. diachronic and synchronic

   4. contrastive and general

4. The word-group “as loose as a goose” means

   1. kind

   2. stupid

   3. greedy

   4. clumsy

5. In contrastive analysis the smallest unit of meaning is

   1. seme

   2. lexeme

   3. word

   4. word-group

6. English is

a) a Germanic language

b) a Scandinavian language

c) a Romanic-Germanic language

d) a Romanic language

7. Seme is:

a) the biggest element of the lexical meaning

b) the grammatical characteristics

c) a suffix of some nouns

d) the smallest element of lexical meaning