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ГОС_1 / Lexicology / Lecture1 / Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics dealing with dictionaries

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Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics Dealing with Dictionaries

Lexicology is a branch of Linguistics studying the words or vocabulary of the language. According to I.V. Arnold Lexicology is a part of Linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of language.

The term “Lexicology” was introduced in the French encyclopedia in 1765. The term “Lexicology” is composed of two Greek morphemes – “lexis” (meaning word/phrase) and “logos” (meaning learning a department of knowledge). Thus, the term “Lexicology” literally means a department of knowledge studying words or the science of the word.

The word is the subject matter of Lexicology. All the words in a language make up what is generally called the vocabulary of the language. The English vocabulary is the sum total of all the words in the English language. The basic task of Lexicology is the study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.

Distinction is naturally made between General Lexicology and Special Lexicology.

General Lexicology is the part of General Linguistics. General Lexicology is the general study of words and vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.

Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particular language. Special Lexicology is the study and description of the vocabulary of a given language. English Lexicology is Special Lexicology dealing with English vocabulary.

There are 2 principle approaches in Linguistics to the study of any language namely the diachronic approach (from Greek “dia”=through, “cronos”=time) and the synchronic approach (“syn”=together, with; “cronos”=time), or descriptive. The distinction b/w these approaches is due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).

Thus the distinction is made between Historical Lexicology (or Etymology) and Descriptive Lexicology.

Historical Lexicology (or Etymology) studies the vocabulary as a system in its evolution. It describes the origin of words, their change and development in the course of time.

Descriptive Lexicology studies the vocabulary in its synchronic aspect, that is, at the given stage of its development. The diachronic and synchronic approaches should not be contrasted and in fact they are interconnected viewing one and the same phenomenon from different angles, e.g. treated diachronically the word “friendship” is a compound word but synchronically it is derivative as the element “ship” has lost its states of a root morpheme and it’s considered to be a suffix now.

Comparative Lexicology studies the vocabulary of closely related languages from the point of view of their typological identity or differentiation.

Contrastive Lexicology is a new type of studies aimed at establishing facts of similarities and differences between the vocabularies of both related and unrelated languages.