1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Its aims and tasks. Subject structure. Links with other branches of linguistics.

Lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies words.  Lexicology also involves relations between words, which may involve semantics (for example, love vs. affection), derivation (for example, fathom vs. unfathomably), usage and sociolinguistic distinctions (for example, flesh vs. meat), and any other issues involved in analyzing the whole lexicon of a languages.

LG is a branch of linguistics and has its own aims and methods of scientific research. Its basic task is to study and descript systematically the vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.

Subject of lexicology is the vocabulary of the language, the systemic relations between words. The main task - to study words, their lexical meanings and their types, and studing of the origin and use of word.

Types:

General Lexicology – general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language

Special Lexicology – description of the characteristics peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language

Historical Lexicology – origin of various words, their change and development, linguistic and extra-linguistic factors influencing the structure of words/

Descriptive Lexicology – vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development

Links with other branches of linguistics:

1) Lexicology is closely connected with phonetics because they have the same object of studies, they both studies the word, but phonetics studies the outer form and lexicology studies the inner form of the word.

2) Lexicology is connected with grammar because lexicology studies words and grammar studies the grammatical relations between words and how words are combined into phrases and sentences. Meaningful communication is not possible without knowing the grammar rules.

3) Lexicology is connected with the history of language because the history of language studies the changes and the development of the vocabulary in the course of time.

4) Lexicology is connected with stylistics because stylistics studies the differentiation of the vocabulary according to the sphere of communication.

5) Lexicology is connected with the sociolinguistics because sociolinguistics studies the extra linguistic and social causes of the changes in the vocabulary of a language.

2. Synchronic and diachronic approaches to the study of language.

Synchronic approaches - concerned with the language vocabulary as it exists at a given time.

diachronic approaches - development and changes of the language, evolution of vocabulary units as times goes by.

3. Etymological survey of the English language. Native and borrowed words.

Etymology is the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time. English language has more than 70% borrowings.

The reason of borrowings:

1. to fill a gap in vocabulary

2. It represents the same concept but in some aspect: a new shade of meaning. 

Donor language -the language from which the word was borrowed.

Recipient language – the language which borrowed the word.

Source of borrowing – the language from which the words was immediately borrowed.

Origin of borrowing – the language to which the word may be ultimately traced.

4. Words of native origin in Modern English. Semantic and stylistic characteristics of native words. Word-forming ability of native words.

A native word – only relatively started with the English literature tradition.

The native words are further subdivided by diachronic linguistics into those of Indo-European stock and those of Common Germanic origin.

The words having cognated in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer. It has been noticed that they readily fall into definite semantic groups. Among them we find terms of kinship (father, mother, son, daughter, brother), words naming the most important objects and phenomena of nature (sun, moon, star, wind, water, wood, hill, stone, tree), names of animals and birds (bull, cat, crow, goose, wolf), parts of the human body ( arm, ear, eye, foot, heart, etc) some of the most frequent verbs are also of IndoEuropean common stock (bear, come, sit, stand and others). The adjectives of this group denote concrete physical properties (hard, quick, slow, red, white). Most numerals also belong here.

The phonetic characteristics of native words: 1) Short, monosyllabic. 2) The oppositions between long and short sounds. 3) The final voiced consonants are never devoiced. The spelling characteristics: 1) graphical ch, th 2) native words are very good building material for derivatives and phrases: hand-handful, handy. To live from hand to mouth.