- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics, its aims and significance. Links with other branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study.
- •2. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.
- •3. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.
- •4. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.
- •5. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.
- •6. Latin borrowings. Features of Latin borrowings. Periods of borrowings from Latin.
- •7. Celtic elements (5-6 c. Ad) in the English vocabulary.
- •8. Scandinavian loan-words(8-11 c.Ad) in Modern English.
- •9. French elements in the English vocabulary. Features of French borrowings. Periods of borrowings from French.
- •10. Greek borrowings. Features of Greek borrowings.
- •11. The morphemic structure of English words. Typology of morphemes. Structural and semantic classifications of morphemes.
- •Inflections
- •12. The derivative structure of English words. The distinction between morphological stem and derivational base. Morphemic analysis vs derivational analysis.
- •23. The nature and causes of semantic change. Types of semantic change.
- •24. Transference of meaning.
- •25. Traditional lexicological groupings of words: thematic and ideographic groups, lexicosemantic groups, semantic fields.
- •26. Dynamics of the English vocabulary. Neologisms: their sources and formation.
- •Idiomatic Neologisms
- •27. Polysemy. Semantic structure of English words. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy. Types of polysemy.
- •28. Homonyms. Classifications and sources of homonyms.
- •29. Syntagmatic vs paradigmatic relations among English words.
- •In psycholinguistics these terms are used in a different sense.
- •30. Synonyms. The notion of a synonymic dominant. Types of synonyms. Sources of synonymy.
- •31. Antonyms. Definition. Morphological and semantic classifications of antonyms.
- •32. Grammatical and lexical valency. Grammatical and lexical context.
- •33. Lexical syntagmatics. Free word-groups vs phraseological units.
- •34. Free word-groups. Definition. Classifications.
- •35. Phraseological units: a variety of terms and the problem of definition. Characteristic features of phraseological units.
- •36. Approaches to the classifications of phraseological units in modern linguistics.
- •37. Polysemy, synonymy and stylistic features of phraseological units.
- •38. Origins and sources of phraseological units.
- •39. Dialectology as a branch of linguistics, its aim and basic notions. A dialect vs a variant.
- •40. Standard English: characteristic features and the problem of definition.
- •41. Local dialects in the British Isles. Scottish English. Irish English.
- •Variants
- •42. Characteristic features of the American English lexicon.
- •43. Lexicography as a branch of linguistics, its aim, basic notions and main problems.
- •44. Typology of dictionaries.
- •45. Important milestones in the history of British and American lexicography.
42. Characteristic features of the American English lexicon.
a limited vocabulary;
a greater use of paraphrase and metaphor;
a simplified phonological system;
a reduced morphology and syntax.
43. Lexicography as a branch of linguistics, its aim, basic notions and main problems.
Lexicography is a branch of linguistics concerned with the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. The term lexicography was coined in English 1680.
The roots of British lexicography go back to the 7th-8th c. when Latin was a means of international communication in Europe and the language of the most important religious texts. To facilitate their reading and translation, English monks produced glosses based on interlinear translations from Latin. These texts were supplemented with lists of Latin-English equivalents – glossaries (L. glossarium ‘collection of glosses’ < Gk. glossa ‘obsolete or foreign word’) – lists at the back of a book of difficult and unusual words and expressions with explanations of their meanings used in the text. The term is also used to denote a list or dictionary of special terms found in a particular field of study or area of usage, with accompanying definitions, e.g. Glossary of Linguistic Terms.
Basic Notions of Lexicography
Dictionary (Lat. dictionarium ‘collection of words and phrases’ < L. dictio ‘word’) is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another.
First dictionaries appeared in 2300 BC in the Akkadian Empire. The earliest modern European dictionaries were bilingual. The earliest in the English language were glossaries of French, Italian or Latin words along with definitions of the foreign words in English.
The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was written by the English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604 – A table alphabeticall conteyning and teaching the true writing, and vnderstanding of hard vsuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French, &c. It was a 120-page volume explaining about 3,000 words. Yet this early effort, as well as the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definite.
Main Problems of Lexicography
The problems of lexicography are connected with the selection of headwords, the number, the structure and contents of the dictionary entry.
Selection of headwords:
-the problem of whether a general descriptive dictionary, whether unilingual or bilingual, should give the historical information about a word;
-selection between scientific and technical terms;
-it is debatable whether a unilingual explanatory dictionary should try to cover all the words of the language, including neologisms, nonce-words, slang etc.;
-the problem of whether the selected units have the right to a separate entry (syntagmatic boundaries of the word) and which are to be included under one common headword (paradigmatic boundaries of the word).
The problem of definitions in a unilingual dictionary:
-a linguistic definition is concerned with words as speech material;
-n encyclopaedic definition is concerned with things for which the words are names.
The structure and contents of a dictionary entry depends on the type of the dictionary.
1. diachronic dictionary reflects the development of the vocabulary by recording the history of form and meaning for every word registered. In such dictionaries the entry has the following specific features:
-the arrangement of meanings is chronological;
-the etymology of the word is given an exhaustive treatment;
-the history of the word’s forms and meanings is illustrated by quotations from the works of different periods;
-meanings and quotations are accompanied by dates indicating the time of the word’s first or last registration.
2A synchronic dictionary is concerned with present-day form, meaning and usage of words. Some synchronic dictionaries are at the same time historical when they represent the vocabulary of separate historical periods without tracing the evolution of the language, e.g. Middle English Dictionary.