- •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. Methods of lexicological analysis: componential analysis, ic – uc analysis, contrastive analysis etc.
- •Immediate constituents analysis
- •3. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.
- •4. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.
- •5. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.
- •6. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.
- •7. Latin borrowings. Features of Latin borrowings. Periods of borrowings from Latin.
- •8. Celtic elements (5-6 c. Ad) in the English vocabulary.
- •9. Scandinavian loan-words(8-11 c.Ad) in Modern English.
- •10. French elements in the English vocabulary. Features of French borrowings. Periods of borrowings from French.
- •11. Greek borrowings. Features of Greek borrowings.
- •12. Morphology as a branch of linguistics. The morphemic structure of English words. Typology of morphemes. Structural and semantic classifications of morphemes.
- •Ivan Alexandrovich
- •Inflections
- •13. The derivative structure of English words. The distinction between morphological stem and derivational base. Morphemic analysis vs derivational analysis.
- •14. General description of word-formation in Modern English. Productive and nonproductive means.
- •15. Affixation. Classifications of affixes. Productive and non-productive affixes, dead and living affixes.
- •16. Word-composition. Types of compound words. Criteria for their classification.
- •17. Shortening. Types of shortening.
- •18. Conversion. Different views on conversion. Semantic relations within converted pairs.
- •19. Non-productive ways of word-formation in Modern English.
- •20. Semantics as a branch of linguistics, its aims and basic notions. Semasiological and onomasiological perspectives of the English lexicon.
- •21. Approaches to the definition of word meaning: functional, referential and others.
- •22. Types and aspects of word meaning.
- •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.
- •43.The structure and contents of a dictionary entry depends on the type of the dictionary.
- •44. Typology of dictionaries.
- •45. Important milestones in the history of British and American lexicography.
3. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.
the native stock of words (25-30%) – words known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period; high frequency value – 80% of the 500 most frequent words;
monosyllabic structure: eye, red, head, sun, door, help etc;
a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency: to raise / bend / bow / shake / bury one’s head; clear / cool / level head; above one’s head; in one’s head etc.
developed polysemy: head, n. 1) the part of the body; 2) the mind or brain; 3) ability; 4) a leader; 5) side of the coin etc.
great word-building power: headed, heading, headache, header, headline, to behead etc;
enter a number of set expressions: heads or tails; head over heels, to keep one’s head above water, from head to toe etc.
Words of Indo-European stock have cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages:
-terms of kinship: mother, father, son, brother, daughter etc.;
Words of Common Germanic stock have cognates only in other Germanic languages, e.g. Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, etc. Their areal distribution reflects the contacts between the Germanic tribes at the beginning of their migration:
-common nouns: hand, sand, earth, sheep, fox, bath, child, winter, rain, ice, house, life, bridge, rest etc.;
-common verbs: make, starve, sing, come, send, learn, can, buy, drive, burn, bake, keep, meet etc.;
-common adjectives: green, brown, cold, dead, deaf, deep, damp, thick, high, old, small etc.;
-adverbs: behind, much, still, well, yet etc.;
4. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.
the borrowed stock of words (70-75%) – words taken over from other languages and modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm or / and meaning according to the standards of the English language.
Motivation for borrowing a word:
-to fill a gap in the vocabulary, e.g. butter (Latin), yogurt (Turkish), whisky (Scottish Gaelic), tomato (Nahuatl /’na: watl/ - the Aztec language), sauna ( /’so:nə/ Finnish) etc.;
-to represent the same concept in a new aspect, supplying a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring, e.g. cordial (Latin), a desire (French), to admire (Latin) etc.;
-prestige, e.g. picture, courage, army, treasure, language, female, face, fool, beef (Norman French
Translation loans (calques) are compound words or expressions formed from the elements existing in the English language according to the patterns of the source language; such loans came in handy when original words were hard to reproduce.
G Umgebung – E environment
Modern English names of the days of the week were also created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations and are the earliest examples of calques
5. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.
Etymological doublets are pairs of words of the same language which share the same etymological basis but have entered the language through different routes; often diverge in currect meaning and usage. They may result from:
-shortening: defence – fence, appeal – peal; history – story;
-stressed and unstressed position of one and the same word: of – off, to – too;
-borrowing the word from the same language twice, but in different periods: jail (Par. Fr.) – goal (Norm. Fr.);
-development of the word in different dialects or languages that are historically descended from the same root: to chase (Northern Fr) – to catch (Central Fr); chart – card; channel (Fr) – canal (L); senior (L) – sir (Fr).
Hybrids are words made up of elements from two or more different languages.
Patterns of hybrids:
native affix (prefix or suffix) + borrowed stem: befool, besiege, beguile; graceful, falsehood, rapidly;
borrowed affix + native stem: drinkable, starvation, wordage; recall, embody, mishandle;
borrowed affix + borrowed stem + native affix: discovering;
native affix + native stem + borrowed affix: unbreakable.