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49 Write about Lexicology, types of Lexicology and object of investigation.

Lexicology (from Greek origin lexis – “word” and logos – “science”) is the brunch or part of linguistics which deals with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of words as the main units of language. The term “vocabulary” is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language possesses. The literal meaning of the term Lexicology is “the science of the word”. The basic task of Lexicology is the study and systematic description of the vocabulary of some particular language in respect to its origin, development and current use. In other words, Lexicology is concerned with words and word-combinations (or word-groups), phraseological units and morphemes which make up words.

Lexicology must be separated from the rest of the linguistic disciplines. In contrast with phonology, morphology and syntax, it is essentially a socio-linguistic discipline. Lexicology, then is the part of linguistics which is concerned with the “lexis” or the study and analysis of words.

The object of Lexicology is a word and word-combinations or word-groups. When we study Lexicology we should research the word and word-combinations in different sides, for example, its origin, meaning or semantics, development, multilevel structure.

As the main object a word has many functions. The term “word” denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. It is the smallest unit of a language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word is a language unit has a particular sound complex, has a particular meaning, is capable of a particular grammatical employment and able to form a sentence by itself.

A word is a unit of speech which serves the purposes of human communication.

The definition of a word is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the simplest word has many different aspects. Being the central element of any language system the word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax, morphology and also for some other sciences that have to deal with language and speech, such as philosophy, psychology and probably quite a few other branches of knowledge. Any definition that was given to word is conditioned by the aims and interests of its author.

The complete correct definition of the word is a speech unit used for the purposes of communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, belong to grammatical employment and characterised by formal and semantic unity.

The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between the external and internal structures of the word.

On Lexicology course we analyze the word according to three structures: the morphological, semantic, stylistic. There are several linguistic functions of a word: nominative, significative (polysemantic), expressive, communicative, descriptive, pragmatic.

The types of Lexicology

Lexicology is divided into General, Special, within Special Historical and Descriptive, Comparative and Contrastive types.

1) General Lexicology is part of General Linguistics, it is concerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.

2) Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particular language, i.e. the study and description of its vocabulary and units, primarily words as the main units of language. It goes without saying that every special lexicology has its own inner branches as historical and descriptive lexicology.

Historical (Diachronic) Lexicology is a branch of linguistics discusses the origin of different words, their change and development, their semantic relations and the development of their sound form and meaning. (Greek dia-“through” and chronos – “time”)

Descriptive (Synchronic) Lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the vocabulary at a definite stage of its development. The Descriptive Lexicology of the English language deals with the English word in its morphological and semantic structures, investigating the interdependence between these two aspects. (Greek syn-“together, with” and chronos – “time”)

3) Comparative and Contrastive Lexicology aims to study the correlation between the vocabularies of two or more languages and find out the correspondences between the vocabulary units of the languages under comparison. The difference between the terms comparative and contrastive is that comparative methods give the similarities and differences of vocabulary of related languages and contrastive aims to investigate the vocabulary of non-related languages.

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