Module # 2 Lecture # 5. Theme: “English vocabulary as a system” (2 hours)

Subtheme # 1: “Non-semantic grouping”

Thesis:

The majority of linguists nowadays agree that the vocabulary should be studied as a system. Why, because we should make different functions, structures so as to be fit for a new use, a new environment or a new situation. Being as a system the vocabulary is constantly adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communications and cultural and other needs. The speaker chooses from the existing stock of words such words that in his opinion can adequately express his thought and feeling. To find the expression he needs he coins a new one, but here we should take into account the influence of extra-linguistic reality. That is why when we speak about the English vocabulary as a system we should differentiate different types of lexical groupings: 1) non-semantic grouping; 2) morphological grouping; 3) lexico-grammatical grouping; 4) emotionally neutral and emotionally coloured grouping; 5) stylistically neutral and stylistically coloured grouping.

Non-semantic grouping

1) The simplest, most obvious non-semantic grouping, extensively used in all branches of applied linguistics is the alphabetical organization of written words, as represented in most dictionaries. The theoretical value of alphabetical grouping is almost null, because no other property of the word can be predicted from the letter or letters the word begins with. Only in exceptional cases some additional information can be obtained on a different the etymological level. F: words beginning with W are mostly native, and those beginning with ph borrowed from Greek. But such cases are few.

2) The second type of non-semantic grouping of written words is the rhyming, here the words are arranged according to similarity of their ends. These dictionaries are intended for poets. They may be also used, if but rarely by teachers when making up lists of words with similar suffixes.

3) A third type of non-semantic grouping of written words is based on their length, the number of letters they contain. This type, worked out with some addititional details, may prove useful for communication engineering, for automatic reading of messages and correction of mistakes.

4) A fourth type of non-semantic grouping of written words is for isolated lexical units is based on a statistical analysis of their frequency. Frequency counts carried out for practical purposes of lexicography, language teaching and enable the lexicographer to attach to each word a number showing its importance and range of occurrence.

(the alphabetical organization, rhyming, length of written words, frequency of lexical items)

Literature:

1. G.B. Antrushina “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1999

2. I.V. Arnold “The English Word”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1973, 1989

3. S.I. Ginsburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1979

4. R.Z. Ginaburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1973

5. T.I. Arbekova “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1977

Additional literature:

1. A.V. Minajeva, B.K.Trnolieva “Modern English Lexicology”, 1989

2. E.M. Mednikova “Seminars in English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1978

Internet sources:

1. file: // A: // lexicographical problems.htm.

2. file: // A: // ling. Dictionaries.htm.

3. www.google.com.

4. www.yahoo.com

5. www.rambler.com

6. ftp: // ftp.clres.com/pub/clres/lexicology/primer.txt-2003

7. file: // A: / Lora. Doc/ from.Latin.htm-2003

8. Electronic book of the university:

Электронный учебник по лексикологии английского языка.

Составители: Сыздыкова Г.Н., Булатова С.М. Алматы, 2001

9. Multimedia lectures and seminars compiled by the instructor of English lexicology: senior teacher Asanova G.S.

Problematic questions:

- Why should the vocabulary be studied as a system?

- What are the theoretical and practical values of different groupings?

- What properties of the word can be predicted by the alphabetical organization, the rhyming, the length, the frequency?

Subtheme # 2: “Morphological grouping”

Thesis:

Morphological grouping

1) Root or morpheme words. Their stem contains one free morpheme. E.g. dog, hand

2) Derivatives. They contain no less than two morphemes of which at least one is bound. E.g. handy, handful, dogged, doggedly

3) Compound words. They consist of not less than two free morphemes. E.g. dog-cheap (very cheap), dog-days (hottest part of the year), handball, handbook

4) Compound derivatives. They consist of not less than two free morphemes and suffix. E.g. dog-legged (crooked or bent like a dog’s hind leg), left-handed

5) Word-families. The words are grouped according to the root morpheme or according to a common suffix or prefix. E.g. hand, handy, handicraft, handbag, handful, handmade, handsome; gladsome, handsome, tiresome, troublesome, wholesome, winsome

6) Notional words. They can stand alone and yet have meaning and form a complete utterance. They can name different objects of reality, the qualities of these objects and actions or the process in which they take part. They can also express the attitude of the speaker towards reality.

7) Form or functional words. They are empty words or auxiliaries are lexical units which are called words, although they do not confirm to the definition of the word because they are used only in combination with notional words or in reference to them. This group comprises auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and relative adverbs.

8) Linguist Charles Fries gives four classes of morphological grouping. Class I – denotes N words, all nouns, some pronouns and numerals occupying the same positions. Class II – denotes V words, verbs with the exception of the auxiliaries. Class III – denotes A words, adjectives, some pronouns and numerals used attributively. Class IV – denotes D words, adverbs and some noun phrases.

Literature:

1. G.B. Antrushina “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1999

2. I.V. Arnold “The English Word”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1973, 1989

3. S.I. Ginsburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1979

4. R.Z. Ginaburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1973

5. T.I. Arbekova “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1977

Additional literature:

1. A.V. Minajeva, B.K.Trnolieva “Modern English Lexicology”, 1989

2. E.M. Mednikova “Seminars in English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1978

Internet sources:

1. file: // A: // lexicographical problems.htm.

2. file: // A: // ling. Dictionaries.htm.

3. www.google.com.

4. www.yahoo.com

5. www.rambler.com

6. ftp: // ftp.clres.com/pub/clres/lexicology/primer.txt-2003

7. file: // A: / Lora. Doc/ from.Latin.htm-2003

8. Electronic book of the university:

Электронный учебник по лексикологии английского языка.

Составители: Сыздыкова Г.Н., Булатова С.М. Алматы, 2001

9. Multimedia lectures and seminars compiled by the instructor of English lexicology: senior teacher Asanova G.S.

Problematic questions:

- Why the morphological grouping is the main or central in vocabulary?

- What are the distinguishing differences between notional and functional words?

Subtheme # 3: “Lexico-grammatical grouping”

Thesis:

Lexico-grammatical grouping

By this group we understand a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, a common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possibly a characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning. This group is also observed or characterised by generalization or specialization of meanings of the words and by a high percentage of emotionally coloured ways. F: baby-a person who behaves like a baby, witch-an ugly and unkind woman, or metaphorical expressive names for people possessing qualities rightly or wrongly attributed to the respective animals: cow, fox, ass, bitch

Within the lexico-grammatical grouping there are two types of vocabulary. The basis of grouping is not only linguistic but also extra-linguistic; the words are associated because the things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality. These words constitute quite definitely articulated spheres held together by differences, oppositions, distinctive values. F: the adjectives are subdivided into qualitative and relative. Adjectives characterise a substance for shape, colour, physical or mental qualities, speed, size.

1) Thematic group. Words such as names for parts of the human body, colour terms, military terms.

2) Ideographic group. Words belonging to different parts of speech , here the grammatical meaning is not taken into consideration, words and expressions are classed not according to their lexico-grammatical meaning, but according to their signification, to the system of logical notions. F: light (n)- bright (adj)-shine (v)

These two groups resemble the theory of semantic fields. Jost Trier German linguist tries to investigate the semantic field on the basis of Saussure’s theory of language as a synchronous system of networks held together by differences, oppositions and distinctive values. His definition to linguistic, conceptual or lexical field is “fields are linguistic realities existing between single words and the total vocabulary’; they are parts of a whole and resemble words in that way they combine some higher unit, and the vocabulary in that they resolve themselves into smaller units”. But later the notion semantic or lexical field is closely connected with the Moscow structuralist group. From their point of view, the detailed syntactic properties of the word are its meaning. Sharply defined extensive semantic fields are found in terminological systems. We shall call a term any word or word-group used to name a notion characteristic of some special field of knowledge, industry or culture. There are several controversial problems in the field of terminology.

1) whether a term loses its terminological status when it comes nto common usage. Under the circumstances numerous terms pass into general usage without losing connection with their specific fields.

2) there are linguists in whose opinion terms are only those words which have retained their exclusiveness and are not known or recognized outside their specific sphere.

3) according to some linguists, an ideal term should be monosemantic. Polysemantic terms may lead to misunderstanding and that is a serious problem in professional communication.

Being mostly independent of the context a term can have no contextual meaning whatever. The only meaning possible is a denotational free meaning. No emotional colouring or evaluation are possible when the term is used within its proper sphere. A term can obtain a figurative or emotionally coloured meaning only when takes out of its sphere and used in literary or colloquial speech.

Literature:

1. G.B. Antrushina “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1999

2. I.V. Arnold “The English Word”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1973, 1989

3. S.I. Ginsburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1979

4. R.Z. Ginaburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1973

5. T.I. Arbekova “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1977

Additional literature:

1. A.V. Minajeva, B.K.Trnolieva “Modern English Lexicology”, 1989

2. E.M. Mednikova “Seminars in English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1978

Internet sources:

1. file: // A: // lexicographical problems.htm.

2. file: // A: // ling. Dictionaries.htm.

3. www.google.com.

4. www.yahoo.com

5. www.rambler.com

6. ftp: // ftp.clres.com/pub/clres/lexicology/primer.txt-2003

7. file: // A: / Lora. Doc/ from.Latin.htm-2003

8. Electronic book of the university:

Электронный учебник по лексикологии английского языка.

Составители: Сыздыкова Г.Н., Булатова С.М. Алматы, 2001

9. Multimedia lectures and seminars compiled by the instructor of English lexicology: senior teacher Asanova G.S.

Problematic questions:

- What are the characteristic features of semantic field?

- What are controversial problems in the field of terminology?

- What differentiates thematic and ideographic groups?

Subtheme # 4: “Emotionally neutral and emotionally colored grouping”

Thesis:

Emotionally neutral and emotionally coloured (marked) grouping.

Emotionally coloured words are contrasted to the emotionally neutral ones. The words of this type express notions but do not say anything about the state of the speaker or his mood. F: copy, report, reach, say, well are all emotionally neutral. Many words are neutral in their direct meaning and emotional under special conditions of context.

1) Interjections. They express emotions without naming them. F: Alas! Heavens! Hell! Nonsense! Pooh! Some of them are primary interjections, others are derived from other parts of speech. The second type of emotional words are composed with the help of special morphemes or patterns or combinations. F: daddy, darling, deari, blackie, oldie; combinations: old chap, old fellow, little chap, poor devil; semi-affix – monger: panicmonger, scandalmonger, scaremonger. To express emotion the utterance must be smth not quite ordinary. Very often it is a kind of echo-conversion, nonce-words. Emotional nonce-words are created in angry back-chat by transforming whole phrases into verbs to express irritation. F: Now well! Don’t now-well me! How on earth? Don’t begin how-on-earthing! Oh, bloody hell! You don’t bloody hell me!

2) Intensifiers. They convey special intensities to what is said, they indicate the special importance of the thing expressed. The simplest and most often used of these are such words as ever, even, all, so. There is also a big group of intensifying adverbs: awfully, dreadfully, frightfully, marvellously, terribly, tremendously and others.

3) Evaluatory words. They are words when used in a sentence pass a value judgement differ from other emotional words in that they can not only indicate the presence of emotion but specify it. When using the evaluatory words, the speaker is not different to the fact but expresses his scorn, irony or disgust. Usually the names of animals when used metaphorically have a strong evaluatory force. F: silly ass, parrot, pig, snake, wolf.

The pattern a+(A)+N1+of+a+N2 is often used to express emotion and emphasis. F: a devil of a time, a hell of a success, an absolute jewel of a report, a mere button of a nose.

4) Emotive speech. Speech has numerous functions as to make statements, to express the speaker’s attitude to what he is talking about, his emotional reaction, his relations with his audience. He may wish to express his approval or disapproval.

Literature:

1. G.B. Antrushina “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1999

2. I.V. Arnold “The English Word”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1973, 1989

3. S.I. Ginsburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M. 1979

4. R.Z. Ginaburg “A Course in Modern English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1973

5. T.I. Arbekova “English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1977

Additional literature:

1. A.V. Minajeva, B.K.Trnolieva “Modern English Lexicology”, 1989

2. E.M. Mednikova “Seminars in English Lexicology”, “Vyssaja skola”, M.1978

Internet sources:

1. file: // A: // lexicographical problems.htm.

2. file: // A: // ling. Dictionaries.htm.

3. www.google.com.

4. www.yahoo.com

5. www.rambler.com

6. ftp: // ftp.clres.com/pub/clres/lexicology/primer.txt-2003

7. file: // A: / Lora. Doc/ from.Latin.htm-2003

8. Electronic book of the university:

Электронный учебник по лексикологии английского языка.

Составители: Сыздыкова Г.Н., Булатова С.М. Алматы, 2001

9. Multimedia lectures and seminars compiled by the instructor of English lexicology: senior teacher Asanova G.S.

Problematic questions:

- What are the distinguishing criteria between neutral and colored layers of vocabulary?

- What words often used to express emotions?

- What is the emotive speech and stylistic value?

Subtheme # 5: “Stylistically neutral and stylistically colored grouping”

Thesis:

Stylistically neutral and stylistically coloured (marked) group.

The extralinguistic factors influencing usage and development of language constitute one of the critical problems of linguistics. They are dealt with in sociolinguistics and linguostylistics. Sociolinguistics is interested in variations in language depending on social, educational, sex, age in social evaluation of speech habits in correlation of linguistic facts with the life and attitudes of the speaking community. Lingustylistics studies the correlation of speech situation and linguistic means used by speakers and different functional styles of speech and language. On various occasions a speaker makes use of different combinations open him in the vocabulary, parts of the words he uses will be independent of the sphere of communication. There are words equally fit to be used in a lecture, a poem or when speaking to a child. These are said to be stylistically neutral. The rest may consist of stylistically marked words, they not only does the speaker’s entire experience determine the words he knows and uses but also his knowledge of his audience and the relationship in which he stands to them governs his choice of words. Stylistically coloured or marked are words suitable only on certain definite occasions in specific spheres and suggestive of specific conditions of communication. These words is divided into formal and informal (also called colloquial) English or in other words stylistic characteristics of words we call functional style. The term functional style is generally accepted in modern linguistics. Professor I.V.Arnold defines it as a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere of communication. When placed in different situations, people choose different kinds of words and structures to express their thoughts.