- •English lexicology a course of lectures
- •Introduction
- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linquistics
- •2. Kinds of lexicology
- •3. Links of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics
- •Lecture 1. Word-meaning
- •1.1. Semantics as a branch of Lexicology studing meanihg
- •1.2. Approaches to the study of meaning
- •1.2.1. Referential approach to meaning
- •1.2.2. Functional approach to meaning
- •1.3. Types of word-meaning
- •1.3.1. Grammatical meaning
- •1.3.2. Lexical meaning
- •1.3.3. Part-of-speech meaning
- •1.3.4 Denotative, significative and connotative meanings
- •1.3.5. Connotative meaning
- •1.3.6. Emotive charge and sociostylistic reference of words
- •1.3.7. Pragmatic meaning
- •1.4. Types of morpheme-meaning
- •1.4.1. Lexical meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.2. Functional or part-of-speech meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.3. Differential meaning of morphemes
- •1.4.4. Distributional meaning of morphemes
- •1.5.2.2. Morphological motivation of words
- •1.5.2.3. Semantic motivation of words
- •Lecture 2. Change of Meaning
- •2.1. Causes of semantic change
- •2.1.1. Extralinguistic causes of semantic change
- •2.1.2. Linguistic causes of semantic change
- •2.2. Nature, results and types of semantic change
- •2.2.1. Similarity of meanings or metaphor
- •2.2.2. Contiguity of meanings or metonymy
- •2.2.3. Types of semantic change without the transfer of name
- •2.2.3.1. Specialization and generalization of meanings
- •2.2.3.2. Amelioration and pejoration of meaning
- •2.2.3.3. Hyperbole, litotes, irony, euphemism, disphemism, taboo
- •Lecture 3. Polysemy
- •3.1. The notion of polysemy
- •3.2. Approaches to polysemy
- •3.2.1. Diachronic approach to polysemy
- •3.2.2. Synchronic approach to polysemy
- •Lecture 4. Homonymy
- •4.1. Definition of homonymy
- •4.2. Homonymy of words and homonymy of word-forms
- •4.3. Classification of homonyms
- •4.3.1. Full and partial homonymy
- •4.3.2. Classification of homonyms by the type of meaning
- •4.3.3. Classification of homonyms by the sound-form, graphic form and meaning
- •4.4. Sources of homonymy
- •4.4.1. Diverging meaning development
- •4.4.2. Converging sound development
- •4.5. Differentiation of polysemy and homonymy
- •Lecture 5. Word-meaning in syntagmatics and paradigmatics
- •5.1. Definition of syntagmatics and paradigmatics
- •5.2. Conceptual or semantic fields
- •5.3. Hyponimic (or hierarchical) structures and lexico-semantic groups
- •5.4. Synonymy and antonymy
- •Lecture 6. Word-structure
- •6.1. Segmentation of words into morphemes
- •6.2. Classification of morphemes
- •6.3. Procedure of morphemic analysis
- •6.4. Morphemic types of words
- •6.5. Derivative structure of words
- •7.3. Composition or compounding
- •7.4. Conversion
- •7.5. Shortening and abbreviation
- •7.5.1. Shortening or contraction
- •7.5.2. Abbreviation
- •7.6. Back-formation or reversion
- •8. Word-groups and phraseological units
- •8.1. Lexical and grammatical valency
- •8.2. Definition of phraseological units
- •8.3. Classification of phraseological units
- •Literature
- •Contents
- •Introduction 1
6.2. Classification of morphemes
Morphemes may be classified from the semantic and structural points of view.
Semantically morphemes fall into two classes: root-morphemes and non-root morphemes.
The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of a word. It has its individual lexical meaning and all other types of meaning proper to a morpheme except the part-of-speech meaning. The root-morpheme is isolated as the morpheme common to a set of words making up a word-cluster. E.g.: to read, reader, reading.
Non-root morphemes include inflectional morphemes or inflections and affixational morphemes or affixes.
Inflections carry only grammatical meaning and are used to form word-forms. They are the object of morphology.
Affixes possess a part-of-speech meaning and a generalized lexical meaning and are used for building word-stems and word-formation. The stem is the part of a word that remains unchanged throughout its paradigm. Lexicology is concerned only with affixational morphemes.
By the position within the word-structure affixes are subdivided into prefixes, suffixes and infixes.
A prefix precedes the root-morpheme; e.g.: discharge.
A suffix follows the root-morpheme; e.g.: reader.
An infix is inside the root-morpheme; e.g.: stand as compared to stood.
Structurally morphemes fall into three types: free morphemes, bound morphemes and semi-free or semi-bound morphemes.
A free morpheme is defined as the one that coincides with the stem of a word-form. Generally root-morphemes are free morphemes; e.g.: reader, friendship, shipwreck.
A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word. All affixes and unique and pseudo-roots are bound morphemes; e.g.: goodness, discharge, friendship, theory, deceive.
Semi-free or semi-bound morphemes can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free morpheme. E.g.: the morphemes well and half occur as free morphemes that coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances like sleep well, half an hour. But they occur as bound morphemes in words like well-known, half-done.
There are two more types of morphemes: combining forms and semi-suffixes.
Bound root-morphemes of Latin and Greek origin are called combining forms. E.g.: telephone, telegraph and microphone, photograph.
A semi-suffix is termed as a word-building element formally coinciding with the stem or word-form of a free separate word but acting as an affix. E.g.: cabman, bar-happy.
6.3. Procedure of morphemic analysis
Segmentable words can allow of the analysis of their word-structure on the morphemic level.
The operation of breaking a segmentable word into the constituent morphemes is referred to as morphological or morphemic analysis, or the analysis of word-structure on the morphemic level.
The morphemic analysis is aimed at splitting a segmentable word into its constituent morphemes and determining their number, types and arrangement.
The procedure employed for segmenting words into constituent morphemes is the method of Immediate (ICs) and Ultimate Constituents (UCs). This method is based on a binary principle. Each stage of the procedure involves two components into which the word immediately breaks. At each stage these two components are referred to as the ICs. Each IC at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into two smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes which are referred to as the UCs.
The analysis of the morphemic composition of words defines the ultimate meaningful constituents, their number, types, sequence and arrangement within the word-structure.