- •Theme 1: Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics. The Word as the Basic Unit of Lexicology
- •Theme 2: English Etymology
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 3: Word-building in Modern English
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 4: Lexical Meaning as a Linguistic Category. Development of Meaning
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Explain the basis for the following jokes:
- •3. Specify lexical and grammatical meaning of the following words:
- •4.Identify the denotative and connotative elements of the meanings in the following pairs of words:
- •5.Define the type of transference which has taken place:
- •6.Trace the process of narrowing of meaning in the words:
- •Theme 5: Semantic Relations of Words and Structure of the English Lexicon
- •Comment on the terms:
- •2.Write out from a dictionary all the meanings of the following words. Comment on the semantic structure of the words:
- •3.Single out the denotative and connotative components of meaning of the synonyms in the following examples:
- •Theme 6: English Phraseology
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •6. Give Russian equivalents of the phraseological units. Memorize them
- •8.Complete the following sentences, using the phraseological units given in the list below. Translate them into Russian.
- •10.Choose the idiom. Choose the word or phrase which best completes each sentence.
- •11.Complete the paired phraseological units in the sentences below.
- •Theme 7: Stylistic classification of English Vocabulary
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •7.The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to informal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary:
- •8.Compose the following brief situations. Your language and style should suit both the subject and the situation:
- •Theme 8: American English
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •2.Find:
- •3.Explain the differences in the meanings of the following words in American and British English:
- •4.Identify the etymology of the following words:
- •5.Say which of the two words is American and which is British. Translate the sentences into Russian:
- •6.Translate into English giving two variants – British and American:
- •7. Translate the following sentences:
Theme 1: Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics. The Word as the Basic Unit of Lexicology
Comment on the terms:
lexicology, subject of lexicology, system, vocabulary as a system, lexical units, a set-expression, language and speech, synchrony, diachrony, general/ special lexicology, contrastive lexicology, etymology, descriptive lexicology , sociolinguistics, semaciology, phraseology;
indivisibility, positional mobility, uninterruptability, phonetic variants, morphemic variants, morphological variants, lexico-semantic variants, root-morpheme, affix (suffix, prefix, infix), free/ bound morphemes, pseudo- morphemes, semi-affixes.
Establish the number and types of morphemes making up the word:
friendliness, merciless, effective, long-legged, gentleman, good-looking, ex-husband, unbutton, handrail, pocket, time-consuming, unwrapped, snowflake.
Give examples of free and bound morphemes (5 – 7 of each type).
4. Find a word with an inflection:
worker, darkness, books, rewrite.
5. Find a word with a derivational affix:
night, heartless, Ivanov’s, papers.
Find a word with two free morphemes:
unbearable, childhood, merry-go-round, first-nighter.
Find a word with two bound affixational morphemes:
kindness, snow-white, uneatable, book-keeper.
Find a word with a pseudo-morpheme:
rewrite, remain, speaker, lady-killer.
Find a word with a semi-affix:
red-hot, long-haired, self-possessed, undisputable.
In which word a root-morpheme has transformed into an affixational morpheme?
actress, friendship, question, childish.
Theme 2: English Etymology
Comment on the terms:
native component (Indo-European element, Germanic element, English Proper element), borrowed component (Celtic. Latin, Scandinavian, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch), causes of borrowings (social, linguistic), types of borrowings (transliteration, transcription, translation-loans, semantic loans, etymological doublets, international words, hybrid words), assimilation (phonetic, grammatical, semantic), degree of assimilation (complete, partial).
Identify the period of the following Latin borrowings:
wall, cheese, intelligent, candle, major, moderate, priest, school, street, cherry, music, phenomenon, nun, kitchen, plum, pear, pepper, datum, cup, wine, philosophy, method.
3. Study the map of Great Britain and write out the names of the cities and towns ending in:
a) caster (chester) (Lat. – military camp),
b) wick, Thorpe, by (Sc. - place).
4.In the given sentences find examples of Scandinavian borrowings:
1. He went on to say that he was sorry to hear that I had been ill. 2. She was wearing a long blue skirt. 3. Two eyes – eyes like winter windows, glared at him with ruthless impersonality. 4. The sun was high, the sky unclouded, the air warm with a dry fresh breeze. 5. It’s not such a bad thing to be unsure sometimes. It takes us away from rigid thinking.
5.Explain the etymology of the following words. Translate them into Russian:
coup d’etat, tete-a-tete, enfant terrible, beau monde, bon mot, persona grata, etc., e.g., a.m., p.m., sputnik, kindergarten, opera, piano, potato, tomato, czar, violin, coffee, alarm, cargo, blitzkrieg, steppe, banana, balalaika.
6. Identify the degree of assimilation of the following words:
pen, hors d’oeuvre, ballet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, gay, port, river, autumn, uncle, law, lunar, skirt, bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne.
7. State the origin of the following translation loans:
five-year plan, wonder child, masterpiece, first dancer, fellow-traveller.
8. State the origin of the following etymological doublets:
captain-chieftan, canal-channel;
shirt-skirt, shrew-screw;
gaol-jail, corpse- corps;
shadow-shade, off-of.
9. Supply the adjectives of Latin origin corresponding to the following nouns. Comment upon their stylistic characteristics:
nose, tooth, sun, hand, child, town, sea, life, youth