- •What Is Lexicology?
- •1.1 Definition of Lexicology
- •The Structure of the English Lexicon
- •2.1 Words and their Associative Fields
- •2.2 Word Families
- •2.3 Word Classes
- •2.4 Semantic, or Lexical, Fields
- •Synchronistic and Diachronistic Approaches to the Structure of the English Vocabulary
- •2.2 English Lexemes of Native Origin
- •2.3 Borrowed, or Loan, Lexemes
- •2.3.1 Borrowings from Latin
- •2.3.2 Scandinavian Borrowings
- •2.3.3 Loans from French
- •2.3.4 Spanish Loanwords
- •2.3.5 Borrowings from Italian
- •2.3.6 Loans from Dutch and German
- •2.3.7 Borrowings from Slavic, Hungarian, and Turkish
- •Classification of Borrowings according to the Degree of Assimilation
- •2.5 Etymological Doublets
- •2.6 Folk Etymology
- •The Word
- •3.1 Defining a Word
- •3.2 Morphological Structure of Words
- •3.2.1 Word Structure
- •3.2.2 Stems
- •3.2.3 Types of affixes
- •3.2.4 Derivational and Functional Affixes
- •Inflection of Derived or Compound Words
- •3.3 Cliticization
- •3.4 Internal Change/Alternation
- •3.5 Suppletion
- •3.6 Reduplication
- •Word Formation
- •4.1 Derivation
- •V ? Athe act of X’ing
- •V ? Vnot X
- •4.1.1 Types of Derivational Affixes
- •4.3.1 Classification of Compounds
- •4.3.2 Endocentric and Exocentric Compounds
- •4.4 Reduplication
- •4.5 Conversion
- •4.6 Blending
- •4.7 Backformation
- •4.8 Clipping
- •4.9 Acronyms and Abbreviations
- •Semantics
- •5.1 Types of Semantics
- •5.2 Linguistic Sign
- •5.3 Denotation
- •5.4 Connotation
- •5.5 Reference
- •5.6 Sense
- •5.7 Semantics and Change of Meaning
- •5.9 Sense Relations
- •5.9.1 Similarity of Sense
- •5.9.2 Oppositeness of Sense
- •5.9.3 Meaning Categories: Hyponymy
- •5.9.4 Meronymy
- •5.9.5 Related Meanings
- •5.9.6 Different Meanings: Homonymy
- •Homonyms
- •Homophones homographs homonyms proper
- •Phraseology
- •6.1 Definition
- •6.2 Classification of phraseologisms
- •6.3 The Origin of Phraseological Units
- •6.3.1 Native Phraseological Units
- •6.3.2 Borrowed Phraseological Units
- •6.4 Semantic Structure of Phraseological Units
- •6.5 Semantic Relations of Phraseological Units
- •6.5.1 Similarity of Sense
- •6.5.2 Oppositeness of Sense
- •Major Differences between American and British variants of the English Language
- •7.1 Differences in Vocabulary
- •7.2 Spelling Differences
- •7.3 Grammatical Differences
- •Lexicography
- •I need to add Types of Dictionaries
5.1 Types of Semantics
Stephen Ullman classifies semantics into lexical semantics which concentrates on word-meanings (p.33) and syntactic semantics which deals with “the meaning of parts of speech, parts of the sentence, and other grammatical categories” (p.34). He also identifies descriptive and historical semantics. Descriptive semantics is the science of meaning, and diachronistic semantics is the science of changes of meaning (p.171).
Howard Jackson gives several types of semantics: pragmatic, sentence, lexical, philosophical, and linguistic. He states that pragmatic semantics studies the meaning of the utterances in the context; sentence semantics studies the meanings of the sentences and meaning relations between the sentences; lexical semantics is the study of meaning in relation to words, including both the meaning relations that words contract with each other and the meaning relations that words have with extra-linguistic reality; philosophical semantics is concerned with logical properties of language; and linguistic semantics deals with all aspects of meaning in natural languages, from meaning of utterances in context to the meanings of sounds in syllables (pp.246-247). Georgios Tserdanelis and Wai Yi Peggy Wong add compositional semantics as well, under which they understand “the way the meanings of the whole sentences are determined from the meanings of the words in them by the syntactic structure of the sentence” (2004, p.216). Lexical semantics deals with a lexicon or a group of words in a language. While lexical semantics deals with individual words, compositional semantics deals with the meanings of phrases and sentences.
5.2 Linguistic Sign
Before we analyze the most common terms associated with the meaning of lexemes, we will first define linguistic sign. In the Course in General Linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure (1959) states that “the linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image” (p. 66). He calls the combination of a concept and a sound-image a sign. He renames concept as signified and sound-image as signifier. Since a lexeme is a linguistic sign, it has a form and meaning, so when dealing with words we can focus either on the form or on the meaning. Saussure (1916) made the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign one of the most basic principles of the theory: “The bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary” (p. 67). The term arbitrary may be explained in the example of the word tree. None of the forms of tree in other languages signals distinctive properties of it: Baum (German), derevo (Russian), a?aз (Turkish), strom (Czech), puu (Estonian), l'arbre (French), and fa (Hungarian). Saussure states that “each language has, not only its own stock of forms, but also its own system of meanings” (Lyons, 1987, p. 102). The purpose of this book is not an examination of all the aspects of meaning but rather discussion of the terms denotation, connotation, reference, and sense.
5.3 Denotation
The English lexicon is so vast and varied that clear categories of meaning are, at times, elusive. Lexemes may have denotative and connotative meanings. Denotation is “objective (dictionary) relationship between a lexeme and the reality to which it refers to” (Crystal, 2005, p. 170). The denotation of the lexeme spring corresponds to the season between winter and summer, regardless whether it is sunny, pleasant, or rainy. The denotation of the word cat corresponds to the set of felines. Further, we need to clarify the distinction between denotation and reference. Lyons defines the denotation of a lexeme as “the relationship that holds between that lexeme and persons, things, places, properties, processes and activities external to the language system” (1977, p.207). It is practically impossible to give the examples of denotation because denotation “holds independently of particular occasions of utterance” (p.208). If we say book, there is no particular reference to that book. It is something general. Reference is used to indicate the actual persons, things, places, properties, processes, and activities being referred to in a particular situation. By means of reference, a speaker or writer indicates which things, phenomena, and persons are being talked about.