LECTURE 1.

LEXICOLOGY AS A LEVEL OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Questions to warm up: What is the language? Why do we speak? How do we

understand that ‘this is a table’ and ‘that is a chair?

1.1. Lexicology as a branch of Linguistics. The object and subject matter

of Lexicology.
1.2. Links with other Sciences.
1.3. The approaches to language study.
1.4. Lexical units. The word.

1.1. The term Lexicology is a Greek word composed of two morphemes:

lexis meaning ‘word, phrase’, and logos which denotes ‘learning, so literally,
Lexicology is a study of words, as well as Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax.
Lexicology may be defined as the study of lexis, understood as the stock of words
in a given language. The notion of ‘word’ is the central in the study of lexicology
and is viewed as ‘a sequence of letters bounded by spaces. Lexicology may be
defined as “ The part of Linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language
and the properties of words as the main units of language”(Arnold:9). Vocabulary
is the system formed by all the words and word equivalents that the language
possesses. ‘Lexis’ and ‘lexicon’ are synonymous terms used in the same context.
Lexicology deals with simple words in all their aspects, complex words,
compound words, the meaningful units of language (word equivalents).
Since these units are to be analyzed in respect of both their form and their
meaning, Lexicology relies on the information derived from Morphology, the
study of the forms of words and their components, and the Semantics /
semasiology, the study of meaning. The third field of particular interest in
lexicological study is etymology, the study of the origins of words. Lexicology
must not be confused with Lexicography, the compilation of dictionaries, which is
a special technique rather than a level of language study.
 1.2. Lexicology also relates to other modern sciences, such as
sociolinguistics, paralinguistics, the study of non-verbal means of communication
(gestures, facial expressions, eye-contact, postures), pragmalinguistics, concerned
with the relation of speech and its users and the influence of speech upon listeners
(Leech G., Principles of Pragmatics, 1985), cognitive linguistics, which views the
formal structures of language as reflections of general conceptual organization,
categorization principles, processing mechanisms and experiential and
environmental influences (George Lakoff, Ron Langacker and Len Talmy)
psycholinguistics, which is concerned with how the language is represented and
processed in the brain.
MORPHOLOGY is the study of morphemes in forming words. Morphemes
are the smallest meaningful units that constitute words or parts of words. They are
‘smallest’ or ‘minimal’ in the sense that they cannot be broken down further on the
basis of meaning. “Morphemes are the atoms with which words are built”
(Katamba 1994: 32). They are meaningful because we can specify the kind of
relationship they have with the extra-linguistic world. Consider the following
items: dog, person, down, walking, writer, blackbirds. Dog, person, down cannot
be analyzed further into meaningful units, while walk + ing, writ(e) + er, black +
bird + s. The items : dog, person, down, walk, ing, writ(e), er, black, bird, s are all
morphemes. Some are simple words, such as dog, down, person, others are only
parts of words such as, -ing, -s, and –er. They are minimal as they cannot be
broken down into further meaningful units and they are meaningful because we
can establish a stable relationship between each item and the non-linquistic world
of experience. E.g. the reference of dog, blackbird, writer can be explained by
pointing out or by acting out the meaning as ‘This is a dog/blackbird’; walk – show
the movement by putting one foot in front of the other; er – the doer of the action.
Morphemes that can occur alone as individual words are ‘free morphemes.
Those which can occur only with another morpheme are ‘bound’ morphemes. Any
concrete realization of the morpheme in a given utterance is called a ‘morph’.
Morphs (manifestations of morphemes and represent a specific meaning) should
not be confused with syllables, which are parts of words, isolated on the pasis of
pronunciation. An examination of a number of morphs show that two or more
morphs may vary slightly and still have the same meaning (a/an). Morphs that are
different representation of the same morpheme are referred to as allomorphs (other
form): a context – an index; a beetle – an apple, a union – an onion. Where
allomorph ‘an’ occurs, its counterpart ‘a’ cannot occur and vice versa. They are
therefore mutually exclusive and are said to be in a complementary distribution.
Distribution is a descriptive term which refers to the total set of distinct
linguistic contexts in which a given form occurs, sometimes in different
morphological forms: a battle – an apple.
Simple words such as door, knob, floor, sky are all free morphemes and
therefore morphologically unanalyzable. Complex or derived words such as
spoonful, tallboy, girlish, reanimating, sophisticatedly, writer are formed from
simpler words by some kind of morphological modification. The limiting case for
complex words as that of zero modification or conversion as in answer, call, drop,
dry, low, light.
Compound words are formed by combining of two or more words (free
morphemes) with or without morphological modification: door-knob,
cheeseburger, pound saver, offshore company.
The construction of words and parts of words and the distinction between
the different types of words are all based on morphological analysis.
SEMANTICS is generally defined as the study of meaning, whose aim is to
explain and describe the meaning in natural languages. The term Semasiology is
also in operation to denote a branch of Lexicology concerned with meaning.
Semasiology has for its subject matter not only the study of lexicon but also of
morphology, syntax and sentential semantics.
The term ‘meaning’ is used here in the ordinary, n0n-technical sense,
without reference to any particular framework. It is, as other basic linguistic
notions, such as word, sentence, etc. is the point of interminable discussions. Most
linguists agree that meaning pervades the whole language. Here we adopt the
terminology presented by Jackson (1988: 244-7) in his brief treatment of
semantics. According to Jackson, talking about semantics, we should distinguish
between pragmatic semantics, which studies the meaning of utterance in context;
sentence semantics, which handles the meaning of sentences as well as meaning
relations between sentences; lexical semantics, which deals with the meaning of
words and the meaning relations that are internal to the vocabulary of a language.
Semantics is usually approached from one of the two perspectives: philosophical
or linguistic. Philosophical semantics is concerned with the logical properties of
language, the nature of formal theories, and the language of logic. Linguistic
semantics involves all aspects of meaning in natural languages, from the meaning
of complex utterances in specific contexts to that of individual sounds in syllables.
Consequently, since semantics is concerned with all aspects of human language, it
must be considered not only as a division of lexicology, but also as part of
phonology, syntax, discourse analysis, textlinguistics and pragmatics. But for the
purpose of this course, we shall consider lexical semantics, as it is relevant to
lexicology, taking into account pragmatic and social aspects. In contrast with
Phonology, Morphology and Syntax, Lexicology is an essentially a sociolinguistic
science and should be treated with the framework of discourse analysis. New
words appear in the language reflecting the rapid tempo of social life, such as
tweet/twitter (noun) = 1) a short high sound made by a small bird and 2) a
message, sent using the Twitter, social networking service. To tweet/twitter (verb)
– twitter on about something = 1)to talk quickly in a high excited voice, especially
about something that is not very important; 2) to send a message using the Twitter ,
social networking service. Text (noun) – to text sb (verb) = so send a message via
electronic device.
1.3. The term WORD denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting
from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds
capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word is therefore
simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. Thus, the word
‘tree’ can be described as a group of sounds [tri:]; a noun, inanimate, singular,
may be plural, may have Genitive form – tree’s; a plant with a trunk, branches,
leaves, can blossom, can have fruit. The general study of words and vocabulary
irrespective of the specific features of any particular language is known as general
Lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages
generally referred to as language universals (words, sentences, stress, cases, word
classes, etc). Special lexicology devotes its attention to the characteristics
peculiarities of a given language. This course is in special descriptive lexicology,
which deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular language at a
certain time, its object of study is the English vocabulary, as it exists at the present
time. Such approach is called synchronic. The diachronic approach in terms of
Special Lexicology deals with the changes and the development of the vocabulary
in the course of time. Language is the reality of thought, and thought develops
together with the development of the society, so language and its vocabulary must
be studied in the light of social history. A word through its meaning rendering
some notion is a generalized reflection of reality. These extra linguistic factors
influencing the development of words are considered in historical lexicology. E.g.
‘post’ comes into English through French and Italian from Latin (low Latin posta –
posita = place. In the beginning of the 16th century it meant ‘one of a number of
men stationed with horses along roads at intervals, their duty being to ride forward
with the King’s “packet” or other letters from stage to stage. This meaning is now
obsolete because the type of communication is obsolete. The word, however, has
become international denoting the system of delivering letters and parcels. But
more often we use the word ‘post’ / ‘to post’ in the meaning ‘a message sent to a
discussion group on the Internet; a piece of writing that forms part а a blog. ‘post
office’ but ‘mail box’ – mail of letters = a bag of letters, from Old French ‘male’=
bag., a word of Germanic origin. The word ‘mail’ is used in American English in
the meaning corresponding the British ‘post’. Today the word ‘mail’ acquired the
meaning of messages that are sent and received on a computer. So the social
changes influence the development of the semantics of the words. ‘To sack’ -
‘dismiss from service’ comes from the expression to get the sack which probably
rose from the habit of craftsmen to get their tools when going for work and leaving
it, usually for having done something wrong (Hundreds of postal workers are
facing the sack because most of the letters are e-mailed and mail boxes stay empty.
People do not have to come to post offices, they send letters from their computers
or self-phones elsewhere; ‘the sack’ a bed / hit the sack – I decided to hit the sack
and have an early night. Sack = paper packet for shopping.
ETYMOLOGY is the study of the whole history of words. The term was
coined by the Stoics, a group of Greek philosophers and logicians who flourished
from about the beginning of the 4th century BC. They foud no nrcessary connection
between the sounds of the language and the things the sounds stood for. So, they
undertook to discover the original forms – the ‘etyma’(roots) in order to establish
the regular correspondence between language and reality. That was the beginning
of the study known today as etymology. The distinction between the two
approaches can be illustrated by the word ‘beggar’. Synchronically, it is a derived
noun: beg + ar = beggar. Diachronically, it is a borrowing from Old French
‘begger’ (in English the agent suffix is –er). E.g. given by Palmer (1981:11), from
the etymological stance, ‘nice’ really means ‘precise’ as in ‘a nice distinction’. But
its history shows that once it meant ‘silly’ (Latin nescius = ignorant) and earlier it
must have been related o ‘ne’ = not and ‘se’= cut. The form ‘se’ is found in
modern English words ‘scissors’ and ‘shears but further etymological study is
fruitless, as we cannot trace the words further back in time. Etymological
information goes beyond the origin of the word. It makes reference to cognates
(words related in form) in other languages: one, two, three…; mother father, son,
daughter. “Knowledge of etymology may help some learners to understand and
retain new vocabulary items”(Jackson 1988: 175).
Folk etymology is a historical process whereby speakers who cannot analyze
an obscure form replace it with a different form which is morphologically
transparent. E.g. ‘bridegroom’ – in Middle English it was ‘bride’+ ‘gome’(man),
but the second part ceased to be understood ad was replaced by ‘groom’. E.g.
‘depart’= initially in religious wedding ceremonies: “till death us depart”(separate),
later the verb was analyzed into ‘do’+ ‘part’= “till death do us part”. (ex.1/2, p.9).
Lexicography is the fourth field that is of special interest in lexicological
studies. Lexicography may refer to the principles that underlie the process of
compiling and editing dictionaries. Some of those principles are clearly
lexicological in nature, while others stem from the specific domain of book
production and marketing. But lexicographical compilation is derived from the
lexicological theory. In modern lexicography ‘descriptive’ approach prevails to the
‘prescriptive’ one.
Lexicology is a level of language analysis, others are phonology,
morphology, syntax and semantics. All these levels of language analysis are
interrelated and are used in combination in linguistic research.
Lexicology relates to phonology as a word is an association of a given group
of sounds with a given meaning, so that [top] is one word and [tip] is another;
pill/bill, sheep/ship, meat/meal. Phonemes have no meaning of their own but they
serve to distinguish between meanings. Their function is building up morphemes
and it is on the level of morphemes that the form-meaning unity is introduced into
language. Phonemes participate in signification. Phonemes follow each other in a
fixed sequence so that [pit] is different from [tip]; [war] from [raw]. Discrimination
between the words may be based upon stress: import – import. Stress may
distinguish compounds from phrases: ‘blackbird /,black ‘bird; ‘greyhound / ,grey
‘hound; ‘White House / ,white ‘house. So, stress, which is a phonological feature,
has a direct influence on syntax. (Grammar includes phonology, morphology and
syntax, complemented by phonetics, semantics and pragmatics).
Lexicology and syntax. Syntax is the particular knowledge that enables us to
assemble words when we construct sentences and understand them. Syntax is
concerned with the relationships between words in constructions and the way these
words are put together to form sentences. To ‘know the language’ = to be able to
speak, read and understand the language means to acquire a set of rules among
which are those of syntax. E.g., the adjective ‘hard’ followed by the infinitive of
any verb means ‘difficult’; the functions of a link verb with a predicative expressed
by an adjective can be fulfilled only by verbs of motion in the meaning ‘to
become’- come true, fall ill, go wrong, turn red, run dry.
The distinction between syntax and lexicology, however, is evident, as the
sentence may be syntactically correct but meaningless – sentence semantics. Two
notions must be introduced: acceptability and meaningfulness.
E.g. that woman is a man. That house is a computer. That room is a gun. To
paraphrase Leech (1969ж13)б the ‘effective message’ in all such utterances is
‘what appears as an ‘x’ is in fact a ‘y’. Meaningless utterances that may be
acceptable for various reasons: slips of the tongue, typographical errors, sarcasms,
different figures of speech, etc.
Other utterances can be meaningful but unacceptable, i.e. the assertions that
are false because of our knowledge of the real world, rather than for purely
semantic reasons: Crocodiles can fly. The basket ate the vegetables. John’s
behavior pleased the bananas. Syntactically, the subjects crocodiles and the basket
are unsuitable to the verb phrases ‘can fly’ and ‘ate’ respectively.
‘The famous sentence ‘colorless green ideas sleep furiously’, suggested by
Chomsky (1957). It follows that the rules of syntax are different from those of
lexicology – general vs particular= syntax sets general rules, lexicology deals with
particular words, their meaning in a certain context.
1.4. Lexical units. The word ‘unit’ means one of the elements into which a
whole may be divided or analyze and which posses the basic properties of this
whole. The lexical units are two-facet elements possessing form and meaning. The
basic unit forming the blk of the vocabulary is the word. Other units are
morphemes – parts of words, into which words may be analyzed and set
expressions or groups of words into which words may be combined.
Words are the biggest units of morphology and the smallest of syntax, they
embody the main structural properties and functions of the language. Morpheme
cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units and are functioning in speech only
as constituent parts of words. Words are thought of as representing integer concept,
feeking or action, or as having a single referent. The meaning of morphemes is
more abstract and more general than that of words and they are less autonomous.
Set expressions are word groups consisting of two or more words whose
combination is integrated so that they are introduced in speech ‘ready-made’ as
units with a meaning of the whole that is not understood as a sum total of the
meanings of the elements.
In the spelling words are the smallest units of written discourse: they are
marked off by solid spelling. The ability of the speaker to segment any utterance
into words is sustained by literacy. Orthographic words are written as a sequence
of letters bounded by spaces on a page. There are also lexical units that are not
identical with orthographic words but equivalent to them – complex prepositions:
along with, as far as, in spite of, due to, by means of, except for, for the sake of,
etc.; phrasal verbs: call on, break up, call on, etc.; compound nouns: green house
effect, all right, altogether, never mind, nevertheless; formulaic sentences: Allow
me, All right, Nothing doing, How do you do, quite the contrary. All these are, if
not words, then at least word equivalents because they are indivisible and fulfill the
nominative, significative, communicative and pragmatic function just as words do.
The vocabulary of a language is not homogeneous. Its central part is formed
by lexical units possessing all the distinctive features of words – semantic,
orthographic and morphological integrity and the capacity of being used in speech
in isolation. The marginal elements of this field reveal only some of these features.
Morphemes are less autonomous, form a smaller subset of the vocabulary but
otherwise function as lexical items. To describe sets with blurred boundaries the
term ‘fuzzy sets’ is used. Another term is introduced by V.G. Admoni is ‘ field
structure’.