LECTURE 1

LEXICOLOGY AS A LINGUISTIC SUBJECT

1. The connection of lexicology with other

disciplines
2. Word as a speech unit.
3. General problems of the theory of the word
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which
deals with the vocabulary and
characteristic features of words and word-
groups .
Lexicology: lexis meaning “word, phrase”
(lexicos means “having to do with words”)
and logos which denotes “learning, a
department of knowledge, science”.
Lexicology studies the vocabulary of a
given language.
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Vocabulary - the system of words and word-
groups that the language possesses.
Word - the main lexical unit of a language
resulting from the association of a group
of sounds with a meaning.
Word - the smallest unit of a language
which can stand alone as a complete
utterance.
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Word-group - a group of words which
exists in the language as a ready-made
unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of
syntactical function, e.g. the word-group
“as loose as a goose” means “clumsy”. He
is as loose as a goose.
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
The main objective of Lexicology is to give
a systematic description of vocabulary,
describe the laws governing the changes
of the vocabulary, to discuss the problems
of word-meaning, to discuss the origin of
words, their historical development and
current use.
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Historical lexicology:
 the development of the vocabulary
 the origin of words and word-groups

 their semantic relations

 the development of their sound form and

meaning
Descriptive lexicology:
the vocabulary at a definite stage of its
development
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Phonetics investigates the phonetic
structure of the language: system of
phonemes, intonation patterns, the study
of the outer sound form of the word.
Grammar - the grammatical structure of
the language: means of expressing
grammatical relations between words,
patterns after which words are combined
into word-groups and sentences.
THE CONNECTION OF LEXICOLOGY
WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES
Morphology:
 forms of words as lexical units
 changes which words undergo, when used
in sentences
Paradigm, e.g. day, day’s, days, days’
UNITS OF THE LANGUAGE
Language units can be:
 Unilateral: phonemes
 Bilateral: units of lexicology and
morphology
Lexicology, morphology and syntax -
semantic level, phonology - feature level
Semantic level: words, variable word-
groups, phraseological units
Sociolinguistics
class – meant only a division of pupils at
school, later a social group.
Stylistics (linguostylistics) -
the study of the nature, functions and
structure of stylistic devices, investigation
of each style of language
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE

Phonemes: 2 functions: perceptive and

significative, e.g. pill, bill
Morphemes: semantic function
Words: nominative function
Sentences: communicative function
System – a unity of correlated
homogeneous parts (phonemic
system, morphemic system)
Lexicology comprises the following component
parts: semantics/semasiology, etymology,
lexicography.
 Semantics - a Greek word. “semanen” –
meaning (sema). The meaning of words, changes
of the meanings of words.
 Etymology (Greek) – etymon – the true, real
meaning; logos – science. The history of words,
their origin.
 Lexicography – grapho – write. Compiling
dictionaries, the principles which are applied in
compiling dictionaries.
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
The word is the smallest significant unit of a
given language, capable of functioning
alone, independently.
Words do not reflect reality, but name.
The word is a bilateral sign.

English vocabulary - the great amount of

monosyllabic root-words.
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
English Russian
 Big боль/шой
 Small ма/лень/кий
 Chin под/бо/ро/док
 Cow ко/ро/ва
 Dog со/ба/ка
 Teach пре/по/да/вать
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
A word is the smallest language unit
which can stand alone as a complete
utterance.
 A word can be divided into smaller sense
units – morphemes.
 The morpheme is the smallest meaningful
language unit.
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
Groups of morphemes: lexical morphemes
grammatical (functional) morphemes
Both lexical and grammatical morphemes can be
free and bound.

The stem is the part of the word which remains

unchanged throughout the paradigm of the word,
e.g. “hop”: “hop”, “hops”, “hopped”, ‘grass-
hopper’.
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
Free lexical morphemes are roots of words
which express the lexical meaning of the
word, they coincide with the stem of
simple words.
Free grammatical morphemes are function
words: articles, conjunctions and
prepositions ( the, with, and).
WORD AS A SPEECH UNIT
Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes
(dis-), suffixes (-ish) and also blocked (unique)
root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry).
Bound grammatical morphemes are inflexions
(endings), e.g. -s for the Plural of nouns, -ed for
the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the
Present Participle, -er for the Comparative
degree of adjectives.
STRUCTURAL TYPES OF WORDS
 Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an
inflexion (in many cases the inflexion is zero), e.g.
“seldom”, “chairs”, “longer”, “asked”.
 Derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or
several affixes and an inflexion, e.g. “derestricted”,
“unemployed”.
 Compound words consist of two or more root
morphemes and an inflexion, e.g. “baby-moons”,
“wait-and-see (policy)”.
 Compound-derived words consist of two or more
root morphemes, one or more affixes and an
inflexion, e.g. “middle-of-the-roaders”, “job-
hopper”.
ASSIGNMENT

Write 5 English monosyllables which

correspond to Russian polysyllables.
 
 Self study 2
Varieties of English in the World
 Present a variety of the English language (any variety except
American dialects).
 One dialect may be prepared by two persons.
 
A short report or presentation must include the following points:
 Geographic area (to show on the map is advisable)
 Sociolinguistic characteristics
 Linguistic characteristics

 
Form of control
 Report (5 min.)

or
 Presentation (5-6 slides)