Introduction to English Lexicology

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Дубенец Э.М. Лексикология современного английского языка:

лекции и семинары. М., 2002.
Минаева Л.В. Лексикология и лексикография английского языка. М., 2003.

языке. М., 1987.
Кубрякова Е.С. Номинативный аспект речевой деятельности. М., 1986.
Кубрякова

Е.С. Что такое словообразование? М., 1965.
Кубрякова Е.C. Типы языковых значений. Семантика производного слова. М., 1981.
Кучин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. М., 1996.
Хидекель С.С., Гинзбург Р.С, Князева Г.Ю., Санкин А.А. Английская лексикология в выдержках и извлечениях. Л., 1975.
Arnold I.V. The English Word. L., 1986.

Greek morphemes:
Lexis (word, phrase) + Logos (learning, a department of

knowledge)

It literally means «the science of the word»

task is a study and systematic description of vocabulary in

respect to its origin, development and current use

words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and morphemes which make up

words

of the specific features of any particular language)

Special (concerned with

the study and description of vocabulary and vocabulary units of a certain language)

vocabulary units?
Synchronic (from Greek syn – together, with, and

chronos - time): implies the study of vocabulary as it exists at a given time (e.g., at the present moment), is employed in Descriptive Lexicology

Diachronic (from Greek dia – through, and chronos - time): deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time, is employed in Historical Lexicology

vocabulary units?
The two approaches should not be contrasted, but considered

as interconnected and interdependent: every linguistic structure and system actually exists in a state of constant development, so that the synchronic state of a language system is a result of a long process of linguistic evolution, of its historical development

vocabulary units?
Synchronically «beg – beggar» are related as a simple

and a derived word (compare: teach – teacher, sing – singer, etc.)
Diachronically «beggar» was borrowed from Old French; no conjugate words existed in English until the word «beg» was coined by dropping the final morpheme (-er), i.e. by means of back-formation

or static, but is constantly changing, growing and decaying
The changes

in the vocabulary are due to linguistic and extralinguistic causes (or a combination of both)

nature of the language: the word-stock of a language directly

and immediately reacts to changes in social life

and politics, leisure and lifestyles gives birth to numerous new

words:
MP3-player, to photoshop, download, downtime (время бездействия, простой), meltdown (1 взрыв реактора, 2 обвал финансовых учреждений), multitasking, quality time (время, уделяемое исключительно собеседнику, без попутных дел), smoking police, fashionista (человек из сферы моды), trendonista (гламурная женщина), metrosexual, staycation (отпуск, проведенный дома), locavore (человек, отдающий предпочтение продуктам питания местного производства), PC, CD, ATM (automated teller machine – банкомат), SMS, MMS, etc.

lexicologist should take into account correlations between purely linguistic facts

and the underlying social facts which brought them into existence

that the language possesses.
Word is the main lexical unit of

a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.
Word-group denotes a group of words which exists in the language as a readymade unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function.
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of a class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically or morphologically conditioned.

from and meaning)
The basic unit of the language system, the

largest on the morphologic and the smallest on the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis;
A structural and semantic entity within the language system
A vocabulary unit used for naming a thing (we deal with names of actions, objects, qualities, etc.)
A unit of speech which serves the purposes of human communication (a unit of communication)

a word are to be singled out)
Internal = the word’s

semantic structure / meaning (the main aspect of the word due to which the word serves the purposes of communication)

modifications and functions in one of its forms;
The system showing

a word in all its forms is called the word paradigm.

throughout the paradigm (all the word forms of the same

word are lexically identical)
The grammatical meaning varies from one form to another:
Take (inf) – takes (present 3d person singular) – took (past) – taking (present participle / gerund) – taken (past participle)
Singer (singular) – singers (plural) – singer’s (singular possessive) – singers’ (plural possessive)

of forms of one word it reveals the differences and

relationships between them:

Take (inf) – takes (present 3d person singular) – took (past) – taking (present participle / gerund) – taken (past participle)

concrete words it is treated as a pattern on which

every word of one part of speech models its forms, thus serving to distinguish one part of speech from another:
Works, plays, skates / worked, played, skate / working, playing, skating (-s, -ed, -ing) are verbs;
Girls, friends, ships / girl’s, friend’s, ship’s / girls’, friends’, ships’ (-s, -‘s, -s’) are nouns.

rather the paradigmatic approach is also to be considered in

respect to the word meaning;
From this angle, on the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationships with other words in the vocabulary system.

words of similar meaning (ideographic synonyms): look – stare –

gaze – glance, etc.
A word is studied in comparison with other words of opposite meaning (antonyms): busy – idle, heavy – light, accept – reject, etc.
A word is studied in comparison with words of different stylistic characteristics (stylistic synonyms): man (neutral) – chap (colloquial) – bloke (colloquial/slang), etc.
A word is studied in comparison with words describing the same system of objects (words of the same semantic set): table – chair – sofa – cupboard, etc.
A word is studied in comparison with words sharing the root morpheme (conjugate words / words of the same cluster): head – headless – behead – header – headache, etc.

structure of a word is analyzed in its linear relationships

with neighbouring words in connected speech, i.e. the semantic characteristics of the word are observed on the basis of its typical contexts.

from word forms:

Lexico-semantic variants

Phonetic and morphological variants

actual speech):
Brain, n
He suffers from a serious brain disease (the

organ of the body in the upper part of the head which controls thought, feeling and physical activity)
It takes brains to think of something like that! (the ability to think clearly, intelligence)
Some of the best brains in the country are working on this project (a person with a very good mind)

[‘o:fn] / [‘oft∂n]
Again [∂’gein] / [∂’gen]

Morphological variants are coexisting morphological

forms of a word:
Learn – learned / learnt
Geologic / geological, phonetic – phonetical, etc.

communication as making up one and the same word;
Thus, within

the language system the word exists as a system and unity of all its forms and variants.

word structure and word formation in modern English
the semantic structure

of English words
the main principles underlying the classification of vocabulary units
the laws governing the replenishment of the vocabulary with new vocabulary units

in the course a section dealing with Lexicography, i.e. the

theory and practice of dictionary making.

word (Menander)
I am not so lost in lexicography as to

forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven (Samuel Johnson)
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug /светлячок/ (Mark Twain)
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used (Oliver Wendell Holmes)