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The term "lexicology" is of Greek origin from words "lexis" which means "word" and "logos" which means "science". Lexicology is the part of linguistic which studies: The origin of words, Word structure, Word formation, Meaning of the words, The main principials of classification of words, The laws that govern the main principials of the enlarging of the vocabulary. |
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The term "vocabulary" is used to denote the system of words and word groups that the language has. Modern English lexicology gives a systematic description of the vocabulary of Modern English. The central problem of lexicology is meaning; and meaning is central problem of philosophy. So, lexicology helps to study philosophical problems. |
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The term "word" denotes the main lexical unit of the language. The word is a speech unit which serves the purposes of human communication. Many scholars tried to define the word as the linguistic phenomenon. It's the most difficult task of the lexicology but we can only describe the word. |
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The word has the sound form. It consists of phonemes. The word consists of morphemes. When an affix is added a new word is formed. The external structure of the word is it's morphological structure. The word has meaning. The internal structure of the word is its semantic structure or meaning. In sentences words are syntactically organized. Each word has its position in the sentence or syntactic function (subject, object and so on). The word can be used as a sentence (Listen. Look. Good bye.). The word has formal unity. We can't change the position of the morphemes or insert anything between the elements of the word without changing it's meaning: A lion - it's a word group because we can insert other words - a big lion, a dead lion. Alive - it is a word we can't insert anything. The word has semantic unity. It denotes one concept. A black bird - it's a word group because each word denotes a separate concept. <Black> denotes color, <bird> denotes living creature. We can insert words in this word group (a big blackи bird) and we can change each word in the word group (the blackest birds). A blackbird - it's a word because it denotes one concept: the type of the bird. We can't insert anything and we can change only the whole word. The word has its paradigm. It's the system of grammatical forms of the word. In speech the word functions in one of its forms. Nice - nicer - the nicest. Go - went - gone - going. Look - looked - looked - looking. |
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Thus a word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication. It represents a group of sounds, has meaning and the system of grammatical forms and it's characterized by formal and semantic unity. It's a unity of form and content. |
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The Morphological Structure of the English Word. The word isn't the smallest unity. It consists of morphemes. The term "morpheme" comes from Greek. "Morphe" means "form" and "eme" means "the smallest unit". The morpheme is the smallest unit of the language which has the sound form and meaning. Morpheme = sound form + meaning. Morphemes can't be divided into smaller units without losing their meaning. There are parts of words and can't function in speech independently. |
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Structurally morphemes can be divided into free and bound. A form is called free if it can be used alone without changing it's meaning (as a word). A form is called bound if it can't be used alone. The words consisting of bound morphemes only are usually borrowed words. |
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From the semantic point of view and the role they play in the constructing of words morphemes can be divided into root and affixational morphemes. The root morpheme carries the lexical meaning of the word and makes it's semantic centre. The root morpheme are the most numerous in the language. According to the position in the word affixational morphemes may be divided into prefixes, suffixes and inflections. Prefix comes before the root morpheme. Suffix comes after the root morpheme. Inflections or grammatic morphemes carry only gramatical meaning. The affixational morphemes form new words from the words already existing in the language. According to the number of morphemes words are divided into monomorphic and polymorphic. Monomorphic words consist of only root morpheme (dog, cat, table). Polymorphic words consist of several morphemes (customer, teacher, fitness). |
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The Origin of the English word-stock (Borrowings, Types of Assimilation). According to their origin English words can be divided into 2 groups: native words and borrowed words (or borrowings). Native words are words which belong to the original English vocabulary and which are known from the earliest Old English manuscripts. Borrowings or borrowed words are words taken from another language and modified according to the standards of the English language. |
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English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it's very rich in borrowings. That's all enriched the English vocabulary: the Roman invasion, the adoption of Christianity, scandinavian and Norman conquests of the British isles, the development of the British collonialism, trade and culturals relations. |
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About 70% of the English vocabulary are borrowings. English borrowed words from different languages: Celtic, Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian and others. Most borrowings are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian and Spanish). Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech and written speech. Borrowings can be direct and indirect, that is through another language. For example, Latin through which many Greek words came into English.
International words are words that were borrowed from one source by several languages. I.g. (for example): Latin and Greek words - philosophy, phisics, chemistry. English words: football, cricet, hockey, etc. Russian words: sputnic, perestroyka, glasnost, cosmonaut. |
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Assimilation of borrowings. Assimilation is the process of changing the borrowed word. The process of assimulation includes changes in sound form, morphological structure, grammatical characteristics, meaning and usage. According to the degree of assimilation all borrowed words can be divided into 3 groups: 1.Completely assimilated words. They are words which have undergone all types of assimilation. Such words are stylistically neutral and they are often used. They take part in wordformation. (sport (Fr.), animal (L.), face (Fr.), husband (Scan.)) |
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2.Partially assimilated borrowings. They are words which didn't undergone one of the types of assimilation. The words are subdivided into: 2.1. Borrowings aren't assimilated semantically. Such words usually denote objects and notions, characteristic of the country from which they come (I.g.: shah, sherbet, richshaw). 2.2. Borrowings aren't assimilated grammatically. Nouns borrowed from Latin or Greek which have their original plural forms. (I.g.: datum - data, crisis - crises). 2.3. Borrowings aren't assimilated phonetically. Phonetic assimilation means changes in sound form and stress. These words have peculiarities in stress and combination of sounds that aren't standard for English. (I.g.: machine, regime, camouflage). 2.4. Borrowings aren't assimilated graphically. (I.g.: ballet, cafe, symbol, psychology) |
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3. Unassimilated borrowings or barbarism. They are words from other languages used by the English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way. And for which there are corresponding English equivalents. (I.g.: ciao, adios, tete-a-tete, dolce vita) |
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The semantic structure of the English word. The branch of Linguistics which studies lexical meaning of the word is called Semantics (by British and American scholars) or Semasiology (by Soviet and Russian scholars). Word meaning is the most difficult problem in modern Linguistics. Lexical meaning can be seen in all forms of the word. The lexical meaning consists of denotative and connotative components. The denotative component or denotation is the leading component. It makes communication possible. Each denotative component is a combination of several more components which are called semes. |
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The connotative component or connotation is the additional component. It shows the attitude of the speaker. It may express: 1. Emotion. For example: father - daddy. 2. Evaluation (оценку) [positive or negative]. For example: clique - group. 3. Intensity. For example: to love - to adore. 4. Duration. For example: to look - to glass (briefly). |
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A meaning can have one or more connotations. Thus, the semantic structure of the word is not just the system of meanings because each lexical meaning has it's own inner structure. Therefore the semantic structure of the word should be studied at both levels: of different meanings and of semantic components within each separate meanings. |
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Polysemy. A word can have only one or several meanings. Monosemantic words (that is have only one meaning) are few in number and they are mainly scientific terms. Most English words are polysemantic (that is having several meanings). Polysemy is the ability of words to have more than one meaning. The process of polysemy includes both the appearance of new meaning and the loss of old ones. But sometimes there is a chance of misunderstanding. In this case context may help. It is important to differentiate the meaning from usage. Meanings are fixed in dictionaries and common to all people. The usage that is context is only a possible application of one of the meanings of a polysemantic word. |
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Semantic change. Word meaning can change or develop in the course of the historical development of the language. The term "development of meaning" means the situation when a new meaning coexist with the old one. For example: snail -> animal -> slow person. The term "change of meaning" is used when the old meaning is replaced by the new one. For example: meat-> food -> flesh of animals, used as a food product. |
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Causes of semantic change: 1. Historical or extra-linguistic causes. They are changes in economic, social and scientific life. We can use some old word for a new object or notion. For example: carriage -> a vehicle drawn by horses -> a railway car. 2. Linguistic courses. The development of new meanings or the change of meaning can be due to the influence of other words mostly. In Old English the word "deer" meant any kind of beast but when the noun "animal" was borrowed these words became synonyms. So the noun "deer" changed it's meaning to a certain kind of beast. |
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Nature of Semantic change. A necessary condition of any semantic change is some connection or association between the old mean and the new one. There are two kinds of associations: 1. Metaphor (based on similarity of meanings) 2. Metonymy (based on contiguity of meanings). Metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating to object or phenomena due to their outword similarity. For example: eye of needle, tooth of a comb, coat of a dog, neck of a bottle, mouth of a river. |
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Metonymy. A new meaning appears due to psychological links between different objects or phenomena. Types of metonymic relations (associations of objects): a. Common position. For example: a. foot of a mountain - the lowest. b. Common function. For example: hand of a clock - to point. c. Material and object made from it. For example: mink, glass - a glass. d. Geographical and proper names become common nouns. For example: tweed, ford, sandwich, hamburg, hooligan, boycott. e. Names of inventors and things they invented. For example: Macintosh, Watt, Om. f. The name of a painter and his/her pictures. For example: Surikov - a Surikov. |
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Result of semantic change. The result of semantic change can be seen in: 1. The change in the denotational component. 2. The change in the connotational component. The change of the denotational component can be seen in: 1. Narrowing of meaning. Deer: any beast -> certain kind of a beast. Meat: any food -> certain kind of food. 2. Broadening of meaning. To arrive (Fr.): to come to shore - to come. Girl: a small child of either sex -> a small child of a female sex (narrowing) -> a young unmarried woman (broadening) -> a young woman (broadening) -> any woman (broadening). |
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The change of a connotational component can be seen in: 1. Degradation of meaning. For example: villain - a farm servant -> a vile person; gossip: god parent -> a person who talks scandal. 2. Amelioration of meaning. For example: marshal: man-servant attending horses -> an officer of the highest rang. |
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Productive word-formation meaning of modern English. Conversion. Conversion consists in making a new word from the word existing in the language by changing the category of the part of speech. The morphemic shape of the original word is unchanged. The new word has the meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can be associated with it. The new word has a new paradigm peculiar to its new category of the part of speech. |
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The activity of conversion in different part of speech varies greatly verbs made from nouns are the most numerous: Nun -> verb, Verb - > noun, Adjective -> verb, Adjective - > noun. Conversion is very productive in modern English due to: The analytical structure of modern English, The simplicity of paradigm's of the English words, A great number of one syllable words which are more mobile. |
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Composition. Composition is the type of word-building in which new words are formed by combining two stems or more such words are called compounds. Structurally compounds may be divided into: 1. Neutral compounds. The words are formed by putting 2 stems together without any linking elements. For example: bedroom, sunflower, kindhearted, chain-smoker, TV-set, V-day (victory day). 2. Morphological compounds. They are wormed with the help of the linking elements: -o-, -i-, -s-, -a-. For example: speedometer, handiwork, sportsman. 3. Syntactical compounds. They are formed by segments of speech including prepositions, conjunctions, articles, adverbs. For example: Jack-of-all-trades (мастер на все руки), merry-go-round, forget-me-not. |
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Semantically compounds may be: 1. Non-idiomatic compounds (completely motivated). The meaning of the word is understood from the meaning of its components. For example: sun light, dining-room. 2.Idiomatic compounds. The meaning of the word can't be understood from the meaning of it's components. a) Partially motivated. The meanings of the components are weakened but we can guess the meaning of the whole word. For example: me-generation, lazy-bones. b) Non-motivated. The meanings of the components are lost. For example: a blue battle, a ladybird, a love lace. |
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Word-building Processes in the Modern English. 1.Backformation. There are words in English that appeared due to the fact that part of the word was mistaken for an affix. A verb is made from a noun by subtraction. For example: sculpture - to sculpt, baby-sitter - to baby-sit. The process of backformation can be paralleled (seen) in other languages. For example in Russian: видеть - вид, садить - сад. 2. Shortening. It is a formation of a word by cutting off part of the word. Shortenings are produced in 2 ways: by clipping part of the word and by making a new word from the initial letters of a word group (abbreviation). |
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Clipping. 1) Initial shortenings. The initial part of the word is clipped. For example: caravan - van, telephone - phone. 2) Medial shortenings. The medial part of the word is clipped. For example: fantasy - fancy, madam - mam. 3) Final shortenings. The final part of the word is clipped. For example: doctor - doc, preparation - pre, teleconference - telecon. 4) Both initial and final shortenings. For example: influenza - flu, refrigerator - fridge. |
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Abbreviation: 1) Acronyms. They are pronounced as independent words. For example: UNO (United Nation Organization). 2) Initial abbreviations with the alphabetic reading. For example: MP (Member of Parliament), PM (Prime Minister). 3) Word combinations with one element initially abbreviated. For example: TV-set, V-day, A-bomb. 4) Latin abbreviations. For example: e.g. - for example, etc - and soon, i.e. - that is. |
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Blending (словослияние). A special type of word formation with the help of merging parts of different words. These words are called blends. Brunch = breakfast + lunch. Smog = smoke + fog. Slimnastics = slim + gymnastics. Edutainment = education + entertainment. Sound imitation. It is the process of making new words by imitating different kinds of sounds that are produced by animals, birds, insects, people and inanimate objects. Cuckoo - ку-ку. Splash - всплеск. Cock-a-doodle-doo |
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Stress interchange. It is a formation of the word by shitting the stress. For example: increase, import, export. Reduplication (удвоение основы). New words are made by doubling the stem. 1) Without any phonetic changing's. For example: bye-bye. 2) With a variation of the root vowel or consonant. For example: ping-pong. |
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Sound interchange. It is a formation of a word by changing some sounds. There may be: 1) Vowel interchange. For example: food - feed. Vowel interchange may be combined with affixation. For example: strong - strength. 2) Consonant interchange. For example: advice (n.) - advise (v.). 3) Consonant and vowel interchange. For example: life - to live. |
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Only you Can make all this world seem right. Only you Can make the darkness bright. Only you and you alone Can thrill me like you do And fill my heart with love For only you. Only you Can make all this change in me. For it's true You are my destiny. When you hold my hand I understand The magic that you do. You're my dream come true My one and only you. Only you Can make all this change in me. For it's true You are my destiny When you hold my hand I understand The magic that you do. You're my dream come true. My one and only you. |
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