Comprehensive Lexicology Notes
Introduction to Lexicology
Lexicology, derived from the Greek words lexis (word/phrase) and logos (learning/knowledge), is the science of language focusing on vocabulary. It studies words, word-groups, and morphemes, examining their origin, development, and usage.
Core Areas of Lexicology
Phonetics: Studies the sound form of words.
Grammar: Investigates grammatical structures and relations between words.
Stylistics: Explores stylistic devices and language styles.
Types of Lexicology
General Lexicology: Independent of any specific language.
Special Lexicology: Focuses on a particular language (e.g., English).
Special Lexicology relies on the principles of General Lexicology.
Approaches to Language Study
Synchronic: Studies language at a specific point in time (e.g., present-day).
Diachronic: Studies language development over time.
The synchronic approach leads to Descriptive Lexicology. The diachronic approach is the basis for Historical Lexicology.
The two approaches are interconnected. Synchronic states result from diachronic evolution.
Example: The words "beg" and "beggar". Synchronically, "beggar" is derived from "beg" like "singer" from "sing". Diachronically, "beggar" was borrowed from Old French.
Lexicology and Other Disciplines
Contrastive and Comparative Lexicology: Compares vocabularies across languages.
Sociolinguistics: Recognizes that language changes are linked to social changes.
The Sociolinguistic Nature of Lexicology
Vocabulary changes reflect social developments. Examples:
New words due to science and technology: computer, cyclotron.
Words related to space exploration: sputnik, lunokhod.
The suffix "-nik" applied to new words.
Adjective "tweedy" illustrating a specific social group and their style.
Lexicology connects linguistic and social facts.
Lexical Units
Morphemes, words, word-groups, and phraseological units are all lexical units. The word is the basic unit, being the largest on the morphologic and smallest on the syntactic level. Words are structural and semantic entities. Phraseological units are word-groups with specialized meanings (e.g., black frost, red tape).
Defining the Word
A word is a two-faceted unit with sound-form and meaning. Example: [θimbl] is a word in English because it has meaning and grammatical properties. A word's paradigm includes all its word-forms. The lexical meaning remains constant throughout the paradigm, while grammatical meaning varies. Word-forms are identified as belonging to a definite paradigm.
Varieties of Words
Lexico-semantic, phonetic, and morphological variants exist.
Lexico-semantic variants: Polysemantic word in one of its meanings (e.g. learn in to learn at school).
Phonetic variants: Pronunciation variations (e.g. ['o:fn] and ['o:ftэn] for often).
Morphological variants: Different forms of the past indefinite tense (e.g. learned [-d] and learnt [-t]).
Variants have slight changes in morphemic or phonemic composition without meaning modification. A word is a system of its forms and variants.
Aims of Modern English Lexicology
Systematic description of the Modern English word-stock.
Structural and semantic analysis of lexical units.
Investigation of word-structure and word-formation.
Study of semantic structure, classification, and vocabulary replenishment.
Analysis of relations between lexical layers.
Consideration of diachronic aspects.
Lexicography
The art and science of dictionary-compiling, as a practical application of Lexicology.
Interrelation of Lexicology
It forms part of the Theoretical Course of Modern English. Modern English Lexicology is practically significant for language learners, providing information on the English word-stock.
It helps summarize practical material and develop skills in generalizing linguistic phenomena.
The basic problems considered include:
Semasiology and semantic classifications of words
Word-groups and phraseological units
Word-structure
Word-formation
Etymological survey of the English words-stock
Various aspects of vocabulary units and replenishment
Variants and dialects of Modern English
Fundamentals of English Lexicography
Methods and Procedures of Lexicological Analysis
Semasiology
Semasiology is the study of meaning in language. While applicable to morphology and syntax, it primarily concerns word-meaning. Meaning remains a complex and debated term, defying universal definition.
Referential Approach to Meaning
Referential approach defines meaning as interdependence between words, concepts, and referents. This approach utilizes the "basic triangle" model, which connects
the sound-form of a linguistic sign, 2. the concept underlying it, and 3. the actual referent.
The connection between sound and meaning is arbitrary. Different languages use different sound-forms for the same meaning. Homonyms demonstrate that the same sound-form can have different meanings. Meaning is also distinct from concept, as concepts are universal categories of human cognition, while word- meanings vary across languages. Synonyms illustrate concepts with differing linguistic meanings.Word-meaning is not identical with the referent, as multiple words can refer to the same object, and words can have meaning without corresponding to actual objects.
Issues with the Referential Approach
It is subjective and cannot be verified, relying too much on linguistic intuition.
It comprises the interrelation of linguistic signs with categories and phenomena outside the scope of language
Functional Approach to Meaning
A functional approach studies meaning through the relationship between linguistic units. It focuses on how words function in speech and their distribution of the linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units is also analysed. It understands that meaning is primarily derived from Linguistic contexts.
Comparing the Approaches
Both reference and function must be considered for proper research, so it's best to combine them.
Meaning Types
Grammatical meaning and lexical meaning are the two types of the word- meaning. The distinction is between functional (linguistic) and referential (conceptual) meaning.
Grammatical Meaning
Grammatical meaning is recurrent in identical sets of word-forms (e.g., plurality in girls, winters, joys). Grammatical meaning is identified by the position of the linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units, i.e. by its distribution. The grammatic element identifies it as a part of speech.
Lexical Meaning
Lexical meaning is constant in all the forms of a word (e.g., the process of movement in go, goes, went).The difference between the lexical and the grammatical is sought in the way they are conveyed.
Major and minor word-classes also share semantic aspects, in which all members of a major word-class share a distinguishing semantic component which though very abstract may be viewed as the lexical component of part-of-speech meaning.
Words are classified into major (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and minor word-classes (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.). Grammatical items usually form closed sets, and lexical items proper belong to open sets.
Denotational and Connotational Meaning
Denotational meaning enables communication. It makes sure the people know or have knowledge of about the context or topic of the communication and understanding of each other. Connotational meaning: the emotive charge and stylistic value of a word. Emotive charge is an objective semantic feature, with different word-classes having different charges. Stylistic reference divided into literary, neutral and colloquial. Neutral words contrasted with standard colloquial and literary words: father vs. dad vs. parent. Literary words are not stylistically homogeneous with stylistic labels, words in non- neutral styles have emotive charges (dad, mum, bob, steed).
Morphemes
Lexical meaning with denotational and connotational components can be found in morphemes. Connotations can be found in root-morphemes and affixal morphemes.
Specific Meanings in Morphemes
Specific types of meaning found in morphemes include:
Differential Meaning: Distinguishes words through identical morphemes.
Functional Meaning: Primarily refers the word to a part of speech.
Distributional Meaning: Meaning in the arrangement of morphemes.
Morphological Motivation
Connection between structural pattern and meaning in words, so direct connections show motivated words like singer, but complete conventionality is a non-motivated word, so matter can be considered such thing.
Different degrees of motivation exist. Motivation viewed as direct connection between phonetical structure and meaning. Sounds may suggest dimensions, shapes or sizes.
Also, the imitation of actual sounds can be a part (e.g. swish, sizzle, boom, splash).
Semantic Motivation
Connection between central and coexisting meanings. Metaphorical extension of the denotational components.
Meaning Changes
Word-meaning changes over time; analyze diachronically. Can focus on the causes, results, and the nature of the process.
Factors in Change
Extra-linguistic (social changes) and linguistic (ellipsis, synonyms, analogy) factors.
Nature of Change
Similarity of Meanings (Metaphor): Connection like similarities.
Contiguity of Meanings (Metonymy): One making part of the other.
Results of Change
Changes in denotation lead to restriction or extension. In connotation, there is a pejorative or ameliorative development, and both of these change its component.
These may be classified to the social causes that bring of change of meaning (socio-linguistic classification), the nature of these changes (psychological classification) and results of semantic changes (logical classification).
Polysemy
Polysemy is the coexistence of various meanings of the same word and must be understood diachronically and synchronically. One can consider primary and basic words or meanings as central or important, whereas the precise identification comes from the use in linguistic data.
This approach should note each word class, and especially its correlation to other languages, which can show how semantic relationships exist between entities despite separate structures.
Homonymy
Homonyms are words identical in sound-form but different in meaning. Homonymy can be full or partial, and lexical, lexico-grammatical, or grammatical. Different views exist, some looking at graphic form for distinguishing homographs, homophones, and perfect homonyms.
Demarcation of Homonymy
From Polysemy semantic connection vs semantic distribution with relation to all in a particular and linguistic use.
Syntagmatics and Paradigmatics
Meanings can be seen through those relationships, called paradigmatic relationships and syntagmatic relationships.
Syntagmatic
Describes the usage with the lexical items in with it in speech.
Paradigmatic
Describes the selection in similar structure in vocabulary through open or closed choices.