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Entering Meaning: Lexicology and Lexicography

1. Lexicology vs. Lexicography

  • Lexicology: The overall study of a language’s vocabulary, including its history.
    • Often covers areas traditionally known as lexical studies.
    • More traditional in the Anglo-Saxon world compared to lexicography.
  • Lexicography: The art and science of dictionary-making, involving practices carried out by lexicographers.
    • Considered applied lexicology, though not commonly referred to as such.
    • The term "lexicologist" is less commonly used; researchers are often called semanticists.
  • Differences in definitions can lead to different approaches in linguistics, emphasizing the significance of both lexicology and lexicography.

2. Defining Key Terms

  • Lexical Items: This includes words, morphemes, phrases, and includes objects both below and above the word level.
  • Etymology: While a part of lexicology, its applicability in general dictionaries is limited. This is why it may not receive significant attention.

3. Scope of Study

  • The LEXICOLOGY section focuses on:
    • Status of words as linguistic constructs.
    • Types of words, including affixes.
    • Concepts such as homonymy, polysemy, word classes, and above word lexicon structures like phrasal verbs, compounds, and idioms.
  • The LEXICOGRAPHY section:
    • Introduces dictionaries and their aims.
    • Discusses typology and craft of lexicography.
    • Explores sources, methods, and contemporary challenges in dictionary-making amidst technological change.

4. Understanding Meaning and Sense

  • The distinction between meaning and sense:
    • Meaning: General connotation and denotation.
    • Sense: Core or cognitive meaning that constitutes the identity of a word.
    • Notable: Cognitive collocates with meaning, not with sense (e.g., "cognitive sense" is not valid).

5. Roadmap of Key Sections

  1. Lexicology Part:
    • Discusses linguistic constructs, types of words, and explains concepts like homonymy and polysemy.
    • Addresses word formations, including regular polysemy and their lexical semantic implications.
  2. Lexicography Part:
    • Addresses dictionary structure and typologies.
    • Examination of lexicographic methods and considerations.
    • Future challenges faced in the lexicographic field.

6. Lexical Items and the Lexicon

  • Lexical Elements: Encompass more than just words; includes phrases and single words known collectively as lexical items.
    • The lexicon should not only account for words but also for morphemes.
  • Changes in perspective suggest a deeper understanding of vocabulary:
    • Knowledge includes the understanding of multiword lexical items as well.

7. Critical Thoughts on Lexicology and Lexicography

  • Ethnography provides invaluable insights to lexicon studies, while limited engagement encourages an academic imbalance.
  • Etymological insights are often neglected in practical lexicography due to prescriptive approaches or undue reliance on core lexicology.

8. Exploring Ambiguity and Puns

  • Puns and the lexical ambiguity demonstrate the complex interplay between meaning and grammatical expression:
    • Example: "Time flies like an arrow – fruit flies like a banana" showcases both lexical and syntactic ambiguity.

9. Detailed Lexicological Concepts

9.1 Types of Words
  • Various classifications of words are essential:
    • Homonyms: Words that sound alike yet differ in meaning (e.g., stalk as in plant and stalk as in chase).
    • Polysemy: A single word having multiple meanings that are conceptually linked (e.g., mouth of a river and mouth of an animal).
9.2 Word Classes
  • Categories to classify all words into:
    • Open classes: Include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
    • Closed classes: Include conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and certain interjections.

10. Exploring Compounds and Multiword Units

  • Distinct categories exist between autonomous words and affixes:
    • Terms such as mousetrap and flash drive fall into the category of compounds.
    • Phrasal verbs demonstrate the distinction between phrases within word forms.

11. Idioms and Their Structure

  • Idioms are defined as fixed expressions whose meanings cannot be deduced from their components:
    • E.g., kick the bucket cannot be understood simply by understanding 'kick' and 'bucket'.
    • The degree of idiomaticity can vary and sometimes reflects semantic opacity.

12. Frequency and Use of Vocabulary

  • Presented frequency of lexical units reveals discrepancies between notion of rarity and idiom prevalence in actual communication.
    • Idiomatic expressions may seem frequent due to their visibility despite lower usage in written corpuses.

13. Summary of Lexical Items

  • Concept of listeme introduced as a term for units needing memorization versus those deducible:
    • Listemes: Vocabulary that includes all morphemes, words, and multiword expressions requiring distinct memory entries due to their idiomatic or non-compositional nature.

14. References

Annotated Bibliography of Lexicology and Lexicography
  • Includes foundational texts and recent studies emphasizing linguistic structures, lexical semantics, and dictionary practice.
    • Selected works include Aarts & McMahon (2006), Landau (2001), and more recent contributions focusing on modern linguistics and the lexicon.