English Lexicology
1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Lexical units.
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics that studies a word and a system of words in a language (lexis, lexicon, or vocabulary). This term lexicology comes from two Greek words – lexis ‘word, speech’, or lexicos ‘relating to a word’, and logos ‘learning’. Lexicology was 1st mentioned by Denic Dedirot and Jean D’Alembert in 1765 in their French encyclopidia.
1. General L. studies general problems of lexicon in any lg
2. Special L. studies lexicon of a given lg
3. Contrastive L. compares and describes the voc. systems of >2 lg
Considering the aspect of the lexicon studies: synchronic L. studies voc. at a certain historic level of lg development. diachronic/historical L. studies the evolution, development of words through the time.
The aim of lexicology – a study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.
ModE Lexicology studies lexicon or word-stock/vocabulary in the English lg. (object)
Lexicon major understanding: lexicological (nucleus of lg, = lexical system and structure, lexis, word-stock, or vocabulary of a lg); lexicon understood as a specific semiotic structure and system used for communication, as a voc. component of lg studied by lexicology
Lexicographic (all the words of a particular lg presented in a dictionary, = dictionary); lexicon as a list of words with their parts and their equivalents is the major concern of lexicography – the science and practice of compiling dictionaries
Cognitive (psychological reality, very complicated, diversely and specifically organized part of a lg structure, special lg knowledge that we keep in our mind; = mental lexicon) lexicon as individual, internal mental capacity of human beings.
Major issues under discussion: 1. origin of Eng words (etymology); 2. their semantic, morphological and derivational structures; 3. major ways of replenishing the Eng voc; 4. their interrelation within the lg system; 5. their combinability in speech; 6. major standard variants of Eng; 7. traditions of Br and Ame lexicography 8. the mental lexicon of an English native speaker.
Lexicon is made up of lexemes – abstract units like phonemes and morphemes. Lexical units are forms of lexemes. Lexical units are: two-faceted (have 2 planes: meaning & form); ready-made (registered in dictionary / mental lexicon & reproducible in speech). The types of lexical units that meet these two requirements are morphemes, words and set/lexical phrases (by the way; get out; the devil is in the details)
1. Morphemes (derivational & word-building (pre-, -er)) – the smallest lexical unit
2. Word – most common and central, performs nominative function -> autonomous.
Orthographic definition (sequence of letters between spaces: tooth(-)paste); phonological definition (a unit of speech: I’ll have / to go / there); morphological definition (a minimal free morpheme: cranberry). Conceptual definition of a word as a linguistic counterpart of a single concept (to die = to join the majority (>1 word; polysemous)
three types of units that correspond to the notion of ‘word’: Phonological word (sequence of phonemes: he’s written), grammatical word (the presence of which is morphologically grounded: write≠wrote), lexical word (lexeme) (the headword in a dictionary entity)
3. Phraseological unit (idiom, polyword or set expression) – the largest lexical unit. Made up of at least 2 words, meaning of each is different from the meaning of the complex unit.
A lexeme is the set of all forms that have the same meaning (run, runs, ran and running), usually represented in dictionaries only by one of its form, lemma, chosen by convention to represent the lexeme.
2. General characteristics of the English lexicon.
In lex the term lexicon is viewed as the nucleus of lg, as a synonym to lex system and structure, or lexis, word-stock, or voc of a lg.
Some of the most important specific features of ModE voc:
1. The lex-n is too complex, dynamic and flexible for any accurate calculations and it is not possible to give the exact number of lex units (there is no even unanimity what should be considered a lex unit). However, the voc of ModE is very extensive, it is generally estimated that there are over 1 m words.
2. Mixed etymological character. Nat words, of Ag-Saxon origin (ago, again, blood, head, etc.) and older words of Indo-Europ origin (mother, nose, foot, cat, etc.) remain the core of the lex system of ModE: they are polysemous, communicatively important most frequently used.
3. Eng borrowed up to 70 % of its total voc from more than 50 lg.
Classical borrowings (L,Gr) and neo-classical compounds constitute perhaps the absolute majority of all the words in the lg though they are usually not used frequently. Not only words but many affixes came from L,Gr with the Renaissance, many became very productive and are often used with native roots forming such hybrids as womanize, witticism, etc.
4. Steady replenishment. Especially noticeable in the sphere of terminology. New developments in science and technology brought in use such words as laser, computer, software. Internet neologisms have also contributed much to the Eng word stock: Google, spam, app, noob.
5. Loan words changed the structure of the OE lexicon, lead to numerous etymological doublets and homonyms. They also created a 3-member pattern of stylistically different synonyms: neutral traced to Ag-Sax roots, literary words from Fr and learned words borrowed from L.
6. Monomorphism (love, hate, birth, death, etc). Most of them, both native and loans, are also monosyllables: eye, dog, home, bed; air, pay, push, cry, egg, leg, sky, skirt; disc, pain. These short words naming the most important concepts for human survival and act as sources for new names derived by lex-semantic, morphand lex-syntactic means. make up the majority of word-stock in Eng.
8. High productivity of conversion + some other non-affixal ways of word-derivation (shortening, back-formation, transposition), make many Eng derived words remain monomorphic (to knife, fan, to edit).
9. Compounding is one of the most important types of word-formation in Eng. predominant part is made up of composites without a linking element (snowman, oil-rich, sky-blue).
10. Affixation in Eng–the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases – is mainly of 2 types: pref (v) and suf (n & adj). The borrowed pref -mini-, maxi-, super-, micro-, mega-, hyper- have recently become especially active and productive in creating new words: mini- diskette, superchip, micro-surgery, or hypersonic. Af may be polysemous (dis- ‘not’ (disadvantage), ‘removal of’ (to disbranch); synonymous (decode, disagree, illegal, non-metallic, uncertain) or homonymous (bushy ‘full of’, stony ‘composed of’ and it may also be added to nominal stems to form diminutive n, pet names: Tommy).
11. Minor word-formations: different types of shortening: URL ‘uniform (or universal) resource locator’; blendings: smog; the extension of proper names: champagne, coffee, copper. analogical word-formations cheeseburger after hamburger have become very productive in ModE.
12. Lex-semantic naming is one of the most productive ways of naming in Eng. Eng semantic neologisms in the IT sphere: input, list, menu, code. high degree of polysemy. Eng more polysemous than Rus.
13. The majority of Eng words are the products of the 1st or the 2nd degree of derivation as it can be seen in the morphfamily of the n hand: handy, handless, handbook, to handcuff, handshake.
14. Lexization (institutionalization) of a word-group, changing it into a single lexeme is highly characteristic of Eng (family tree, Civil Service, Public Administration).
When with time syntagmas lose their motiv or add metaph m-ing, they may change into idioms – us-ly nationally coloured complex phrases of dif struct and degree of motiv: red herring ‘smth th distracts attention from an imp issue’; set the Thames on fire ‘do smth wh brings great public acclaim’; wash dirty linen in public ‘disclose fam troubles to outsiders’. Seman-ly word-groups cannot be reduced to m-ings of their components, fun-ly are characterized by integrity: to break the ice, in the long run, etc.
15. According to Ethnologue: there are almost 1 billion speakers of Eng as a 1st or 2nd lg. Eng lg spoken in all the continents exists in a great number of variants and dialects marked by differences in lex, phonetic and grammatical systems.
3. Etymological survey of the English language.
30% – native. 70% –loans
Etym-ly Eng is a G lg. In the 5th centuary the West G tribes of Jutes, Ags and Saxs migrated to what today is known as Eng and settled this territory by the 7th. They arrived at the request of the Celtic leader Vortigen to help repel the attacks of Picts and Scots. The Jutes came, defeated the Picts, the Scots and then killed Vortigen and established their own rule. The Ags and the Saxs came. By the 7th centuary the Ags became dominant. The isalnd was called Angleland. The Ag-Sax lg was known as Englisck, then by 1000 year –Anglish.
etym-ly Ag-Sax words used by tribes are not homogeneous: several layers may be distinguished between them. Many words have Common Indo-Europ roots: daughter, father, mother, son, heart, wether, cat, cold, 1, 2, 3. Quite a lot have Common G roots: arm, finger, hand, blood, eye, say, see, white, winter. Some words cannot be traced: dog. There are also continental L borrowings acquired from a contacts with a higher civilization of the REmp when they still lived on the continent (43 AD – 400): cup, cheese, butter, wine.
So, the 7th century Early OE consisted of words of common Indo-Europ and G roots, as well as of borrowings from Celtic, continental and early insular borrowings from L. All these words may be regarded as native. In ModE the words of Ag-Sax origin include:
auxiliary and modal vs, prons, prep (in, out, on, and under), numerals, conjunctions (and, but), and many important notional words denoting parts of the body (head, hand, arm), animals (cow, fish, goat), domestic life (door, floor, home), natural phenomena (storm, summer), qualities (old, young, light, dark), actions (come, see, hear, eat, buy).
Historical events that were followed by extensive lex borrowings:
1. Christianisation of the pagon Ag-Saxs caused 1st wave of borrows into Englisck -> a separate G lg (OE)(6th – 7th). L and Gr words related to christianity appeared in OE: devil, temple, disciple, priest, altar, church
2. The Danish invasion (8th–11th). Swedes, Norwegiand, Danes known as vikings. The ONorse word ‘viking’ -‘pirate’. Ruthless warriors -> farmers and craftsmen, 900 Scandinavian borrowings: fellow, fog, husband, happy, reindeer, knife, loan, weak, wrong. Sk- : sky, ski, skirt.
3. The Norman Conquest (1066). Brought an end to the Ag-Sax period. lg of the upper class in Eng and the of lg of the country became Fr. The period is known as Early MidE. Many words related to government, cuisine, arts, military, fashion: enemy, spy, army, battle, peace, royal, court, judge, mirror, diamond, beef, government, jewel.
4. The Renaissance period (1500-1650) Development in science, art, culture and revival of interest in ancient civilizations. Translation of texts from L, Gr and Italian: catastrophy, confidence, sarcasm, soprano, opera.
5. Recent cultural contacts between GB and other Eng-speaking countries. And many words are borrowed from Fr (parquet), G (waltz, Nazi, kindegarten), Rus (kopeck, troika, tsar), Sp (macho, buffalo, veranda), Chinese, Swedish, West Indies and etc.
As in the case with nat words, one shld bear in mind that there are dif interpretations of the term ‘borrowing in Eng’. It may be understood as:
1) the process and the result of the process of adopting by 7th Engelisck and later words, word combinations or morphemes from other lgs (-able, -ment, parliament);
2) any word or word combination created in Eng on the basis of a foreign form: a) translation-loans–words and expressions from the material available in lg after the patterns characteristic of the given lg, but under the infl of foreign lex units. Quite a lot of them have G origins (superman [Ǖbermensch], lightning-war [Blitzkrieg], mother tongue [L lingua materna], wall-paper [Rus стенная газета]; b) semantic borrowings–the appearance of a new word m-ing due to the infl of the related word in a foreign lg. m-ing ‘a subdivision of an executive department’ appeared in the Eng bureau under the infl of the related Rus бюро. On analogy with the Rus товарищ, the related Eng word comrade acquired a new meaning ‘communist; c) words coined from Gr or L roots–the longest and usually most difficult words in the Eng vocabulary where alongside with well familiar photograph, telephone there are many special terms like otorhinolaryngology. The longest word is nocalcalinocetaceoaluminosocupreovitriolic.
The main linguistic reasons:
1.) a gap in voc. potato, tomato from Spanish, when these vegetables were brought to the Br island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted.
2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view: The French word “to adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of this process.
4. Types of Word Meaning and Motivation
Linguistic meaning is studied by semantics (Greek: semanticos 'significant'). A synonymous term is semasiology, which focuses on the meaning of lexical units independent of their phonetic expression. Different theories within linguistic semantics seek to explain the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, and discourses.
Ideational Theory: Proposes that meaning originates in the mind as ideas, with words acting as symbols for these ideas.
Logical Semantics Theory: Views meaning as conditions of truth, using formulae to determine when sentences describing unreal situations can be considered meaningful.
Behaviorist Theory: Defines meaning as the intention perceived by the hearer regarding what the speaker conveys but neglects internal cognitive processes.
Ostensive Theory: Focuses on meaning derived from pointing to objects and naming them.
Lex Semantics: A branch of lexicology that studies the meaning of lexical units (morphemes and phrases). Current theories defining word meaning include:
Representational Theory: Meaning is seen as a mental representation or concept, which may or may not directly relate to the external world.
Referential Theory: States that meaning arises from the relationship among the components of the semantic triangle: symbol, concept, and referent. Some linguists add a systemic component related to other semantically related words.
Functional Theory: Asserts that meaning is derived from the use of language in context, focusing on how words serve various communicative functions.
Structural Theory: Suggests word meaning comprises a cluster of smaller units or semantic components organized in a structure.
The understanding of word meaning includes aspects such as:
Referential Meaning: The relation of a sign to its referent in the material world.
Significative Meaning: The relation between a sign and a referent or class of referents.
Pragmatic Meaning: The relation to the user's intentions and values.
Differential Meaning: The relation of a sign to other signs in the language system.
Further typologies categorize word meaning into part-of-speech, grammatical, and lexical meanings, including denotational and connotational meanings. Denotational meaning refers to the literal definition, while connotational meaning entails cultural and emotional associations. Emotive charge can be inherent or shaped by prefixes and suffixes.
Motivation refers to the connections between a name and its referent. Names often derive from preexisting names in the language community, maintaining connections over time. Motivated names may point to notable features and are classified into three types by Stephen Ullmann:
Phonetic Motivation: Found in onomatopoeic words (e.g., buzz, clatter).
Morphological Motivation: Observed in derived words closely related to their roots (e.g., teacher).
Semantic Motivation: Involves metaphorical or metonymic derivations (e.g., fox for a cunning person).
Semantic transparency varies among words, leading to classifications such as completely motivated (e.g., teacher), partially motivated (e.g., blackboard), or demotivated. Demotivation can occur when the original features of a name become loosely associated with its current meaning. The process by which a demotivated word gains a new motivation is called remotivation, often involving folk etymology or incorrect word analysis.