English
g
Lexicology
gy
Introduction
17 October 2007
Introduction
y
y
y
y
y
What is lexicology?
From Greek lexis, “word”,lexikos, “of/for words”.
It can be defined as the study of vocabulary or lexis of a
language.
Lexis – the stock of words in a given language
language, ii.e.
e its
vocabulary or lexicon.
Here
e e we use “word”
wo
somewhat
so ew at loosely,
oose y, in the
t e
traditional sense of sequence of letters bounded by
spaces.
Introduction
Vocabulary
y Lexis
y Lexicon
y Synonymous?
y Dictionary≠Vocabulary
y Dictionary is only a selective recording of
the word stock at a given point in time.
time
y
Introduction
Lexicology deals not only with simple
words in all their aspects, but also with
complex and compound words, the
g units of language.
g g These units
meaningful
have to be analysed in respect of both
their form and their meaning.
y Because of that, lexicology relies on
i f
information
i d
derived
i d ffrom:
p
gy semantics, etymology.
y
gy
morphology,
y
Morphology
The study of morphemes and their
arrangements in forming words.
y Morphemes are the smallest meaningful
units which mayy constitute words or
parts of words.
y They
Th are smallest
ll t iin th
the sense th
thatt th
they
cannot be broken down further on the
basis of meaning.
y
Morphology
y
Morphs: cat, chair, farm, -ing,
ing, -s,
s, -er.
er.
y
Simple words: door, knob, wild, animal.
y
Complex words: spoonful, wildish, mentally, farmer.
y
Compound words:. door-knob, cheeseburger, pound saver, wild-animaltamer.
y
Morphemes
M
h
that
h can occur alone
l
as individual
i di id l words
d are free
f
morphemes. Those that can occur only with another morpheme
are bound morphemes.
y
Any concrete realization of a morpheme in a given utterance is
called a morph.
y
Morphs should not be confused with syllables.
syllables The basic difference
between the two is that while morphs are manifestations of
morphemes and represent a specific meaning, syllables are parts of
words
d which
hi h are iisolated
l d only
l on the
h bbasis
i off pronunciation.
i i
Morphology
y
Morphology is also of importance when simple, complex and
compound words are dealt with.
y
Simple words such as door, knob, wild are all free morphemes and
they
h are morphologically
h l i ll unanalysable.
l bl C
Complex
l words
d such
h as
spoonful, wildish, reanimate, mentally are formed from simpler words
by the addition of affixes or some other kind of morphological
modification.
y
Compound words, or simply compounds, are formed by combining
two or more words (free morphemes) with or without
morphological modification, e.g. Door-knob, cheeseburger, wild-animaltamer...
y
It should be pointed out that the distinction between word
compound (solid and hyphenated) and phrasal compound (open) is
not very clear in English. This results with inconsistency of usage of
hyphens and spaces in written English.
Semantics
The study of meaning.
meaning
y Several kinds of semantics: pragmatic
semantics, sentence semantics, lexical
se
semantics...
t cs...
y
Semantics
y
y
y
Acceptability and meaningfulness – distinct but related
concepts. They are important in lexicology because we
can have
ca
ave utterances
utte a ces that
t at are
a e meaningless
ea g ess but acceptable,
acceptab e,
while others may be meaningful but unacceptable.
For example:
p “that boyy is a ggirl”.
For example: “Whales can fly”.
Etymology
Is defined as the study of the whole
history of words, not just of their origin.
y Term coined by Stoics in 4th century BC.
y
Etymology
y
Folk etymology: a historical process
whereby speakers who cannot analyse an
obscure form replace it with a different
p
g
y
form which is morphologically
transparent.
Folk etymology
y
Modern English expression:
“till death do us part”
Originally had the form: “till
till death us
depart”.
Croatian plava riba?
Lexicography
y
y
y
Can be defined as a special technique,
technique the writing and
compilation of dictionaries.
Lexicography can be regarded as “applied
applied lexicology”.
lexicology .
Lexicology is not the only branch of linguistics which
pprovides an input
p to lexicography.
g p y Clearly,
y, morphology,
p
gy,
syntax and phonology do. Sociolinguistics, too,
contributes in the language variety, and the inclusion of
information on styles and registers.
The Structure of English vocabulary
y
y
y
There have been a number of attempts to discover
some of the general principles on which vocabulary is
g
These attempts
p have focused on three main
organised.
areas: that of individual words and their associations,
that of semantic or lexical fields, and lastly that of word
f ili
families.
Word classes are one way of accounting for the
str ct re of the English
structure
En lish vocabulary.
ocab lar
Traditional grammars of English distinguish eight parts of
speech: noun,
noun pronoun
pronoun, adjective
adjective, verb
verb, adverb
adverb,
preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
Word Classes
y
More modern grammarians have elaborated these parts of speech
into further classes. For example, Quirk et al. (1985):
y
a) closed classes: preposition, pronoun, determiner, conjunction,
auxiliary
ili
verb;
b
y
b) open classes: noun, adjective, verb, adverb;
y
c) lesser categories: numeral,
numeral interjection;
y
d) a small number of words of unique function: the particle not and
the infinitive marker to.
y
The closed classes contain the so-called grammatical or function
words, which generally serve the grammatical construction of
sentences. They are small classes, with a restricted and largely
unchanging membership.
y
The open classes, by contrast, are large, and they are constantly
b i added
being
dd d to. The
Th members
b
off the
h open classes
l
are the
h content
words, carrying the main meaning of a sentence; they are the words
likely to be retained in a telegram or a headline.