LECTURE 1

INTRODUCTION. LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF GENERAL

LINGUISTICS. BASIC TERMS AND NOTIONS

1. The subject matter of lexicology.

2. Links of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics.
3. The structure of English vocabulary.
4. Specific features of the present-day English word-stock.

1. Language is studied from different angles as every linguistic unit is a composite

of several elements without which it can not exist. They are: sound, form, meaning,
usage. General Linguistics studies the language from all these angles including the
following branches: Phonetics, Grammar, Lexicology, Stylistics. History of the
language is a component part of all the four branches of General Linguistics because
many facts and phenomena can’t be properly understood and explained without
historical analysis.
The term “lexicology” is composed of two Greek morphemes: lexis meaning
“word, phrase”, and logos – “learning”, “knowledge”. Thus L. as a branch of General
Linguistics deals with different properties of words and the vocabulary of a language.
The basic task of L. is to study and describe the vocabulary in respect to its origin,
development and current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, phrases, units and
morphemes that make up words.
There are two types of lexicology.
The general study of the vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any
particular language is known as General Lexicology. It treats of general laws,
characteristics of the word in the vocabulary of every language.
Special Lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic
peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language. Every Special Lexicology is
based on the principles of General Lexicology, and the latter forms a part of General
Linguistics.
Special Lexicology may be historical and descriptive.
Historical Lexicology deals with the history of the vocabulary of the language
showing its change and development in the course of time. It implies the diachronic
method of study (Gr. dia – “through”, chronos – “time”).
Destriptive Lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given
stage of its development. It uses the synchronic method of study (syn – “together”,
chronos – “time”).
Both diachronic and synchronic methods may be used separately or
simultaneously when necessary. To illustrate the interdependence of these two
methods let’s take the following example:
E.g. beggar It is understood today as a derived word from the verb to beg by
means of the suffix ar- which is a variant of the suffix er-, analogically to the words
reader, teacher, worker, etc. Yet, the diachronic method reveals to us that the word
beggar was not formed in English but was borrowed from Old French in the form of
beggar. After being assimilated in English it was compared with other English words
of the same structure and the root beg was singled out and used as a verb. Thus, in
this example it was a verb derived from the noun but not the other way round.
So the opposition of the two approaches is nevertheless disputable as the
vocabulary as well as the word is not only what it is now at the peculiar stage of the
language’s development but also what it was centuries ago and has been throughout
its history.

2. Lexicology as a branch of General Linguistics is closely connected with other

branches as they also take into account words in one way or another approaching
them from different angles.

The importance of the connection of Lexicology with Phonetics stands explained

if we think of the fact that Phonetics studies the outer sound form of the word.
Besides phonetic means are employed in coining new words which is the problem of
Lexicology.
For example, it may be
a. change of accent which forms verbs from nouns:
n. present – v. present
n. object – v. object
n. insult – v. insult
b. change of a root sound
[s] – [z] – adj. close – v. close, n. use – v. use
[u] – [i] – n. food – v. feed

Grammar is concerned with various means of expressing grammatical relations

between words and the patterns after which the words are combined into the word
groups (combinations) and sentences. Grammatical means are also used in the
formation of new words: the iflexion of plurality s can be employed to coin new
words:
custom (tradition) – customs (plurality of custom & duties on goods imported
from another country)
carrot (a plant, a vegetable) – carrots (red hair), etc.
In cases like these we speak of the lexicalization of a grammatical form.

The connection of Lexicology with Stylistics manifests itself in the fact that
Stylistics studies a word from the point of view of its functional meaning and usage,
its expressive force, its reference to different styles of human speech. Lexicology
studies the vocabulary of different functional styles: neutral, literary-bookish,
colloquial.
e.g. My father is not at home now – My dad is out – I’m proud of my parent

History of the language helps us to understand many peculiarities in the English

vocabulary when studying it closer. It explains how synonyms & homonyms
appeared in the language, it reveals the original connections between words which do
not seem to be connected nowadays: dish – disk, shy – sky; it explains why such
words as machine, regime are stressed in an unusual way (the stress on the last
syllable) & why such a sound as [Ʒ] exists in some English words though it is not
typical of English (pleasure, measure, etc.). Thus, a word as a multisided unit of
speech is an object of analysis of different branches.

3. The sum of all words, word equivalents and also phraseological units make up
the language vocabulary, it presents a certain system. The term “system” used in
reference to the vocabulary denotes not the sum total of all words of the language; it
also means that all vocabulary units are interrelated, interconnected and
interdependent & they are influenced by extra-linguistic reality.
The extralinguistic relationships refer to the connections of words to objects of
reality which they serve to denote. One of the most promising methods of
investigating lexical & sense relations is by studying the word’s relationships with
other words in typical contexts, i.e. its combinability or collocability.
The relationship of collocation is a fundamental one in the study of vocabulary; it
is a marriage contract between words, & some of them are more firmly married to
each other than others. It is an important organizing principle in the vocabulary of
any language.
e.g. In English we can say ‘she has a beige car’ but not ‘she has beige hair’; I can
say ‘she has blond hair’ but not ‘she has a blond car’. ‘Beige’ & ‘blond’ although
both describing colours, are restricted in respect of what words they may combine
with. ‘Beige’ collocates with ‘car’ but not with ‘hair’; ‘blond’ collocates with ‘hair’
but not with ‘car’.
Collocation is a relationship observable between items when they are arranged
in texts, spoken or written. But every time we use a vocabulary item, we choose it
rather than any other; so another kind of relationship exists between units: how they
are related to one another in terms of their meaning; how similar or how different
they are to one another; how they may or may not substitute for one another & so on.
Relations among words can be divided roughly into two types: paradigmatic
and syntagmatic relationships. These two types of relationships were introduced by F.
de Saussure.
Syntagmatic relations are those between words that go together in syntactic
phrases.
e.g. She was very sad (unhappy, happy).

We can illustrate this type of relationships with the following example:

plan rejected
The was by the committee.
application approved
scheme submitted
proposal accepted

Figure 1.

Collocational relationships that exist between the items in one box and the items
in the other are called syntagmatic (or left-to-right textual relationships). They are
based upon the linear character of speech being relations between words within a
chain, within a concrete utterance. They are based on the influence of the context.
Thus, we are interested in the linear combinability of phrases.
But there are also relations between items within each box (Fig. 1). We might feel,
for instance, that ‘approve’ and ‘accept’ are quite close in meaning to ‘reject’ or that
‘scheme’ and ‘plan’ are quite similar & so on. Such relations are called paradigmatic
relationships that are based on the interdependence of words within the vocabulary
i.e. on the systematic nature of a language vocabulary. The words in such relations
form a paradigm, a set of examples that show a pattern.
Paradigmatic relationships between linguistic elements are to be observed in
various possible groupings or subsystems within the system of the vocabulary.
They are as follows:
a) word families with a common root (e.g. hand, handy, handful…);
b) synonymic sets with a common component of their lexical meaning (e.g. to
like, to love, to be fond of, to enjoy, to adore, to worship);
c) words with the opposite meaning (antonyms) (e.g. busy – idle, to accept – to
reject);
d) thematic groups having a common sphere of reference: names of parts of a
human body (e.g. a leg, hand, head, foot, arm), colour terms, names of animals,
etc.;
e) Lexical (or semantic fields) having a common semantic component
(denominator). E.g. ‘pleasant emotions’ (joy, happiness, enjoyment, gaiety, to
enjoy, to be glad, to be pleased, pleasure, etc.);
f) The relation of hyponomy (inclusion) serving to structure large parts of a
language vocabulary. Hyponomy organizes words into taxonomies, or
hierarchical tree-type diagrams. At the top of the hierarchy there is a
‘superordinate’ term, those below it are its ‘hyponyms’, e.g.: a ‘house’ is a
hyponym of ‘building’ because a house is a type of building.

g) stylistic layers characterized by a common sphere of usage: here you are, hello,
bye-bye, awfully sorry (they all belong to the colloquial style).

Diachronically the interdependence of words within lexical subsystems can be

shown on the examples of changes that the meanings of words undergo when a new
word is introduced into their semantic sphere. For instance, in OE the word harvest
originally meant a) gathering crops, and b) the period when this was done. In the 14-
th century the word autumn was borrowed from French and it ousted native word
harvest in its second meaning.
Thus, the vocabulary of a language is essentially a dynamic & well-integrated
system of lexical units structured by relationships of meaning. The system is
changing continuously and mainly characterized by general-particular and part-whole
relationships.

4. Modern English has a number of specific features that made it different from
the vocabulary of other languages.
1. a high percentage of very short, one-syllable, non-motivated lexical units: say,
ask, lay, cat.
 2. the abundance of homonyms, especially among one-syllable words. According
to the data of the Oxford Dictionary there are at present more than 2.540
homonyms in English out of which nearly 90% are one-syllable words:
e.g. bat – (a) a zoological term, (b) instrument;
tap – (a) an object (water tap), (b) physical contact.
3. a high percent of polysemous words. New English Dictionary (NED) registers
that the first 1.000 of most frequent words in English may express 25.000
meanings.
4. a paramount importance of context in determining the meanings of words: e.g.
green years (young), green fruit (not ripe), green teacher (inexperienced),
heavy bag (weighty), heavy sky (cloudy), heavy taxes (high), heavy sea
(stormy). The term “context” is defined as the minimum stretch of speech
necessary and sufficient to understand which of the possible meanings of a
polysemantic word is used.

c.f. blue eyes, to feel blue;

the wall of the house, the wall of indifference

In some cases, the microcontext (i.e. a sentence or a syntagma) is not enough

and a broader context which is called macrocontext is necessary.
5. a great number of borrowings in English. Lexicographers have estimated that
70% of the English vocabulary are loaned words and only 30% are native
elements.

Recommended Literature
1. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. – М.: Высш.
школа, 1986.
2. Лексикология английского языка / Р.З.Гинзбург, С.С.Хидекель, Г.Ю.Князева,
А.А.Санкин. – М.: Высш. школа, 1979.
3. Rayevska N.M. English Lexicology. – K.: Вища школа, 1979.
4. Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьєва О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология английского
языка. – М.: Дрофа, 2001.
5. Дубенец Э.М. Лексикология современного английского языка: лекции и
семинары. – М.: «Глоса-Пресс», 2002.
6. Мостовий М.І. Лексикологія англійської мови. – Х.: Основа, 1993.
7. Верба Л.Г. Порівняльна лексикологія англійської та української мов. -
Вінниця: Нова книга, 2003.
8. Коваленко Г.М. Lexicology of the English Language. – К.: Освіта України,
2011.
9. Кунин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. – М.: Высш.
школа, 1986.
10. Медникова Э.М. Практикум по лексикологии современного английского
языка. – М.: Высш. школа, 1978.
11. Ніколенко А.Г. Лексикологія англійської мови – теорія і практика. -
Вінниця: Нова книга, 2007.
12. McCarthy M., O’Dell F. English Vocabulary in Use (advanced). – Cambridge
University Press, 2002.