Lexicology

 Lexicology is the part of linguistics dealing with the … of the language and the properties
of words as the main units of language. vocabulary
 There are two basically different ways in which language may be viewed, the historical or
diachronic and the … or synchronic. descriptive
 … being based on the linear character of speech are studied by means of contextual,
valency, distributional, transformational and some other types of analysis. Syntagmatic
relationships
 … determining the vocabulary system are based on the interdependence of words within the
vocabulary (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc.). Paradigmatic relationships
 … is defined as a semantically relevant relationship of partial difference between two
partially similar words. A lexical opposition
 … provides a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be
compared and described. contrastive lexicology
 The basic unit forming the bulk of the vocabulary is the … . word
 … deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of it
development.descriptive lexicology
 … discusses the origin of various words, their change and development.historical
lexicology
 When there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those
referred to by the sense, the motivation is … .phonetical
 The example of … is: the prefix ex- means 'former' when added to human nouns: ex-
filmstar, ex-president, ex-wife.morphological motivation
 This type of motivation is based on the co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the
same word within the same synchronous system.semantic motivation
 … has been syntactically defined for instance as "the minimum sentence" by H. Sweet and
much later by L. Bloomfield as "a minimum free form".A word
 …: the same combinations of sounds are used in many semantically similar words, they
become more closely associated with the meaning. E.g.: flap, flip, flop, flitter, flimmer,
flicker, flutter, flash, flush, flare... Sound symbolism
 When associations concern the situation in which the word is uttered, the social
circumstances (formal, familiar, etc.), the social relationships between the interlocutors
(polite, rough), the type and purpose of communication (learned, poetic, official, etc.), the
connotation is … .stylistic connotation
 … is acquired by the word as a result of its frequent use in contexts corresponding to
emotional situations or because the referent conceptualized and named in the denotative
meaning is associated with emotions. For example, the verb beseech means 'to ask eagerly
and also anxiously'. E. g.: He besought a favour of the fudge (Longman).emotional
connotation
 … expresses approval or disapproval. E.g. magic, witchcraft and sorcery. evaluative
connotation
 … is called also expressive, emphatic. E.g. magnificent, gorgeous, splendid, superb are
used colloquially as terms of exaggeration.intensifying connotation
 When there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the words and those
referred to by the sense, the motivation is … .phonetical
 Sometimes in an attempt to find motivation for a borrowed word the speakers change its
form so as to give it a connection with some well-known word. These cases of mistaken
motivation received the name … .folk etymology
 The branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of words and word equivalents is
called … .semasiology
 … is the realization of concept or emotion by means of a definite language system.Lexical
meaning
 … studies only such meanings that can be expressed, that is concepts bound by
signs.Semantics
 … is defined as an expression in speech of relationships between words based on
contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur.The grammatical meaning
 … is the common denominator of all the meanings of words belonging to a lexico-grammat-
ical class of words, it is the feature according to which they are grouped together.The
lexico-grammatical meaning
 The conceptual content of a word is expressed in its … .denotative meaning
 Complex associations originating in habitual contexts, verbal or situational, of which the
speaker and the listener are aware give the word its … .connotational meaning
 All lexical and lexico-grammatical variants of a word taken together form its semantic
structure or … .semantic paradigm
 The meaning is … when it nominates the referent without the help of a context, in isolation,
i.e. in one word sentences.direct
 The meaning is … when the object is named and at the same time characterized through its
similarity with another object. figurative
 The study of means and ways of naming the elements of reality is called … .оnоmasiоlоgу
 Extension of meaning or … means extension of the word-range. Most words begin as
specific names for things. Often, however, this precise denotation is quickly lost and the
word's meaning is extended and generalised.generalisation
 Narrowing of meaning or … In the process of narrowing of meaning a word of wide
meaning acquires a narrower, specialised sense in which it is applicable only to some of the
objects it had previously denoted, or a word of wide usage is restricted in its application and
comes to be used only in a special sense.specialisation
 Degradation of meaning or … It is the process whereby, for one reason or another, a word
falls into disrepute. Words once respectable may become less respectable. degeneration
 Elevation of meaning or … Words often rise from humble beginnings to positions of greater
importance.amelioration
 All the words are classified into stylistically … and stylistically coloured.neutral
 Stylistically coloured words are classified into … .bookish and colloquial
 Bookish styles are classified into … . general, poetical, learned.
 Colloquial styles are subdivided into … .literary colloquial, familiar colloquial, slang
 Context may be subdivided into … .lexical, syntactical and mixed.
 … e.g., determines the meaning of the word black in the following examples. Black denotes
colour when used with the key-word naming some material or thing, e. g. black velvet,
black gloves. When used with key-words denoting feeling or thought, it means 'sad',
'dismal', e.g. black thoughts, black despair. With nouns denoting time, the meaning is
'unhappy', 'full of hardships', e. g. black days, black period.Lexical context
 If, the indicative power belongs to the syntactic pattern and not to the words which make it
up, the context is called … E. g. make means 'to cause' when followed by a complex object:
I couldn't make him understand a word I said.Syntactical context
 By … is meant the transference of meaning on the basis of similarity. It gives vivacity and
expressiveness to speech and is especially necessary when an accustomed term loses its
force through familiarity. E.g.: a ray of hope, a shade of doubt, a flash of wit, the light of
knowledge.metaphor
 The process of people being nicknamed from animals is called … . Names of animals are
often used metaphorically to denote human qualities. zoosemy
 … is the device in which the name of one thing is changed for that of another, to which it is
related by association of ideas, as having close relationship to one another. E.g.: / am reading
Pushkin (meaning Pushkin's works).metonymy
 Whereas the metaphor is an implied comparison, the … a direct comparison. E.g.: The
moon is like a silver coin. It may be recognized easily by the presence of like or as,
occasionally by the comparative degree with than and less frequently, usually in older
poetry, by so. sіmі1e
 … is another name for an exaggeration. By this figure we mean a statement exaggerated
fancifully for the purpose of creating an effect. E.g.: I have not seen you for ages. I'd give
the world to see her. Millions of reasons. I beg a thousand pardons. The whole town was
there. Hyperbole
 The earliest known meaning is called …etymological
 The meaning superseded at present by a newer now but still remaining in certain
collocations is called …archaic
 Meaning gone out of use is called …obsolete
 Meaning serving as basis for the derived ones is called …original
 Many of words were derived from proper names by the process known as …antonomasia
 The … of meaning is frequently brought about by the omission of a noun and the retention
of an adjective in the sense which the whole phrase intended to express.narrowing
 The process opposite to degradation is known as …amelioration
 … derives its effect from deliberate understatement.litotes
 … tries to conceal unpleasantness under a seemingly pleasant exterior, i. e. to use a pleasant
or innocuous term to describe a disagreeable fact.euphemism
 … is an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern.A morpheme
 According to the role they play in constructing words, morphemes are subdivided into …
roots and affixes
 Affixes are subdivided according to their position into…prefixes, suffixes and infixes
 Affixes are subdivided according to their function and meaning into…derivational and
functional affixes
 … may be regarded as the ultimate constituent element which remains after the removal of
all functional and derivational affixes and does not admit any further analysis.A root
 … is defined as a positional variant of a morpheme occurring in a specific environment and
so characterised by complementary distribution.An allomorph
 Words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different languages are
called…hybrids
 Shortening of words in written speech results in … which are signs representing words and
word-groups of high frequency of occurrence in various spheres of human
activity.graphical abbreviations
 … are formed by a simultaneous operation of shortening and compounding. They are made
up of the initial sounds or syllables of the components of a word-group or a compound word
usually of a terminological character.lexical abbreviations
 … consists in the cutting off of one or several syllables of a word.clipping
 The term … is used to designate the method of merging parts of words (not morphemes)
into one new word; the result is a blend, also known as a portmanteau word.blending
 The term … refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word-forms, primarily the
so-called initial forms, of two words belonging to different parts of speech.conversion
 Words that have been shortened at the end are called …apocope
 Words that have been shortened at the beginning are called …aphaeresis
 Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from the middle are called …
syncope
 Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution
and (in many cases) origin are called …homonyms
 A stem containing one or more affixes is … a derived stem
 If after deducing the affix the remaining stem is not homonymous to a separate word of the
same root, we call it …a bound stem
 … are roots capable of producing new words.productive roots
 If the analysis is limited to stating the number and type of morphemes that make up the
word, it is referred to as …morphemic analysis
 … proceeds further: it studies the structural correlation with other words, the structural
patterns or rules on which words are built.structural word-formation analysis
 In … the semantic similarity or difference of words is revealed by the possibility or
impossibility of transforming them according to a prescribed model and following certain
rules into a different form, called their transform.transformational analysis
 The classification of compounds according to the structure of immediate constituents
distinguishes: 1): … E.g.: film-star.compounds consisting of simple stems
 The classification of compounds according to the structure of immediate constituents
distinguishes: 2): … E.g.: chain-smoker.compounds where at least one of the
constituents is a derived stem
 The classification of compounds according to the structure of immediate constituents
distinguishes: 3): … E.g.: maths-mistress (in British English) and math-mistress (in
American English).compounds where at least one of the constituents is a clipped stem
 The classification of compounds according to the structure of immediate constituents
distinguishes: 4): … E.g.: wastepaper-basket.compounds where at least one of the
constituents is a compound stem
 When a derivational or functional affix is stripped from the word what remains is a …stem
 … serve to convey grammatical meaning.functional affixes
 … serve to supply the stem with components of lexical and lexico-grammatical meaning,
and thus form different words.derivational affixes
 Suffixes -age, -ance/-ence, -dom, -ee, -eer, -er,-ess, -hood are ….noun-forming suffixes
 Suffixes -able/-ible/-uble, -al, -ic, -ary, -ed/-d, -ful are …adjective-forming suffixes
 Suffixes –ate, -er, -en, -fy/-ify, -ize, -ish are …verb-forming suffixes
 By … we shall mean those that existed in English in the Old English period or were formed
from Old English words.native affixes
 In … neither of the components dominates the other, both are structurally and semantically
independent and constitute two structural and semantic centres as in secretary-stenographer,
actor-manager, bittersweet, etc. The constituent stems in these compounds belong to the
same part of speech and most often to the same semantic group.coordinative compounds
 … are elements that stand midway between roots and affixes.semi-affixes
 … are twin forms consisting of one basic morpheme (usually the second), sometimes a
pseudo-morpheme which is repeated in the other constituent with a different vowel.ablaut
combinations
 In … different meanings of one and the same word are mutually dependent and proceed
from the primary signification. It is the natural consequence of sense-shift undergone by
words in different contexts.synonyms
 According to R.Ginzburg, the process of … can be observed when different meanings of the
same word move so far away from each other that they come to be regarded as two separate
units.diverging meaning development
 … is the most potent factor in the creation of homonyms. The great majority of homonyms
arise as a result of this process which leads to the coincidence of two or more words which
were phonetically distinct at an earlier date.convergent sound development
 … are words identical in pronunciation and spelling.Homonyms proper
 … are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning.Homophones
 … are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in
spelling.Homographs
 … are words different in sound but most nearly alike or exactly the same in
meaning.synonyms
 … is the most general term of its kind potentially containing the specific features rendered
by all the other members of the synonymic group.dominant synonym
 … are words conveying the same notion but differing in shades of meaning.Ideographic
synonyms
 … are words differing in stylistic characteristics.Stylistic synonyms
 … are words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic
characteristics.Absolute synonyms
 In the process of speaking a word of more or less pleasant or at least inoffensive
connotation becomes synonymous to one that is harsh, obscene, indelicate or otherwise
unpleasant. As the "offensive" referents, for which these words stand, must still be alluded
to, they are often described in a round-about way, by using substitutes called
… .euphemisms
 …are words belonging to the same part of speech, containing identical stems and
synonymical affixes, and yet not permitting free variation, not optional.paronyms
 I.Arnold defines …as two or more words of the same language belonging to the same part
of speech and to the same semantic field, identical in style and nearly identical in
distribution, associated and often used together so that their denotative meanings render
contradictory or contrary notions.antonyms
 One of the classifications of antonyms is based on a morphological approach: root words
form …, e.g. right : : wrong.absolute antonyms
 The presence of negative affixes creates …, e.g. happy : : unhappy.derivational antonyms
 …have been defined as word-groups conveying a single notion.Phraseological units
 In … each meaningful component stands for a separate notion.Free word-groups
 … are word-groups with a partially changed meaning. They are clearly motivated, that is,
the meaning of the unit can be easily deduced from the meanings of its
constituents.Phraseological combinations
 … are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of the unit
does not correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts. They are motivated
units.Phraseological fusions
 … are word-groups with a completely changed meaning but they are demotivated, that is,
their meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of the constituent parts.Phraseological
fusions
 … is a newly coined word or phrase or a new meaning for an existing word, or a word
borrowed from another language.Neologism
 When the causes of the word's disappearance are extra-linguistic, e.g. when the thing named
is no longer used, its name becomes … .histоrism
 … are words that were once common but are now replaced by synonyms.Archaisms
 Linguistically … is defined as a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere of
communication.a functional style
 The broadest binary division of functional styles is into … .formal and informal (also
called colloquial) style
 The term … is used to cover those varieties of the English vocabulary (there are also
peculiarities of phonetics and grammar, but they do not concern us here) that occur in books
and magazines, that we hear from a lecturer, a public speaker, a radio announcer or,
possibly, in formal official talk.formal English
 … is used in personal two-way every-day communication. A dialogue is assisted in its
explicitness by the meaningful qualities of voice and gesture. The speaker has ample
opportunity to know whether he is understood, the listener can always interrupt him and
demand additional information, i.e. there is constant feedback. informal vocabulary
 Another type of classification of slang suggests subdivision according to the sphere of
 usage, into general slang and special slang. … includes words that are not specific for any
social or professional group.General slang
 … is peculiar for some such group: teenager slang, university slang, public school slang, Air
Force slang, football slang.Special slang
 … is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling,
paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.Borrowed word
 … are words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the British lan-
guage but according to patterns taken from another language, by way of literal morpheme-
for-morpheme or word-for-word translation. E.g.: chain-smoker : : Germ Kettenraucher;
wall newspaper : : Ukr стінна гaзеma.Loan translations
 The term "…" is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due
to the influence of a related word in another language. The English word pioneer meant
'explorer' and 'one who is among the first in new fields of activity'; but under the influence
of the Ukrainian word nіoнep it has come to mean 'a member of the Youth
Organization'.semantic loan
 Homonyms may be classified by the type of meaning into… .lexical, lexico-grammatical
and grammatical homonyms
 … are words quite different in meaning but identical in some of their grammatical
forms.Homоfоrms
 … classifies phraseological units into three classes: phraseological combinations, unities
and fusions.Vinogradov
 … phraseological units are represented by proverbs and sayings.Communicative
 By a …we understand a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning,
a common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possibly a characteristic set of
suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning.lexiсo-grammatical group
 The term …is used to denote the vocabulary used by educated people in the course of
ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate friends.literary colloquial
 … is a term used for illiterate popular speech.familiar colloquial
 … are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized
literary form.Local dialeсts
 In Great Britain there are two variants… .Scottish English and Irish English
 Cockney is lively and witty and its vocabulary imaginative and colourful. Its specific
feature not occurring anywhere else is the so-called …, in which some words are substituted
by other words rhyming with them.rhyming slang
 Three major belts of dialects have so far been identified in USA, each with its own
characteristic features … .Northern, Midland and Southern
 Theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called … .lexicography
 For dictionaries in which the words and their definitions belong to the same language the
term or explanatory is used.unilingual
 Unilingual dictionaries are divided into … .diachronic and synchronic
 General dictionaries represent the vocabulary as a whole with a degree of completeness
depending upon the scope and bulk of the book in question.General dictionaries