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Lecture 1. Lexicology as a Science.

1. The Object of Lexicology.
2. The Connection of Lexicology with other Branches of Linguistics.
3. The Theoretical and Practical Value of English Lexicology.

1. The Object of Lexicology.

Lexicology (from Gr. lexis 'word' and logos 'learning') is the part of linguistics. It is the science of
language. The term itself is composed of 2 Greek morphemes: lexis (“word” or “phrase”) and “logos”
(learning, a department of knowledge). Thus the literal meaning of the term “lexicology” is “the science of
the word. The literal meaning, however, gives only a general notion of the aims and the subject-matter of
this branch of linguistic science, since all other branches also take account of words in one way or another
approaching them from different angles.

2. Connection of Lexicology with Other Branches of Linguistics

The treatment of words in lexicology cannot be divorced from the study of all the other elements
in the language system to which words belong. In reality, in the actual process of communication, all these
elements are interdependent and stand in definite relations to one another.
Lexicology is closely connected with general linguistics, the history of the language, phonetics,
stylistics, grammar and such new branches of science as sociolinguistics (the study of language in
relation to its social context), paralinguistics (the study of non-verbal means of communication (gestures,
facial expressions, eye-contact, etc.)., pragmalinguistics (the branch of linguistics concerned with the
relation of speech and its users and the influence of speech upon listeners) and some others.

The connection between lexicology and phonetics:

Phonetics, for instance, investigation the phonetic structure of language, i.e. its system of phonemes
and intonation patterns is concerned with the study of the outer sound form of the word.
a) a word is an association of a given group of sounds with a given meaning so that top is one word,
and tip is another.
b) phonemes have no meaning of their own but they serve to distinguish between meanings. Their
function is building up morphemes, and it is on the level of morphemes that the form-meaning unity is
introduced into language.
c) phonemes participate in signification.

The connection between lexicology and grammar:

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Grammar, which is inseparably bound up with lexicology, is the study of the grammatical structure of
language. It is concerned with various means of expressing grammatical relations between words and with
patterns after which words are combined into word-groups and sentences.
a) is conditioned by the manifold ties between the objects of their study;
b) words seldom occur in isolation. Alongside with their lexical meaning they possess some
grammatical meaning; Cf. head of the committee and to head a committee.
c) certain grammatical functions and meanings are possible only for the words whose lexical meaning
makes them fit for these functions, and, on the other hand, some lexical meanings in some words occur only
in definite grammatical functions and forms and in definite grammatical patterns;
d) in the sphere of word-formation. The characteristic features of English word-building, the
morphological structure of the English word are dependent upon the peculiarity of the English grammatical
system.

The connection between lexicology and stylistics:

There’s also a close relationship between lexicology and stylistics or, to be more exact, Linguo-
stylistics, which is concerned with the nature, functions and structure of stylistic devices and expressive
means, on the one hand, and with the investigation of each style of language, on the other, i.e. its aim,
structure, characteristic features and the effect it produces, as well as its interrelation with other styles of
language.
Stylistics studies many problems treated in lexicology (although from a different angle): the problems
of meaning, connotations, synonymy, functional differentiation of vocabulary according to the sphere of
communication and some other issues. (Without some awareness of the connotations and history of words,
the images hidden in their root and their stylistic properties, a substantial part of the meaning of a literary
text, whether prosaic or poetic, may be lost).

3. The Theoretical and Practical Value of English Lexicology.

As a linguistic branch lexicology has its own aims and methods of scientific research, its basic task
being a study and systematic description of vocabulary units in respect to their origin, development and
current use. It is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with morphemes
which make up words. Hence lexicology can be defined as a linguistic branch dealing with the vocabulary
of the language and the properties of words as the main language units.

Speaking about branches of lexicology, distinction is naturally made between General lexicology and
Special Lexicology.
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General lexicology is part of General linguistics; it is concerned with the study of the vocabulary
irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.
Special lexicology is lexicology of a particular language. It devotes its attention to the description of
the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language.
Needless to say that every special lexicology is based on the principles worked out and laid down by
General lexicology, a general theory of the vocabulary. (Language universals are linguistic phenomena and properties
common to all languages.)
Contrastive lexicology provides a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages
can be compared and described. (Most obviously, we shall be particularly concerned with comparing
English and Ukrainian words).

There are two basically different ways in which language may be viewed, the historical or
diachronic (Gr. dia 'through' and chronos 'time') and the descriptive or synchronic (Gr syn 'together',
'with'). The distinction between two ways is a methodological distinction, because actually every linguistic
structure and system exists in a state of constant development. The distinction between a synchronic and a
diachronic approach is due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).
(Saussure, Ferdinand de is a Swiss linguist, investigated Indo-European languages, problem of
general linguistics. He was the first who considered language to be a system (structure), investigated
the nature of a language sign, considered language to be a part of semiology. His main work is: “The
course of general linguistics” (1916). He is a founder of Structural linguistics.).
Saussure contended that language must be considered as a social phenomenon, a structured system that
can be viewed synchronically (as it exists at any particular time) and diachronically (as it changes in
the course of time). He thus formalized the basic approaches to language study and asserted that the
principles and methodology of each approach are distinct and mutually exclusive. 

Historical lexicology (etymology) discusses the origin of various words, their change and development, and
investigates the linguistic and extra-linguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage.
Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It
studies the functions of words and their specific structure as a characteristic inherent in the system. The
descriptive lexicology of the English language deals with the morphological and semantic structures of the
English word, investigating the interdependence between these two aspects.

So, what does lexicology actually study? As a language branch which deals with the vocabulary,
Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy,
hyponymy, semantic fields, etc. Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics — the study of
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meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar.

The importance of English lexicology is based not on the size of its vocabulary (however, it is big), but
on the fact that at present it is the world's most widely used language.

"A Grammar of Contemporary English" by R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech and J. Svartvik

(1978) is one of the fundamental works on the English language. It gives the following data:

3. It is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people in Britain, the United
States, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and some other countries.

4. The knowledge of English is widely spread geographically — it is in fact used in all continents.

5. It is also spoken in many countries as a second language and used in official and business
activities there. This is the case in India, Pakistan and many other former British colonies.

6. English is also one of the working languages of the United Nations and the universal language of
international aviation.

7. More than a half world's scientific literature is published in English and 60% of the world's radio
broadcasts are in English.

For all these reasons it is widely studied all over the world as a foreign language.

The theoretical value of lexicology: it forms the study of one of three main aspects of language, i.e.
its vocabulary, grammar and sound system. The theory of meaning was originally developed within the
limits of philosophical science.
Lexicology came into being to meet the demands of many different branches of applied linguistics,
lexicography, standardization of terminology, information retrieval, literary criticism and especially
of foreign language teaching.
Lexicology helps to stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of vocabulary and an organized
comparison of the foreign and native languages. It is particularly useful in building up the learner's
vocabulary by an effective selection, grouping and analysis of new words. New words are better
remembered if they are given not at random but organized in thematic groups, word-families, synonymic
series, etc.
Lexicology plays a prominent part in the general linguistic training of every philologist by summing
up the knowledge acquired during all his years at the foreign language faculty. It also imparts the necessary
skills of using different kinds of dictionaries and reference books, and prepares for future independent work
on increasing and improving one's vocabulary.
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The main lexicological problems.

It is significant that many scholars have attempted to define the word as a linguistic phenomenon. Yet
none of the definitions can be considered totally satisfactory in all aspects. Nor do we fully understand
the phenomenon called “language”, of which the word is a fundamental unit. We do not know much
about the origin of language and, consequently, of the origin of words. We know nothing, or almost
nothing 0 about the mechanism by which a speaker’s mental process is converted into sound groups
called “words”, nor about the reverse process whereby a listener’s brain converts the acoustic
phenomena into notions and ideas, thus establishing a two0way process of communication. We know
very little about the nature of relations between the words and the referent (object, phenomenon,
quality, action, etc., denoted by the word). If we assume that there’s a direct relation between the word
and the referent – which seems logical – it gives rise to another question: how should we explain the
fact that the same referent is designated by quite different sound groups in different languages?
Though with vague uncertainty we do know by now that there’s nothing accidental about the
vocabulary of a language; that each word is a small unit within a vast, efficient and perfectly balanced
system. But we don’t know why it possesses these qualities, nor do we know much about the processes by
which it has acquired them. The list of “unknowns” could be extended, but probably it’s high time to look at
the brighter side.
Firstly, we do know that the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the purposes of human
communication. Thus the word can be defined as a unit of communication, secondly, the word can be
perceived as the total of the sounds which it comprises. Thirdly, the word, viewed structurally, possesses
several characteristics. The modern approach ro word studies is based on distinguishing between the
external (by it we mean its morphological str-re, i.e. prefixes, the root, suffixes) and the internal (its
meaning, nowadays commonly referred to as the word’s semantic str-re) structures of the word. The internal
str-re is certainly the word’s main aspect. Words can serve the puposes of human communic-n solely due to
their meanings (the area specializing in the semantic studies of the word is called Semantics).
Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both the external (formal) and
the semantic unity. The formal unity of the word can be best illustrated by comparing a word and a word-
group comprising identical constituents. The difference between “a blackbird” and "a black bird” is best
explained by their relationship with the grammatical system of the language. The word blackbird, which is
characterized by unity, possesses a single grammatical framing: blackbirds. The first constituent “black” is
not subject to any grammatical changes. In the word-group "a black bird” each constituent can acquire
grammatical forms of its own: the blackes birds I’ve ever seen. Other words can be inserted between the
components, which is impossible so far as the word is concerned as it would violate its unity: a black night
bird.
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The same example may be used to illustrate what we mean by the semantic unity. In the word-group
“a black bird” each of the meaningful words conveys a separate concept: bird - a kind of living creature;
black - a colour. The word “blackbird” conveys only one concept: the type of bird. This is one of the main
features of any word: it always conveys one concept, no matter how many component morphemes it may
have in its external structure.
A further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. In speech most
words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are realized.
So, the term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a
particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. A
word therefore is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. Thus, in the word girl the
group of sounds [gə;l] is associated with the meaning 'a female child up to the age of 17 or 18 (also with
some other meanings, but this is the most frequent) and with a definite grammatical employment, i.e. it is a
noun and thus has a plural form — girls, it is a personal noun and has the Genitive form girl's, it may be
used in certain syntactic functions.

All that we have said about the word can be summed up as follows:
The word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a
group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical employment and characterized by the
formal and semantic unity.
The term vocabulary is used to denote the system formed by the sum total of all the words and
word equivalents that the language possesses.

Basic terms and notions:

Lexicology, vocabulary, word, general lexicology, special lexicology, language universals,

contrastive lexicology, historical lexicology (etymology), descriptive lexicology, semantics, historical
(diachronic), descriptive (synchronic), Ferdinand de Saussure, sociolinguistics, paralinguistics,
pragmalinguistics, speech unit, morpheme, language, semantic unity.