1. Lexicology as a science. The object of Lexicology.

Main lexicological
problems.
The term comes from Greek = «lexic» (word) + «logos» (study, learning)
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics that studies words or lexical units of
language. The main task is to study and to make systematic description of vocabulary
referring to its origin, development and current use. Lexicology is concerned with
words, variable word-groups, phraseological units and morphemes which make up
words.
Vocabulary is the system of words and word groups (словосполучення) the
language possess.
Word is the unit of lexical level.
 is the main unit of human communication.
 it is a group of sounds.
 physical object
 the object of lexicology
 the main unit of language
 the largest unit of morphological level and the smallest unit of syntactical level.
Word is the group sounds, which associated with the definite meaning.
Word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication,
representing a group of sounds, having a meaning, subject to grammatical changes
and characterized by formal and semantic unity.

1) What is lexicology?

“Lexicology (from Gr lexis ‘word’ and logos ‘learning’) is the part of

linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of
words as the main units of language. The term vocabulary is used to
denote the system formed by the sum total of all the words that the
language possesses.

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.” (I.
Arnold, Lexicology, p.9)

We do not know much about the origin of language and, consequently, of

the origin of words. We know almost nothing 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 concepts and ideas, thus establishing a two-
way process of communication.

We know very little about the nature of relations between the word and the
referent (i.e. object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the
word). If we assume that there is a direct relation between the word and the
referent 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.

We do know by now that there is nothing accidental about

the vocabulary of the language (the total sum of its words); that each
word is a small unit within a vast, efficient and perfectly balanced system.
What do we know about the nature of the word?

1. First, we know that the word is a unit of speech, which serves the
purposes of human communication. Thus, the word can be defined
as a unit of communication.

2. Secondly, the word can be perceived as the total of the sounds,

which comprise it.

3. Third, the word, viewed structurally, possesses several

characteristics.

The structure of the word

The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between

the external and the internal structures of the word. By external
structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For
example, in the word post-impressionists the following morphemes can be
distinguished: the prefixes post-, im-, the root press, the noun-forming
suffixes -ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of plurality -s. All these
morphemes constitute the external structure of the word post-
impressionists.

The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is commonly referred

to as the word’s semantic structure. This is the word’s main aspect.
Words can serve the purposes of human communication solely due to their
meanings.

The area of lexicology specializing in the semantic studies of the word is

called semantics.

Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both
external (or formal) unity and semantic unity. Formal unity of the word is
sometimes interpreted as indivisibility. The example of post-
impressionists has already shown that the word is not indivisible. Yet, its
component morphemes are permanently linked together in opposition to
word-groups, both free and with fixed contexts, whose components possess
a certain structural freedom, e.g. bright light, to take for granted.

The formal unity of the word can best be illustrated by comparing a word
and a word-group comprising identical constituents. The difference
between a blackbird and a black bird is explained by their relationship
with the grammatical system of the language. The word blackbird, which
is characterized by unity, possesses a single grammatical
framing: blackbird/s. 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 blackest birds I’ve ever
seen. Other words can be inserted between the components: a black night
bird.

The same example may be used to illustrate what we mean by 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.

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 formal and
semantic unity.

The main problems of lexicology

Two of these have been already underlined. The problem of word-

building is associated with prevailing morphological word-structures and
with processes of making new words. Semantics is the study of meaning.
Modern approaches to this problem are characterized by two different
levels of study: syntagmatic and paradigmatic.
On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analyzed in
its linear relationships with neighboring words in connected speech. In
other words, the semantic characteristics of the word are observed,
described and studied on the basis of its typical contexts.

On the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationships with

other words in the vocabulary system. So, a word may be studied in
comparison with other words of similar meaning. E.g. work n
– labour n.Work работа, труд; 1the job that a person does especially in
order to earn money. This word has many meanings (in Oxford Dictionary
– 14), many synonyms and idioms [`idiemz]: creative work творческая
деятельность; public work общественные работы;his life`s workд ело
его жизни; dirty work(difficult, unpleasant) 1 чёрная работа; 2грязное
дело, подлость.Nice work!Отлично! Здорово! Saying(поговорка): All
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy(мешай дело с бездельем,
проживёшь век с весельем) – it is not healthy to spend all your time
working; you need to relax too.

Labour: “work” и “labour” не взаимозаменимы; labour – 1work,

especially physical work: manual labour,a labour camp–исправительно-
трудовой лагерь; 2people who work: a shortage of labour; cheap labour;
skilled labour –квалифицированные рабочие, Labour Party; labour
relations; a labour ofSisyphus; Sisyphean labour[,sisi‘fi:en] сизифов
труд; тяжёлый и бесплодный труд – of a task impossible to complete.
From the Greek myth in which Sisyphus was punished for the bad things
he had done in his life with the never-ending task of rolling a large stone to
the top of a hill, from which it always rolled down again.

Other words of similar meaning (e.g. to refuse v – to reject v),of opposite

meaning (e.g. busy adj – idle adj; to accept v – to reject v),of different
stylistic characteristics (e.g. man n – chap n – bloke n – guy
n). Man– chap(coll.) – парень, малый; a good chap– славный
малый; old chap –старина; chap –BrE, informal, becoming old-
fashioned – used to talk about a man in a friendly way: He isn`t such a bad
chap really. Bloke(coll.) тип, парень: He seemed like a nice bloke. Guy –
coll. US – малый; tough guyжелезный малый; wise
guyумник; guys(informal, especially US) a group of people of either
sex: Come on, you guys! Consequently, the main problems of paradigmatic
studies are synonymy, antonymy, functional styles.