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Seminary
There are two principle approaches in linguistics to the study of language. They
are: the synchronic and the diachronic approaches. Special L. the synchronic
approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language at a given time, for
instance, at the present time. The diachronic approach in terms of Special L. deals
with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time.
Paradigmatic relations are those relations that unite language units into groups,
categories, and categories.
Paradigmatic relations are based on, for example, a system of consonants, a system
of declension, a synonymic series. Syntagmatic relations unite language units in
their simultaneous sequence. Syntagmatic relations are used to construct words as
a set of morphemes and syllables, phrases and analytical names, sentences
5. Разновидности слов.
The word as well as any linguistic sign is a two-faced unit possessing both form
and content, or sound form and meaning. E.g. A cat is a word primarily because it
has the lexical meaning (an animal, generally domestic) and the grammatical
meaning of the Common case singular.
The system showing a word in all its word-forms is called its paradigm.
Besides the grammatical forms of words, some scholars distinguish lexical
varieties which they term (name) variants of words.
We may speak about 2 basic groups of variants of words.
Group I comprises lexico-semantic variants, i.e. polysemantic words in each
of their meanings. E.g. compare the meaning of the verb to take (to take a book, a
taxi)
Group II comprises phonetic and morphological variants. E.g. often [ofn,
oftn]
6. Курс современной английской лексикологии. Его цели и значение.
Lecture 1
L. is a branch of linguistics, the science of language. The term “lexicology”
is composed of two Greek morphemes: lexis” and “logos”. Lexis means “a word”,
or “a phrase” and logos denotes “learning”, a department of knowledge. So, the
literal meaning of the term lexicology is the study of words. But the literal
meaning gives only a general notion of the aims and the content of this branch of
linguistics.
L. as a branch of linguistics has its own aims and methods of scientific
research. Its basic task is a study and a systematic description of vocabulary in
respect to its origin, development and current use. L. is concerned with words,
variable word-groups, phraseological units and with morphemes which make up
words.
L. is traditionally subdivided into General L. and Special L.
General L. is a part of General linguistics which studies vocabulary
irrespective (независимо) of the specific features of any particular language.
Special L. is the lexicology of a particular language (French, German,
Russian). It deals with the study and description of its vocabulary and vocabulary
units. S.L. devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities
in the vocabulary of a given language.
We can also speak about contrastive and comparative L., the aims of which
are to study the correlation (соотношение, взаимосвязь) between the vocabularies
of two or more l-ges and find out the correspondences (соответствие,
соотношение) between the vocabulary units of the l-ges under comparison.
The evolution of any vocabulary forms the object of historical L. or
etymology. This branch of linguistics discusses the origin of various words, their
change and development, and investigates the linguistic and extralinguistic forces
modifying their structure, meaning and usage.
Descriptive L. deals with the vocabulary of a given l-ge at a given stage of
its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific structure. The
D.L. of English deals with English words in their morphological and semantical
structures and investigates the interdependence between these two aspects.
L. also studies all kinds of semantic groupings and semantic relations:
synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, semantic fields.
Meaning relations are studied in semantics i.e. the branch of L. which deals
with meaning.
Approaches to language study
There are two principle approaches in linguistics to the study of language.
They are: the synchronic and the diachronic approaches. The term “synchronic” is
of Greek origin and means syn – together with and chronos – time. The word
“diachronic” is of Greek origin too and means dia – through. With regard to
Special L. the synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language
at a given time, for instance, at the present time. It is special Descriptive L. that
deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular l-ge at a certain time.
A course in M.E.L. is a course in Special Descriptive L. Its object of study is the
English vocabulary as it exists at the present time.
The diachronic approach in terms of Special L. deals with the changes and
the development of vocabulary in the course of time. It is special Historical L. that
deals with the evolution of the vocabulary units of a language as time goes by. An
English Historical L. is concerned with the origin of English vocabulary units, their
change and development.
Lexical units
L. studies various lexical units: morphemes, words, variable word-groups
and phraseological units. The word is the basic unit of l-ge system, the largest unit
on the morphologic and the smallest unit on the syntactic plane of linguistic
analysis. The word is a structural and semantic entity within the l-ge system. The
word is a unit of speech which serves the purposes of human communication. The
word can be understood as the total of the sounds which comprise it. The word,
viewed structurally, possesses several characteristics. The modern approach to
word studies is based on distinguishing btw the external and internal structures of
the word.
By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure.
E.g. 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 (исключительно) due to their
meanings.
Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both
external (or formal) unity and semantic unity.
The formal unity of the word can be best illustrated by comparing a word
and a word-group comprising identical components. E.g. the difference btw a
blackbird and a black bird is best explained by their relationship with the
grammatical system of the l-ge. The word blackbird, which is characterized by
unity, possesses a single grammatical framing: blackbird’s. The first component
“black” is not subject to any grammatical changes. In the word-group a black bird
each component can get grammatical forms of its own: the blackest bird I’ve ever
seen.
Other words can be inserted btw the components which is impossible so far
as the word is concerned as it would violate its unity: 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 a 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.
Another structural feature of the word is its susceptibility (подверженность)
to grammatical employment (применение, употребление). In speech most words
can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are
realized.
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.
Varieties of words
The word as well as any linguistic sign is a two-faced unit possessing both
form and content, or sound form and meaning. E.g. A cat is a word primarily
because it has the lexical meaning (an animal, generally domestic) and the
grammatical meaning of the Common case singular.
When used in actual speech the word undergoes certain modification and
functions in one of its forms.
The system showing a word in all its word-forms is called its paradigm. The
lexical meaning of a word is the same throughout the paradigm. In other words, all
the word-forms of one and the same word are lexically identical. On the other
hand, the grammatical meaning varies from one form to another (to take, takes,
took, taking). Therefore, when we speak of the word “writer” as used in actual
utterances (His brother is a well-known writer) we use the term “word”
conventionally (условно), because what is manifested (проявляться) in the speech
event is not the word as a whole but one of its forms which is identified as
belonging to one definite paradigm.
Besides the grammatical forms of words, some scholars distinguish lexical
varieties which they term (name) variants of words.
We may speak about 2 basic groups of variants of words.
In actual speech a word (and you should remember that most of the words
are polysemantic units) is used in one of its meanings. Such a word in one of its
meanings is called lexico-semantic variant. Group I comprises lexico-semantic
variants, i.e. polysemantic words in each of their meanings. E.g. compare the
meaning of the verb to take (to take a book, a taxi)
Group II comprises phonetic and morphological variants. E.g. often [ofn,
oftn]
It may be easily observed that a slight change in the morphemic or phonemic
composition (состав, структура) of a word is not connected with any modification
of its meaning and, vice versa, a change in meaning is not followed by any
structural changes, either morphemic or phonemic. Like word-forms, variants of
words are identified in the process of communication as making up one and the
same word. Thus, within the l-ge system the word exists as a system and unity of
all its forms and variants.
Лексические единицы
Разновидности слов
Слово, как и любой языковой знак, есть двуликая единица, обладающая как
формой, так и содержанием, или звуковой формой и значением. Например.
Кошка является словом прежде всего потому, что имеет лексическое
значение (животное, обычно домашнее) и грамматическое значение Общего
падежа единственного числа.