Lexicology of English lectures and exercises for part-time

What Lexicology is about
(The Object of Lexicology)
Lecture 1.

§ 1. Aspects of Study
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.
English has the greatest vocabulary of all (≈2700) languages – about 1 mln words (according to the estimate of Global Language Monitor made in 2006)
Lexicology (of Greek origin: lexis «word» + logos «learning») is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of language.
The word is the basic unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment.
Spanish – 225,000
German – 200,000
Russian – 125,000
French – 100,000

Lexeme as an object of lexicology
A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain.
to read, have read, is reading, reads are forms of one and the same lexeme
to read as 1) understand something intuitively (to be able to read the future)
2) interpret written material and utter written words
3) give particular interpretation to something (I read this passage as being extremely optimistic), etc.
are variants of one and the same lexeme
to read between lines is a set expression, semantically equivalent to a word and is a lexeme

§ 2. Branches of Lexicology
Semantics – studies meanings, in terms of their types, relation to the form, means of change and analysis.
How can a word have several meanings?
What are the components of word-meaning?
What’s contextual meaning of a word and where does it come from?
What’s the difference between fashion and style?
Word-formation - the study of the morphology of the word, or the parts of a word, and the patterns on which a language builds new words.
What’s the difference between puzzled and puzzling? excited and exciting?
What does educationalist mean?
What’s the difference between selected, selective and select?

Lexicography - dictionary making, deals with words, their meaning and vocabulary structure.
Types of dictionaries
Type of information offered and its order
Etymology - discovers earlier, «true», meanings of words and their origin
80% of English words is foreign-born, but native words form its core and are used more often
Cuisine, cotton, sugar, sofa, phenomenon, kindergarten, hamburger, seminar, piano, yacht
Phraseology – studies set phrases that are word equivalents.
Can we say once in a green moon on analogy with once in a blue moon?
What’s the difference between small talk and big talk?

Course structure
Part 1. Word as the basic unit of language
1/2. The object of lexicology.
Word as the basic unit of language
3/4. Word-meaning: semantic triangle, types of meaning, connotations.
Word-meaning analysis: contextual and componential. Combinability. Polysemy.
5/6. Word-formation: morphological structure and its analysis
Main types: derivation and types of morphemes.
7/8. Main types: composition and conversion
Minor types of word-formation.
9/10. Phraseology
Part 2. Vocabulary as a system.
11/12. Semantic word groups: synonyms, homonyms, antonyms
Morphological and lexico-grammatic groups. Semantic flields.
13/14. Stylistic groups. Word-origin groups.
15/16. Regional varieties: British, American and Australian English
17/18. Lexicography

§ 3. Theoretical and practical value of lexicology
The theoretical value of lexicology - it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of language, i.e. its vocabulary, the other two being its grammar and sound system (+stylistics).
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.
A working knowledge and understanding of functional styles and stylistical synonyms is important when literary texts are used as a basis for acquiring oral skills, discussing and translation.
A good knowledge of the system of word-formation is a tool helping the student to guess and retain in his memory the meaning of new words on the basis of their motivation and by comparing and contrasting them with the previously learned elements and patterns.
immovable
deforestation
miscalculate
'that cannot be moved’
'clearing land from forests
'to calculate wrongly'.