TYPOLOGY OF LEXICAL SYSTEMS in ENGLISH and UKRAINIAN

The main constants of lexicon
Words
LSG
Idioms

Word – the basic nominative unit of language with the help of which the naming function of language is realized.

Lexico-semantic groups – closely knit sectors of vocabulary, each characterised by a common concept:
LSG formed by adjectives denoting ‘‘size’’: big, large, great, huge, enormous, small, little, tiny etc.

Idiomatic /set expressions – lexically and often structurally stable units of lexicon.
to have many irons in the fire –
мати багато справ одночасно

Factors of Classifying Lexicon
EXTRALINGUAL
LINGUAL

Physical and mental factors
Due to the physical needs of human beings all languages have a number of common notions designated by words such as live, drink, eat, sleep, go, run, jump etc.
Due to the common mental activity of people every language of the world comprises the notions designated by such words as think, speak, read, ask, answer, comprehend etc.

Environmental factors
All languages have common notions designated by the words reflecting objects and phenomena surrounding people:
the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, thunder, lightning, rain
various species of living beings, plants, trees, colours etc.

Social factor
Involves different social phenomena as well as relationships and activities of a person.
family level (mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, cousin etc.).
other social activity of people (a teacher, a student, a passenger, a shop-assistant etc.).

Universal lexicon
All words designating the notions which appear due to the extralingual principles constitute the
UNIVERSAL lexicon of any language (nucleus of the lexicon ).

Dialectal, international and
specifically national lexicons,
coming to being under the influence of social, economic, historical and other extralingual factors, constitute the periphery of the lexicon.

English and Ukrainian lexicon
(according to the stylistic principle)

A word may be characterized from two sides:
onomasiological side, i.e. from its structure and nomination capacity;
b) semasiological or content side.

Onomasiological investigation
of the lexicon solves the problem how concepts (ideas) can be represented in the language.
the structure of a language unit is studied with respect to its means of nomination:
1) inner 2) outer

Words in both languages – the main means of nomination
(75% In English and Ukrainian)
Structurally they are:
simple words (book, boy, new, ten, soon, книга, сам, там);
derivative words (teacher, friendship, книжечка, спатоньки);
compounds (blackboard, homework, перекотиполе, першочергово, лиходій, Незовибатько, Перервирядно, Крутивус, Задерихвіст, Товстоніг, Добридень, Панібудьласка).

Onomasiological characteristics
displayed through morphological structure of the word and its categorial meaning:
e.g. goes = go (root) + es (inflexion),
the inflexion -es designates the categories of tense, mood, voice and person in the verb.

Borrowings
in English 70 %
in Ukrainian 10 %

Semasiоlogy
studies which ideas are represented in linguistic units, the semantic structure (scope of meaning) of words, expressions and texts under study.
From the semasiological side words may be:
1) monosemantic
2) polysemantic.

The onomasiologіcal and semasiological status of words can be changed by means of:
AFFIXATION:
miss – dismiss, elect – reelect, relation – relationship;
Київ – киянин – київський, вибори – перевибори
2) ACCENTUATION:
'conduct (n) – con'duct (v),
'present (n) – pre'sent (v),
'замок – за'мок, 'вівці – вів'ці, 'руки – ру'ки.