Idea Transcript
English g Lexicology gy Introduction 17 October 2007
Introduction y y y y y
What is lexicology? From Greek lexis, “word”,lexikos, “of/for words”. It can be defined as the study of vocabulary or lexis of a language. Lexis – the stock of words in a given language language, ii.e. e its vocabulary or lexicon. Here e e we use “word” wo somewhat so ew at loosely, oose y, in the t e traditional sense of sequence of letters bounded by spaces.
Introduction Vocabulary y Lexis y Lexicon y Synonymous? y Dictionary≠Vocabulary y Dictionary is only a selective recording of the word stock at a given point in time. time y
Introduction Lexicology deals not only with simple words in all their aspects, but also with complex and compound words, the g units of language. g g These units meaningful have to be analysed in respect of both their form and their meaning. y Because of that, lexicology relies on i f information i d derived i d ffrom: p gy semantics, etymology. y gy morphology, y
Morphology The study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words. y Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units which mayy constitute words or parts of words. y They Th are smallest ll t iin th the sense th thatt th they cannot be broken down further on the basis of meaning. y
Morphology y
Morphs: cat, chair, farm, -ing, ing, -s, s, -er. er.
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Simple words: door, knob, wild, animal.
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Complex words: spoonful, wildish, mentally, farmer.
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Compound words:. door-knob, cheeseburger, pound saver, wild-animaltamer.
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Morphemes M h that h can occur alone l as individual i di id l words d are free f morphemes. Those that can occur only with another morpheme are bound morphemes.
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Any concrete realization of a morpheme in a given utterance is called a morph.
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Morphs should not be confused with syllables. syllables The basic difference between the two is that while morphs are manifestations of morphemes and represent a specific meaning, syllables are parts of words d which hi h are iisolated l d only l on the h bbasis i off pronunciation. i i
Morphology y
Morphology is also of importance when simple, complex and compound words are dealt with.
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Simple words such as door, knob, wild are all free morphemes and they h are morphologically h l i ll unanalysable. l bl C Complex l words d such h as spoonful, wildish, reanimate, mentally are formed from simpler words by the addition of affixes or some other kind of morphological modification.
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Compound words, or simply compounds, are formed by combining two or more words (free morphemes) with or without morphological modification, e.g. Door-knob, cheeseburger, wild-animaltamer...
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It should be pointed out that the distinction between word compound (solid and hyphenated) and phrasal compound (open) is not very clear in English. This results with inconsistency of usage of hyphens and spaces in written English.
Semantics The study of meaning. meaning y Several kinds of semantics: pragmatic semantics, sentence semantics, lexical se semantics... t cs... y
Semantics y
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Acceptability and meaningfulness – distinct but related concepts. They are important in lexicology because we can have ca ave utterances utte a ces that t at are a e meaningless ea g ess but acceptable, acceptab e, while others may be meaningful but unacceptable. For example: p “that boyy is a ggirl”. For example: “Whales can fly”.
Etymology Is defined as the study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin. y Term coined by Stoics in 4th century BC. y
Etymology y
Folk etymology: a historical process whereby speakers who cannot analyse an obscure form replace it with a different p g y form which is morphologically transparent.
Folk etymology y
Modern English expression: “till death do us part”
Originally had the form: “till till death us depart”. Croatian plava riba?
Lexicography y y y
Can be defined as a special technique, technique the writing and compilation of dictionaries. Lexicography can be regarded as “applied applied lexicology”. lexicology . Lexicology is not the only branch of linguistics which pprovides an input p to lexicography. g p y Clearly, y, morphology, p gy, syntax and phonology do. Sociolinguistics, too, contributes in the language variety, and the inclusion of information on styles and registers.
The Structure of English vocabulary y
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There have been a number of attempts to discover some of the general principles on which vocabulary is g These attempts p have focused on three main organised. areas: that of individual words and their associations, that of semantic or lexical fields, and lastly that of word f ili families. Word classes are one way of accounting for the str ct re of the English structure En lish vocabulary. ocab lar Traditional grammars of English distinguish eight parts of speech: noun, noun pronoun pronoun, adjective adjective, verb verb, adverb adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
Word Classes y
More modern grammarians have elaborated these parts of speech into further classes. For example, Quirk et al. (1985):
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a) closed classes: preposition, pronoun, determiner, conjunction, auxiliary ili verb; b
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b) open classes: noun, adjective, verb, adverb;
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c) lesser categories: numeral, numeral interjection;
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d) a small number of words of unique function: the particle not and the infinitive marker to.
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The closed classes contain the so-called grammatical or function words, which generally serve the grammatical construction of sentences. They are small classes, with a restricted and largely unchanging membership.
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The open classes, by contrast, are large, and they are constantly b i added being dd d to. The Th members b off the h open classes l are the h content words, carrying the main meaning of a sentence; they are the words likely to be retained in a telegram or a headline.