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Lecture 4
Lexicology: aims, tasks and connections with other branches of linguistics. General problems of a word (2)
3. The main branches of lexicology of the English language
Lexicology (from Greek lexis 'word' and 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. It is a branch of linguistics and it is the study of words (vocabulary). 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. The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the assiciation 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.
Thus in the word boy the group of sounds (b o i - in transcription) is associated with the meaning 'a male child up to the age of 17 or 18' (also with some other meanings, but this is the most frequent) and with a definite grammatical employment, i.e. it is a noun and thus has a plural form - boys, it is a personal noun and has the Genitive form boy's , it may be used in certain syntactic functions.
The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are generally reffered to as language universals.
A great deal has been written in recent years to provide a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be compared and described. This relatively new branch of study is called contrastive lexicology.
The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as its single elements, forms the object of historical lexicology (HL) or etimology. 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. HL has been criticized for its atomistic approach, i.e. for treating every word as an individual and isolated unit. In the light of recent investigations it becomes clear that there is no reason why HL cannot survey the evolution of a vocabulary as an adaptive system, showing its change and development in the course of time.
Descriptive lexicology (DL) deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific structure as a characteristic inherent in the system. The DL of the English language deals with the English word in its morphological and semantical structures, investigating the interdependence between these two aspects. These structures are identified and distinguished by contrasting the nature and arrangement of their elements.
It will, for instance, contrast the word boy with its derivatives: boyhood, boyish, boyishly etc. It will describe its semantic structure comprising alongside with its most frequent meaning, such variants as 'a son of any age', 'a male servant' and observe its syntactic functioning and combining possibilities. This word, for instance, can be also used vocatively in such combinations as old boy, my dear boy, and attributively, meaning 'male', as in boy-friend.
Lexocology also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, semantic fields etc.
Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics - the study of meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar.
The distinction between the two basically different ways in which language may be viewed, the historical and diachronic (dia-'through' and chronos-'time') and the descriptive or synchronic (syn-'together', 'with'), is a methodological distinction, a difference of approach, artificially separating for the purpose of study what in real language is inseparable, because actually every linguistic structure and system exists in a state of constant development. The distinction between a synchronic and diachronic approach is due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Indepted as we are to him for this important dichtonomy, we cannot accept either his axiom that synchronic linguistics is concerned with systems and diachronic linguistics with single units or the rigorous separation between the two. Subsequent investigations have shown the possibility and the necessity of introducing the historical point of view into systematic studies of languages.
Language is the reality of thought and thought develops together with the development of society, therefore language and its vocabulary must be studied in the light of social history. Every new phenomenon in human society and activity in general, which is of any importance for communication, finds a reflection in vocabulary. A word, through its meaning rendering some notion, is a generalized reflection of reality; it is therefore impossible to understand its development if one is ignorant of the changes in social, political, everyday life, production or science, manners or culture it serves to reflect. These extralinguistic forces influencing the development of words are considered in historical lexicology. The point may be illustrated by the following example:
Post comes into English through French and Italian from Latin. Low Latin posta - posita (fem) of Latin ponere, posit (v) 'place'. In the beginning of the 16-th century it meant 'one of a number of men stationed with horses along roads at intervals, their duty being to ride forward with the King's "packet" or other letters, from stage to stage'. This meaning is now obsolete because this type of communication is obsolete. The ward however has become international and denotes the present day system of carrying and delivering letters and parcels. Its synonym mail.
In this connection it should be emphasized that the social nature of language and its vocabulary is not limited to the social essence of extra-linguistic factors influencing their development from without.
The theoretical value of lexicology becomes obvious if we realize that 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. The theory of meaning was originally developed within the limits of philosophical science. The relationship between the name and the thing named has in the course of history constituted one of the key questions in gnostic theories and therefore in the stuggle of materialistic and idealistic trends. The idealistic point of view assumes that the earlier forms of words disclose their real correct meaning and that originally language was created by some superior reason so that later changes of any kind are looked upon as distortions and corruption.
The materialistic approach considers the origin, development and current use of words as depending upon the needs of social communication. The dialectics of its growth is determined by its interaction with the development of human practice and mind.
Lexicology came into being to meet the demands of many different branches of applied linguistics, namely of lexicography, standardization of terminology, information retrieval, literary criticism and especially of foreign language teaching.
Its importance in training a would-be teacher of languages is of a quite special character and cannot be overestimated as it helps to stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of vocabulary and an organized comparison of the foreign and native language. It is particularly useful in building up the learner's vocabulary by an effective selection, grouping and analysis of new words.
The treatment of words in lexicology cannot be divorced from the study of all the other elements in the language system to which words belong.
The word is studied in several branches of linguistics and not in lexicology only which is closely connected with general linguistics, the history of the language, phonetics, stylistics, grammar and such new branches of our science as sociolinguistics, paralinguistics, pragmalinguistics and some others.
The importance of the connection between lexicology and phonetics stands explained if we remember that a word is an association of a given group of sounds with a given meaning, so that top is one word and tip is another. Phonems have no meaning of their own but they serve to distinguish between meanings. Their function is building up morphemes, and it is on the level of morphemes that the form-meaning unity is introduced into language. We may say therefore that the phonemes participate in signification.
Word-unity is conditioned by a number of phonological features. Phonemes follow each other in a fixed sequence so that pit is different is different from tip.
Stylistics in connection with lexicology studies also many aspects concerning meaning, connotations, synonymy, functional differentiation of vocabulary acc to the sphere of communication and some other issues. Without some awareness of the connotations and history of words, the images hidden in their root and their stylistic properties, a substantial part of the meaning of a literary text may be lost.
The difference and interconnection between grammar and lexicology is one of the important controversial issues in linguistics and as it is basic to the problem under discussion, it is necessary to dwell upon it a little more than has been done for phonetics and stylistics.
A close connection between lexicology and grammar is conditioned by the manifold and inseverable ties between the objects of their study. Even isolated words as presented in a dictionary bear a definite relation to the grammatical system of the language because they belong to some part of speech and conform to some lexico-grammatical characteristics of the word class to which they belong. Word seldom occur in isolation. They arranged in certain patterns conveying the relations between the things for which they stand, therefore alongside with their lexical meaning they possess some grammatical meaning. i.e. head of the committee and to head a committee.
The two kinds of meaning are often interdependent. That is to say, certain grammatical functions and meanings are possible only for the words whose lexiczl meaning makes them fit for these functions, and , on the other hand, some lexical meanings in some words occur only in definite grammatical functions and forms and in definite grammatical patterns.
For example, the functions of a link verb with a predicative expressed by an adjective cannot be fulfilled be every intransitive verb but are often taken up by verbs of motion: come true, fall ill, go wrong, turn red ant other similar combinations all render the meaning of 'become smth'.
On the other hand the grammatical form and function of the word affect its lexical meaning. E.g. verb go in Continuous followed by to serves to express an action in the near and immediate future: You are not going to sit there saying nothing all the evening, are you? (Simpson).
Participle II of the same verb following the link verb be denotes absence: The house is gone.
Lexical meanings in the above cases are said to be grammatically conditioned and their indicating context is called syntactic or mixed.
W.Chafe whose influence in the present - day semantic syntax is quite considerable, points out the many constraints which limit the co-occurrence of words. He considers the verb as a paramount importance in sentence semantic structure and argues that it is the verb that dictates the presence and character of the noun as its subject or object.
Types of lexical units: the term unit means one of the elements into which a whole may be divided or analyzed and which possesses the basic properties of this whole. The units of a vocabulary or (lexical units) are two - facet elements possessing form and meaning. The basic unit forming the bulk of the vocabulary is the word. Other units are morphemes that is parts of words, into which words may be combined.
Words are the central elements of language system, they face both ways: they are the biggest units of morphology and the smallest of syntax, and what is more, they embody the main structural properties and functions of the language. Words can be separated in an utterance by other such units and can be used in isolation. Unlike words, morphemes cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units and are functioning in speech only as constituent parts of words.