Questions
1 Lexicology as a science. Branches of lexicology.
2 Two approaches to language study, varieties of words.
3 Methods of investigation.
4 Contrastive analysis.
5 Statistical analysis.
6 Immediate constituents analysis.
7 Distributional analysis.
8 Transformational analysis.
9 Componental analysis.
10 Method of semantic differential.
11 Analytical (referential) definition of meaning.
12 Functional (contextual) definition of meaning.
13 Operational (information-oriented) definition of meaning.
14 Naming. The nominative approach to meaning.
15 The formation of concepts. Meaning and concept.
16 The ways of forming sound forms of words.
17 Aspects of lexical meaning.
18 Sources and types of meaning variability.
19 The semantic structure of a word.
20 Semantic relations of words.
21 Word-structure. Types of morphemes.
22 The method of immediate and ultimate constituents.
23 The derivational structure. Derivational bases. Types of
stems .
24 Derivational patterns.
25 Word-formation. Basic ways of coining words.
26 Minor types of coining words.
27 Affixes. Polysemy. Homonymy. Synonymy.
28 Conversion.
Lexicology as a science.
Its basic units and methods.
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics – the science of language. The
term “lexicology” is composed of two Greek morphemes “lexic” – word, phrase
& “logos” which denotes learning a department of knowledge. Thus the
literal meaning of the term “lexicology” is “the science of the word”.
Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims & methods of
scientific research. Its basic task – being a study & systematic
description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development & its
current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups,
phraseological units & morphemes which make up words.
Distinction is made between GENERAL LEXICOLOGY & SPECIAL LEXICOLOGY.
General lexicology is a part of General linguistics . It is concerned with
the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any
particular language . Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular
language ( Russian , German , French , etc. ).
Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistics :
phonetics , for example , investigates the phonetic structure of language &
is concerned with the study of the outer sound-form of the word . Grammar
is the study of the grammatical structure of language . It is concerned
with the various means of expressing grammatical relations between words as
well as with patterns after which words are combined into word-groups &
sentences . There is also a close relationship between lexicology &
stylistics which is concerned with a study of a nature , functions & styles
of languages .
Two approaches to language study.
Varieties of words.
There are two principle approaches in linguistic science to the study
of language material : synchronic & diachronic . With regard to Special
lexicology the synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a
language as it exists at a given time . It’s Special Descriptive lexicology
that deals with the vocabulary & vocabulary units of a particular language
at a certain time .
The diachronic approach in terms of Special lexicology deals with the
changes & the development of vocabulary in the coarse of time . It is
Special Historical lexicology that deals with the evaluation of the
vocabulary units of a language as the time goes by .
The two approaches shouldn’t be set one against the other . In fact ,
they are interconnected & interrelated because every linguistic structure &
system exists in a state of constant development so that the synchronic
state of a language system is a result of a long process of linguistic
evaluation , of its historical development . Closely connected with the
Historical lexicology is Contrastive & Comparative lexicology whose aims
are to study the correlation between the vocabularies of two or more
languages & find out the correspondences between the vocabulary units of
the languages under comparison .
Lexicology studies various lexical units . They are : morphemes , words
, variable word-groups & phraseological units . We proceed from the
assumption that the word is the basic unit of the language system , the
largest on morphological & the smallest on syntactic plane of linguistic
analyses . The word is a structural & semantic entity within the language
system . The word as well as any linguistic sign is a two-faced unit
possessing both form & content or , to be more exact , sound-form & meaning
.
e. g. boy – бой
When used in actual speech the word undergoes certain modification &
functions in one of its forms . The system showing a word in all its word-
forms is called a paradigm . The lexical meaning of a word is the same
throughout the paradigm . The grammatical meaning varies from one form to
another . Therefore when we speak on any word as used in actual speech we
use the term “word” conventionally because what is manifested in the
utterances is not a word as a whole but one of its forms which is
identified as belonging to the definite paradigm . Words as a whole are to
be found in the dictionary (showing the paradigm n – noun , v – verb ,
etc).
There are two approaches to the paradigm : as a system of forms of one
word revealing the differences & the relationships between them .
e. g. to see – saw - seen – seeing
( different forms have different relations )
In abstraction from concrete words the paradigm is treated as a pattern
on which every word of one part of speech models its forms , thus serving
to distinguish one part of speech from another .
-s -‘s -s’
-ed -ing
nouns, of-phrases
verbs
Besides the grammatical forms of words there are lexical varieties
which are called “variants” of words .Words seldom possess only one meaning
, but used in speech each word reveals only that meaning which is required
.
e. g. to learn at school to make a dress
to learn about smth. /smbd. to make smbd. do smth.
These are lexico-semantic variants .
There are also phonetic & morphological variants .
e. g. “often” can be pronounced in two ways, though the sound-form is
slightly changed , the meaning remains unchangeable . We can build the
forms of the word “to dream” in different ways :
to dream – dreamt – dreamt
dreamed–dreamed
These are morphological variants . The meaning
is the same but the model is different .
Like words-forms variants of words are identified in the process of
communication as making up one & the same word . Thus , within the language
system the word exists as a system & unity of all its forms & variants .
Methods of investigation .
The science is said to be formed when it has at its disposal certain
methods of investigation . The process of scientific investigation may be
subdivided into several stages :
* Observation is an early & basic phase of all modern scientific
investigations including linguistics & is the center of what is called “
the inductive method of inquiry “ . The cardinal role of all inductive
procedures is that the statements of fact must be based on observation
not on unsupported authority , logical conclusions or personal
preferences .
* Another stage of scientific investigation after observation is
classification of those facts which were obtained through observation .
e. g. It is observed that in English nouns the suffixal morpheme
“-er” is added to verbal stems ( to cook – cooker , to write
– writer ) & noun stems ( village – villager , London – Londoner ). The
same suffix also occurs in the words such as mother , father . The question
is whether the words “ mother , father “ have suffix . They haven’t , thus
we can come to the conclusion that “-er” can be found in derived & non-
derived words .
* The following stage is usually that of generalization , that is , the
collection of data & their classification must eventually lead to the
formulation of a hypotheses , rule , or law .
e. g. In the case with “-er” we can formulate the rule that
derived words in “-er” may have either verbal or noun stems .The suffix “-
er” in combination with adjectival or adverbial stems can’t produce nouns (
bigger , longer , shorter are not nouns ).
* Any linguistic generalization is to be followed by the very fine process
– the linguist is required to seek verification of the generalizations
that are the result of his inquires . For these aims different methods &
procedures are used . They are : contrastive analyses , statistical
methods of analyses , immediate constituents analyses , distributional
analyses , transformational analyses , componental analyses & method of
semantic differentiation .
Contrastive analysis .
Contrastive linguists attempt to find out similarities & differences in
both related & non-related languages . Contrastive analysis grew as the
result of the practical demands of a language-teaching methodology , where
it was empirically shown that the errors which are made by foreign language
students can be often traced back to the differences in structure between
the target language & the language of the learner . This naturally implies
the necessity of a detailed comparison of the structure of a native & a
target language . This procedure has been named contrastive analysis .
People proceed from the assumption that the categories , elements on the
semantic as well as on the syntactic & other levels are valid for both
languages .
e. g. Linking verbs can be found in English , French , German , Russian ,
etc. Linking verbs having the meaning of “change & become” are differently
represented in each of the languages . In English , for instance , “ become
, come , grow , fall , run , turn “ ; in Russian –“ становиться “ are used
. The task is to find out which semantic & syntactic features characterize
the English set of linking verbs , the Russian linking verb & how they can
be compared , how the English word-groups “ grow thin , get angry , fall
ill “ correspond to Russian “похудеть , рассердиться , заболеть “.
Contrastive analysis can be carried out at three linguistic levels :
phonology , grammar ( morphology & syntax ) & lexis . Contrastive analysis
is applied to reveal the features of sameness & difference in the lexical
meaning & the semantic structure of correlated words in different languages
. It is commonly assumed by non-linguists that all languages have
vocabulary systems in which the words themselves differ in sound-form , but
refer to reality in the same way . From this assumption it follows that for
every word in the mother tongue there is an exact equivalent in the foreign
language . It is a belief which is reinforced by the small bilingual
dictionary where single-word translation is often used .Language learning
cannot be just a matter of substitution a new set of labels for the
familiar ones of the mother tongue .It should be born in mind that though
the objective reality exists outside human beings & irrespective of the
language they speak , every language classifies reality in its own way by
means of vocabulary units .
e. g. In English , for example , the word “foot” is used to denote the
extremity of the leg . In Russian there is no exact equivalent for
“foot”: “стопа” is a little bit smaller than foot , the word “нога”
denotes the whole leg including the foot .
Differences in the lexical meaning of correlated words account for the
differences of their collocability in different languages .
e. g. Thus , the English adjective “new” & the Russian adjective”новый”
when taken in isolation are felt as correlated words : a new dress ,
New Year . In collocation with other nouns however the Russian
adjective cannot be used in the same meaning in which the English word
“new” is currently used : new potatoes , new bread , etc.
Contrastive analysis on the level of the grammatical meaning reveals that
co-related words in different languages may differ in grammatical
characteristics .
e. g. Russians are liable to say “news are good , the money are on the
table , her hair are black” because the Russian words “новости , деньги
, волосы” have the grammatical meaning of plurality .
Contrastive analysis brings to light the essence of what is usually
described as idiomatic English , idiomatic Russian , i. e. the peculiar way
in which every language combines & structures in lexical units various
concepts to denote extra-linguistic reality .
e. g. A typical Russian word-group used to describe the way somebody
performs an action or to state how a person finds himself has the
structure that may be represented by the formula “adjective + a finite
form of a verb”(он крепко спит , быстро усваивает ). In English we can
also use structurally similar word-groups & say “he learns fast/slowly”
. The structure of idiomatic word-group in English is different . The
structure is “adjective + deverbal noun”. It is really in English to
say “he is a heavy smoker , poor learner early riser”.
Statistical analysis .
Statistical linguistics is nowadays generally recognized as the one of
the major branches of linguistics . Statistical inquiries have considerable
importance because of their relevance to certain problems of communication
engineering & information theory . Statistical approach proved essential in
the selection of vocabulary items of a foreign language for teaching
purposes . Very few people know more than 10% of the words in their mother
tongue . It follows that if we do not wish to waste time on committing to
memorize vocabulary items which are never likely to be useful to the
learner we have to select only lexical units that are commonly used by a
native speaker .
Out of approximately 500 000 words listed in Oxford English dictionary
the active vocabulary of an educated Englishman comprises no more than 30
000 words & of these 4 000 - 5 000 are presumed to be amplisufficient for
the daily needs of an average member of the English speech community. Thus
, it is evident that the problem of selection of teaching vocabulary is of
vital importance . Statistical techniques have been successfully applied in
the analysis of various linguistic phenomena . Different structural types
of words , affixes , the vocabularies of great writers & poets & even in
the study of some problems of Historical Lexicology .
Statistical regularities can be observed only if the phenomena under
analysis are sufficiently numerous . Thus , the first requirement of any
statistic investigation is the size of the sample . It is known that
comparatively small group of words makes up the bulk of any text . It was
found that approximately 1300 – 1500 most frequent words make up 85% of all
words occurring in the text . If however we analyze a sample of 60 words it
is hard to predict the number of occurrences of most frequent words .
e. g. If we take the word “room” we can find some meanings of the word
: 1) “room”- denoting “space” as in “take less room , not enough room
to do smth.”; 2) part of a house as in “sitting-room” ; 3) used in
plural = lodgings as in “to get rooms”. Statistical analysis shows that
most frequently the word is used in its second meaning – 83% of all
occurrences of the word in different texts , 12% of all takes its first
meaning – “space”, & only 2% takes the third meaning of the word .
Immediate constituents analysis .
The theory of Immediate Constituents was originally elaborated as an
attempt to determine the ways in which lexical units are relevantly related
to one another . It was discovered that combinations of units are usually
structured into hierarchial sets of binary constructions .
e. g. In the word-group “ a black dress in severe style “ we do not
relate the indefinite article “a” to adjective “black” , “black” to
“dress” , “dress” to “in” , “in” to “severe” , “severe” to “style” .We
set up a structure which may be represented as “a black dress” & “in
severe style”.
Thus , the fundamental aim of immediate constituents analysis is to
segment a set of lexical units into two maximally independent sequences &
these maximally independent sequences are called immediate constituents .
The further segmentation of immediate constituents results in ultimate
constituents , which means that further segmentation is impossible for no
meaning can be found .
e. g. The ultimate constituents of the phrase given are “a” ,”black” ,
“dress” , “ in” , “severe” , “style” .
This method of analysis is extremely fruitful in discovering the
derivational structure of words .
Distributional analysis .
Distributional analysis in its various forms is commonly used nowadays.
By the term “distribution” we understand the occurrence of a lexical unit
relative to another lexical units of the same levels : words to words ,
morpheme to morphemes . In other words , by this term we understand the
position which lexical unit occupies or may occupy in the text or in the
flow of speech . It is observed that a certain component of the word-
meaning is described when the word is identified distributionally .
e. g. In the sentence
The boy__________ home .
the missing word is easily identified as a verb . It may be “came ,
ran , went , goes” , but not as an adverb or a noun , or an adjective .
Thus , we see that the component of meaning that is distributionally
identified is actually the part-of-speech meaning . It is also observed
that in a number of cases words have different lexical meanings in
different distributional patterns .
e. g. The verb “to treat” has different lexical meanings in “to treat
smbd kindly” & “to treat smbd to ice-cream” .
The interdependence of distribution & meaning can be also observed at the
level of word-groups .
e. g. It is only the distribution of completely identical lexical units
but arranged on the reverse that differentiates the meaning – water tap
& tap water .
Transformational analysis .
Transformational analysis in lexicological investigations may be defined
as repatterning ( representing , reorganization ) of various distributional
structures in order to discover difference or sameness of meaning of
practically identical distributional patterns . As distributional patterns
are in a number of cases polysemantic transformational procedures are of
help not only in the analysis of semantic sameness / difference of the
lexical units but also in the analysis of the factors that account for
their polysemy . Word-groups of identical distributional structure when
repatterned show that the semantic relations between words & consequently
the meaning may be different .e. g. A pattern “possessive pronoun
”+”noun”(his car , his failure , his arrest, his kindness ). According to
transformational analysis the meaning of each word-group may be represented
as : he has a car , he failed , he was arrested , he is kind. In each of
the cases different meaning is revealed : possession , action , passive
action , quality .The rules of transformation are rather strict & shouldn’t
be identified with paraphrasing in the usual sense of the term .There are
many restrictions both on syntactic & lexical levels . These are :
Permutation – the repatterning on condition that the basic subordinative
relationships between words & word-stems of the lexical units are not
changed .e. g. “His work is excellent “ may be transformed into “ his
excellent work , the excellence of his work , he works excellently “.In
the example given the relationships between lexical units & the stems of
the notional words are essentially the same .
Replacement – the substitution of a component of the distributional
structure by a member of a certain strictly defined set of lexical units
.e. g. Replacement of a notional verb by an auxiliary or link verb (he will
make a bad mistake & he will make a good teacher ). The sentences have
identical distributional structure but only in the second one the verb “to
make “ can be substituted by “ become “ or “ be “ . The fact of
impossibility of identical transformations of distributionally identical
structures is a formal proof of the difference in their meaning .
Addition ( or expansion ) may be illustrated by the application of the
procedure of addition to the classification of adjectives into two groups-
adjectives denoting inherent & non-inherent qualities .
e. g. John is happy .
John is tall .
We add a word-group “
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