COURSE IN ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY

COURSE LITERATURE

• Верба Л.Г. Порівняльна лексикологія англійської та української мови. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2003

• Korunets I. Сontrastive Typology of the English and Ukrainian Languages. – Vinnytsya: Nova Knyha Publishers, 2003, pp. 118-178

• Арбекова Т. Пракический курс лексикологии английского языка. – М.: Просвещение, 1981

• Minayeva L.V. English Lexicology and Lexicography. – M.: Астрель, 2007

WORD-FORMATION

WORD-FORMATON is

a branch of linguistics that is major in studying the formal structure of the word, its components and their meanings

WHAT IS MORPHEME?

MORPHEME is

a minimal formal word component bases on the association of the given meaning with a given sound pattern

TYPES OF MORPHEMES

MORPHEME

AFFIXES

STEM ROOT

WHAT IS ROOT?

ROOT isa semantic nucleus of a word with which no grammatical properties of this word are connected.

WHAT IS STEM?

STEM is

a part of word that remains unchanged throughout its paradigm and to which the grammatical inflections and affixes are added.

E.g. boy-boys-boyish-boyhood;

happy-happiness, happy-unhappy-unhappiness

drama-dramatic-dramatical-nondramatic-nondramatical-dramatism

WHAT IS AFFIX?

AFFIX is

a minimal word component that possesses its own lexical and grammatical meaning that gives the extra-semantical components to the word and determines its grammatical properties.

E.g. poet-poetess, waiter-waitress, do-does, pretty-prettier-prettiest, make-remake-unmake

TYPES OF AFFIXES

Affixes

prefixsuffix

infix

a derivational morpheme standing before the root and

modifying its meaning

a derivational morpheme following the stem and forming a new

derivative in a different part of speech

an affix placed within the word

WAYS OF WORD-FORMATION

Composition Shortening Blending Onomatopoeia Reduplicationtype of word-formation in which the word is combined by two or more stems.Closed: mirk+wood=mirkwood note+book=notebookHyphenated: six-year-old, mother-in-lawOpen: post office, prosecutor general, middle class

the syllable or part of the original word is omitted.

omnibus – bus, are not – aren’tvegetarian - veg

a combination of two words that includes the letters or sounds they have in common as a linking element.

oil+billionaire=oilonairemelody+drama=melodramamotor+hotel=motel

Forming words by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by things or living beings.

Hush, bark, pee-wee, om-nom, quack

Formation of the new words by doubling the same stem.There also can be change of vowels and consonants.

Hush-hush, blah-blah, criss-cross, hurdy-gurdy, see-saw.

WAYS OF WORD-FORMATION (CONT.)

Acronymy Reversion (Back-Formation)

Conversion Substantivation Etymological Doublets

a method to form a word by the first letters of the significant components in a word-combination.

E.g. North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO

derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure.

E.g. orator - -er> orate, lecher + -er> lech, peddler + -er> peddle, escalator + -er> escalate, editor + -er> edit, swindle + -er> swindle, sculptor + -er> sculpt, hawker + -er> hawk.

process that assigns an already existing word to a new word class (part of speech) or syntactic category.

E.g. Henry downed a pint of beer.Melissa went to town and did a buy

A process of transferring the adjective into a category of a noun.

E.g. a private, the private’s uniform, a group of privates; the rich, the poor, the injured, captive, conservative, criminal, female, fugitive, grown-up, intellectual, male, mild, native, neutral, radical, red, relative

two or more words of the same language which were derived by different routes from the same basic word.

E.g. hole-whole,cloack-clock,grammar-glamour

WHAT IS POLYSEMY?

POLYSEMY is

a co-existence of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period of the language development.

HOW DOES POLYSEMY DEVELOP?

• 1. RADIATION is a semantic process in which in a group of meanings one is central and the others proceed put of it.

• 2. CONCATENATION is a semantic process when the meanings or some of them move away from their first meaning.

• 3. SPLIT OF POLYSEMY is a process when a new meaning looses all its connections with all the other meanings and starts its independent existence.

WHAT IS HOMONIMY?

• HOMONIMY is a phenomenon at which the words of the same or close pronunciation and different spelling have different meanings.

• Such words are called homonyms.

accept-except, aisle-isle, gilt-guilt, mail-male

WHAT ARE HOMOPHONES?

HOMOPHONES are the words of the same sound, yet they have different spelling.

for-four-fore, feet-feat,beat-beet, ate-eight,sail-sale, right-write,ant-aunt, see-sea

WHAT ARE HOMOGRAPHS?

HOMOGRAPHS are the words written in the similar manner but with different sound and meaning.

axes - the plural of ax or axe/the plural of axis

desert - a hot, arid region/to leave or a tasty meal at the end of the course

does - female deer (plural)/present, third person singular form of the verb “do”

wind - to turn/moving air

wound - turned/an injury

WHAT IS SYNONYMY?

• SYNONOMY is a relation of several words different in sound and morphemic components but identical within a part of the speech and lexical meaning.

• Such words are called synonyms.

• They create a synonymic group where the words can be distinguished by connotation, shades of meaning and idiomatic use.

• Synonymic dominant is a dominant element of each synonymic group containing the specific features rendered by all the other members of this group.

Beautiful – fine-pretty-nice-cool-gorgeous-handsome

Dark – darkness-shadow-gloom-mirk (murk)-obscuration

Calculate – compute-reckon-estimate

TYPES OF SYNONYMS

• Ideographic (the same notion with different shades of meaning)

Ascent – to mount – to climb

Happen – to occur – to befall – to chance

Look – appearance – complexion – countenance

• Stylistic (words of different stylistic features)

Child-infant-kid

Die-to kick the bucket

• Contextual (words similar in meaning only under some specific conditions)clever bright brainy intelligent Dever-clever

neutral

Only speaking about younger people by older people

Is not used by the higher educated people

Positive connotation

Stylistically remarked

TYPES OF SYNONYMS (CONT.)

• Local (words that do not differ either ideographically of stylistically but are used in different regions or countries speaking the same language)

Lift – elevator

Queue – line

Autumn – fall

• Total (words that coincide in all the shades of meaning and in their stylistic features, may replace each other in different contexts)

Total-absolute

WHAT IS ANTONYMY?

• ANTONYMY is a relation between pair of words based upon opposing their lexical meaning.

• Such words are called antonyms

• They create antonymic pairs.

• Beautiful-ugly• Good-bad• Accurate-approximate• Create-destroy

TYPES OF ANTONYMS

• Gradable (represent rather more-or-less relations): hot-cold, fast-slow, increase-decrease

• Complementary (if you are one, you cannot be another ): live-dead, legal-illegal, beginning-end

• Converse (relationship between two or more things): above-below, before-after, buy-sell, lend-borrow

WHAT IS HYPONYMY?

• HYPONYMY is a relationship of inclusion of some words in a group of similar words.

• HYPERNIM is a major word of this group identifying a general class

• HYPERONYM is a word included to the group of words with the identical specific meaning

• FLOWER – daisy, poppy, tulip, forget-me-not

WHAT IS PHRASEOLOGY?

• 1. a branch of linguistics that deals with studying the phraseological units

• 2. a whole set of the phraseological units in the language

WHAT IS PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT?

PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT is

a word-combination with its own fixed lexical meaning that hardly can be judged by its individual components.

TYPES OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

• Idiom (a group of words the meaning of which is difficult or impossible to understand from knowing the words considered separately): as easy as a pie, to crown it all, lame duck, red tape, bed of nail

• Set expression (a group of words characterized by their stability, fixed and ready-made nature): at the beginning, at the end, get to the point

• Semi-fixed combinations (groups of words permitting a certain substitution of their elements): to go to the (cinema, theatre etc.), give a lift (ride)

• Free phrases (group of words permitting substitution of any of its elements without semantic change in the other element or elements): She was not managing to cut much of a figure = to cut a poor figure (to be inimportant)

• Phraseological fusion (word combinations in which the meaning of components is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole by its expressiveness or emotional background): tit for tat, to and fro, apples and oranges, under the rose, once in a blue moon

• Phraseological unity (word combinations the emotional quality of which is based on the image created by the whole; may be easily translated and allow certain substitutions) to know the way where the wind is blowing, to stick to smb.’s guns, as dead as a doornail, to beat blue and green (to beat black and blue), to come to one’s sense, to fall into rage

TYPES OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS (CONT)

• Phraseological combinations (word groups containing one component used in its direct meaning while the other is used figuratively): to make an attempt, to make haste to offer an apology

• Proverbs (a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing a popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and imaginative way): East or West home is best. The dog barks, the caravan goes. A road to hell is paved with good intensions.

• Cliches (phrases that have lost their original expressiveness and became state): in terms of, under conditions that, best regards, avoid like plague, age before beauty, Pandora’s box