Lexicology of the English Language

МOCКОВСКИЙ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

Курс лекций и планы семинарских занятий

по лексикологии английского языка

(для студентов третьего курса)

Cocтавитель : Э. М. Дубенец, к.ф.н., доц.

This course of lexicology which forms a part of the

curriculum for the English sections of linguistic departments of

teacher-training colleges is intended for students of the third

year of the day department. It includes 15 lectures and 12

seminars which cover the main themes of Modern English

lexicology: wordbuilding, semantic changes, phraseology,

borrowings, semasiology, neology, lexicography. The material for

seminars includes topics to be discussed, test questions and

lexical units to be analized. Lexical units for the analysis

were chosen mainly among neologisms. There is also a brief list

of recommended literature.

The aim of the course is to teach students to be word-conscious, to be

able to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings of

morphemes, to be able to recognize the origin of this or that lexical unit.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Language units

Wordbuilding

Affixation

Compound words

Conversion

Substantivization

«Stone wall» combinations

Abbreviations

Seconadary ways of wordbuilding

Semantic changes

Specialization

Generalization

Metaphor and metonymy

Phraseology

Ways of forming phraseological units

Semantic classification of phraseological units

Structural classification of phraseological units

Syntactical classification of phraseological units

Borrowings

Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed

aspect

Classification of borrowings according to the degree of

assimilation

Classification of borrowings according to the language

from which they were borrowed.

Romanic borrowings/ Latin, French, Italian, Spanish/.

Germanic borrowings /Scandinavian, German, Holland/ .

Russian borrowings.

Etymological doublets.

Semaciology.

Word - meaning.

Lexical meaning - notion.

Polysemy.

Homonyms.

Synonyms .

Antonyms .

Local varieties of English.

British and American English.

Archaisms.

Neologisms.

Lexicography.

LEXICOLOGY

The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» - «word» and

«logos» - «science»/ . Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals

with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.

The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-

groups that the language possesses.

The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting

from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used

in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a

language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

The term «word-group» denotes a group of words which exists in the

language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of

syntactical function, e.g. the word-group «as loose as a goose» means

«clumsy» and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as a

goose/.

Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of

words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of

their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical

lexicology.

Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the

vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.

LANGUAGE UNITS

The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the

association of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is

used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest

language unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. The

morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of

a class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically or

morphologically conditioned, e.g. please, pleasant, pleasure.

Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and

grammatical (functional) morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes

can be free and bound. Free lexical morphemes are roots of words which

express the lexical meaning of the word, they coincide with the stem of

simple words. Free grammatical morphemes are function words: articles,

conjunctions and prepositions ( the, with, and).

Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes (dis-), suffixes (-ish) and

also blocked (unique) root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry). Bound

grammatical morphemes are inflexions (endings), e.g. -s for the Plural of

nouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the Present

Participle, -er for the Comparative degree of adjectives.

In the second half of the twentieth century the English wordbuilding

system was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientists

include in the affixation stock of the Modern English wordbuilding system.

Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word

and producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-

group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of the

splinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «miniature»), such as

«miniplane», «minijet», «minicycle», «minicar», «miniradio» and many

others. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions.

On the analogy with «mini-» there appeared the splinter «maxi»- (apocopy

produced by clipping the word «maximum»), such words as «maxi-series»,

«maxi-sculpture», «maxi-taxi» and many others appeared in the language.

When European economic community was organized quite a number of

neologisms with the splinter Euro- (apocopy produced by clipping the word

«European») were coined, such as: «Euratom» «Eurocard», «Euromarket»,

«Europlug», «Eurotunnel» and many others. These splinters are treated

sometimes as prefixes in Modern English.

There are also splinters which are formed by means of apheresis, that is

clipping the beginning of a word. The origin of such splinters can be

variable, e.g. the splinter «burger» appeared in English as the result of

clipping the German borrowing «Hamburger» where the morphological structure

was the stem «Hamburg» and the suffix -er. However in English the

beginning of the word «Hamburger» was associated with the English word

«ham», and the end of the word «burger» got the meaning «a bun cut into

two parts». On the analogy with the word «hamburger» quite a number of new

words were coined, such as: «baconburger», «beefburger», «cheeseburger»,

«fishburger» etc.

The splinter «cade» developed by clipping the beginning of the word

«cavalcade» which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning

«to ride a horse» is «cabalicare» and by means of the inflexion -ata the

corresponding Participle is formed. So the element «cade» is a combination

of the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter «cade»

serves to form nouns with the meaning «connected with the procession of

vehicles denoted by the first component», e.g. «aircade» - «a group of

airplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP» , «autocade» - «a group of

automobiles escorting the automobile of a VIP», «musicade» - «an orchestra

participating in a procession».

In the seventieths of the twentieth century there was a political scandal

in the hotel «Watergate» where the Democratic Party of the USA had its pre-

election headquarters. Republicans managed to install bugs there and when

they were discovered there was a scandal and the ruling American government

had to resign. The name «Watergate» acquired the meaning «a political

scandal», «corruption». On the analogy with this word quite a number of

other words were formed by using the splinter «gate» (apheresis of the

word «Watergate»), such as: «Irangate», »Westlandgate», »shuttlegate»,

»milliongate» etc. The splinter «gate» is added mainly to Proper names:

names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical name

denoting the place where the scandal occurred.

The splinter «mobile» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«automobile» and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as:

«artmobile», «bookmobile», «snowmobile», «tourmobile» etc.

The splinter «napper» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«kidnapper» and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as :

«busnapper», «babynapper», «dognapper» etc. From such nouns the

corresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. «to busnap»,

«to babynap», «to dognap».

The splinter «omat» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«automat» (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). The

meaning «self-service» is used in such words as «laundromat», «cashomat»

etc.

Another splinter «eteria» with the meaning «self-service» was formed by

clipping the beginning of the word «cafeteria». By means of the splinter

«eteria» the following words were formed: «groceteria», «booketeria»,

«booteteria» and many others.

The splinter «quake» is used to form new words with the meaning of

«shaking», «agitation». This splinter was formed by clipping the

beginning of the word «earthquake». Ther following words were formed with

the help of this splinter: «Marsquake», «Moonquake», «youthquake» etc.

The splinter «rama(ama)» is a clipping of the word «panorama» of Greek

origin where «pan» means «all» and «horama» means «view». In Modern

English the meaning «view» was lost and the splinter «rama» is used in

advertisements to denote objects of supreme quality, e.g. «autorama» means

«exhibition-sale of expensive cars», «trouserama» means «sale of trousers

of supreme quality» etc.

The splinter «scape» is a clipping of the word «landscape» and it is

used to form words denoting different types of landscapes, such as:

«moonscape», «streetscape», «townscape», «seascape» etc.

Another case of splinters is «tel» which is the result of clipping the

beginning of the word «hotel». It serves to form words denoting different

types of hotels, such as: «motel» (motor-car hotel), «boatel» (boat hotel),

«floatel» (a hotel on water, floating), «airtel» (airport hotel) etc.

The splinter «theque» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word

«apotheque» of Greek origin which means in Greek «a store house». In

Russian words: «библиотека», «картотека», «фильмотека» the element

«тека» corresponding to the English «theque» preserves the meaning of

storing something which is expressed by the first component of the word. In

English the splinter «theque» is used to denote a place for dancing, such

as: «discotheque», «jazzotheque».

The splinter «thon» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word

«marathon». «Marathon» primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece,

forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle between the Greek and

the Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athens

to tell people about the victory. Later on the word «Marathon» was used

to denote long-distance competitions in running. The splinter

«thon(athon)» denotes «something continuing for a long time», «competition

in endurance» e.g. «dancathon», «telethon», «speakathon», «readathon»,

«walkathon», «moviethon», «swimathon», «talkathon», «swearthon» etc.

Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized

adjectives. The splinter «aholic» (holic) was formed by clipping the

beginning of the word «alcoholic» of Arabian origin where «al» denoted

«the», «koh’l» - «powder for staining lids». The splinter «(a)holic»

means «infatuated by the object expressed by the stem of the word» , e.g.

«bookaholic», «computerholic», «coffeeholic», «cheesaholic», «workaholic»

and many others.

The splinter «genic» formed by clipping the beginning of the word

«photogenic» denotes the notion «suitable for something denoted by the

stem», e.g. «allergenic», «cardiogenic», «mediagenic», «telegenic» etc.

As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped

that is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs in

this way. It is the splinter «cast» formed by clipping the beginning of

the verb «broadcast». This splinter was used to form the verbs

«telecast» and «abroadcast».

Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither roots

nor affixes, they are more or less artificial. In English there are words

which consist of two splinters, e.g. «telethon», therefore it is more

logical to call words with splinters in their structure «compound-

shortened words consisting of two clippings of words».

Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the

lexical meaning of the same part of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixes

can also change the part-of-speech meaning , e.g. the prefix «en-» and

its allomorph «em» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems («embody»,

«enable», «endanger»), «be-» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems

(«becloud», «benumb»), «post-» and «pre-» can form adjectives from noun

stems («pre-election campaign», «post-war events»). The main function of

suffixes is to form one part of speech from another part of speech, e.g. «-

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