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3ONTENTS

Preface ..................................................................................................... 7Introduction ............................................................................................. 8

Chapter 1

Language and Lexicology .......................................................................... 9

1.1. The Object of Lexicology ............................................................. 9

1.2. Branches of Lexicology .............................................................. 10

1.3. Lexicology and Sociolinguistics ................................................. 13

1.4. The Definition of the Word ........................................................ 16

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 18

Topics for Discussion and Exercises .......................................................... 18

Chapter 2

The Origins of English Words .................................................................. 20

2.1. Native Words ............................................................................. 22

2.2. Borrowings ................................................................................. 24

2.3. Etymological Doublets .............................................................. 30

2.4. International Words ................................................................... 31

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 32


Chapter 3

Word Structure and Word Formation ....................................................... 36

3.1. Morpheme. Allomorph .............................................................. 37

3.2. Word Structure ........................................................................... 39

3.3. Immediate Constituents Analysis ............................................... 41

3.4. Affixation ................................................................................... 42

3.5. Conversion ................................................................................. 46

3.6. Word-Composition .................................................................... 48

3.7. Other Types of Word Formation................................................. 51

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 53


4Chapter 4

Semantics ............................................................................................... 57

4.1. Semasiology or Semantics? ........................................................ 57

4.2. Denotation and Connotation ..................................................... 59

4.3. Polysemy .................................................................................... 61

4.4. Componential Analysis .............................................................. 62

4.5. Semantic Change ....................................................................... 65

4.6. Secondary Ways of Semantic Change ........................................ 69

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 70


Chapter 5

The Vocabulary of a Language as a System .............................................. 74

5.1. Homonyms ................................................................................ 74

5.2. Synonyms .................................................................................. 77

5.2.1. The Nature of Synonymy ................................................ 77

5.2.2. The Definition of Synonyms ........................................... 79

5.2.3. Classification of Synonyms ............................................. 81

5.2.4. Euphemism ..................................................................... 82

5.3. Antonyms .................................................................................. 82

5.4. Hyponymy and Paronymy ......................................................... 84

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 85


Chapter 6

Combinability. Word Groups .................................................................... 90

Key Terms ............................................................................................... 95


Chapter 7

Phraseology ............................................................................................ 98

7.1. Semantic Classification of Phraseological Units ....................... 100

7.2. Structural Classification of Phraseological Units ...................... 101

57.3. Functional Classification of Phraseological Units .................... 102

7.4. Contextual Classification of Phraseological Units .................... 103

7.5. Prof. Kunins Classification of Phraseological Units ................ 103

7.6. Proverbs, Sayings, Quotations ................................................... 105

Key Terms .............................................................................................. 107

Topics for Discussion and Exercises ......................................................... 107

Chapter 8

Levels of Usage ...................................................................................... 111

8.1. Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary .................... 112

8.2. The Varieties of English ............................................................ 117

8.3. Levels of Language .................................................................... 121

8.4. Registers ................................................................................... 125

Key Terms .............................................................................................. 128


Chapter 9

Lexicography ......................................................................................... 133

9.1. The History of Dictionary Making ............................................. 133

9.2. Classification of Dictionaries .................................................... 136

Key Terms .............................................................................................. 140


Chapter 10

American English ................................................................................... 145

10.1. Spelling ..................................................................................... 146

10.2. Pronunciation ........................................................................... 148

10.3. Punctuation .............................................................................. 148

10.4. Numbers ................................................................................... 149

10.5. Grammar .................................................................................. 150

10.5.1. Use of the Present Perfect ............................................ 150

10.5.2. Possession .................................................................... 150

10.5.3. The Verb Get ................................................................. 151

610.5.4. Past Simple/Past Participles ......................................... 151

10.5.5. Other Differences ......................................................... 152

10.5.6. Prepositions ................................................................. 153

10.6. Vocabulary ................................................................................ 153

10.7. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) .......................... 158

Key Terms .............................................................................................. 160


Chapter 11

A World English ..................................................................................... 163

11.1. Canadian English ...................................................................... 163

11.2. Australian English ..................................................................... 164

11.3. New Zealand English ................................................................ 166

11.4. Indian English .......................................................................... 167

11.4.1. Pronunciation .............................................................. 168

11.4.2. Grammar ..................................................................... 168

11.4.3. Vocabulary: loans ......................................................... 169

11.4.4. Usage ........................................................................... 171

Key Terms .............................................................................................. 172


Review .................................................................................................. 174

References ............................................................................................. 185

Dictionaries ........................................................................................... 187

Glossary ................................................................................................ 188

7Preface

This book is based upon a series of lectures on English Lexicologydelivered at the Ural State Pedagogical University of Yekaterinburg,Russia.

The theoretical Course in Modern English Lexicology forms a partof the curriculum for the English Departments in Foreign Languagesand Linguistic Institutes.

In accordance with the basic aim the Guide incorporates lectures,topics for discussion and exercises that cover the main areas oflexicology. The Course highlights the recent tendencies in the linguisticscience; it combines theoretical study and practice.

Each chapter provides a variety of instructional activities that helpstudents evaluate the information they have learned, express theirthoughts and analyse the most pressing issues of current lexicology.The book includes a list of terms and concepts.

All these materials are aimed at expanding students languageknowledge. They enhance theoretical competence, students reflectivethinking whenever they have a problem to solve, and challenge studentsto make individual judgements.

It is hoped that this approach will be conducive to a betterunderstanding of the fundamental principles of lexicology, and studentswill find much of value in this book. Wed appreciate any comments orsuggestions you may have for improving this text.

Galina N. Babich

8Introduction

It is both a pleasure and a privilege to write the introduction forthis exceptional guide. As an American who formerly taught English, Ionly wish I had access to the wealth of information provided herein.Indeed, students of any age, teachers of English throughout the world,or any person with an interest in language will find this contributionboth engaging and informative. This well-written book has a globalappeal.

The author has been my friend and professional colleague for overa decade. In this guide she displays an amazing grasp of this branch oflinguistics. The accomplishment does not surprise me, however, asDr. Babich has long been a citizen of the world, studying, observing,and writing about her experiences. Readers of many nations will enjoythis book and I recommend it highly.

Jeanne C. Baxter, Ph.D., Professor EmeritusNortheastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois, USAPartner, Quality Education Associates

9C h a p t e r 1

LANGUAGE AND LEXICOLOGY

P o l o n i u s: What do you read, my lord?H a m l e t: Words, words, words.P o l o n i u s: What is the matter, my lord?H a m l e t: Between who?P o l o n i u s: I mean the matter that youread, my lord.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

1.1. The Object of Lexicology

Lexicology (of Greek origin: lexis word + logos learning)(ca.1828) is a branch of linguistics concerned with words. It is a studyof words. All the words of a language make up its vocabulary or lexicon(1603). To study the lexicon of English is to study all aspects of thevocabulary of language how words are formed, how they havedeveloped, how they are used, how they relate in meaning to each other,and how they are handled in dictionaries.

Lexical study is a wide-range domain, involving such diverse areasas the sense relationships between words, the use of abbreviations, punsand euphemisms, the compilation of dictionaries and many others.Thus, lexicology deals with the vocabulary and characteristic featuresof words and word-groups.

The word is the basic unit of the lexical system of a language resultingfrom the association of a particular meaning with a particular group ofsounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. It is thesmallest language unit that can stand alone as a complete utterance.From the lexical aspect the word may express one or several notionsbeing in different relations among themselves.

The term word-group denotes a group of words that exists in thelanguage as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning and ofsyntactical function.

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Modern approaches to the word are characterized by two differentlevels of study: syntagmatic and paradigmatic (we owe this 2-dimensional model of language structure to the Swiss linguist Ferdinandde Saussure.) On the paradigmatic (substitution) level, the word isstudied in its relationship with other words in the vocabulary system.On the syntagmatic (sequence) level, the word is analyzed in its linearrelationships with words in connected speech.

One further important objective of lexicological studies is the studyof the vocabulary as a system. The vocabulary can be studied by meansof two approaches: descriptive or synchronic (from Greek syn together with and chronos time) and historical or diachronic(dia through), i.e. the synchronic approach is concerned withthe vocabulary of a language at the given stage of its development, thediachronic approach deals with the changes and the development ofvocabulary in course of time.

1.2. Branches of Lexicology

What are the constituent parts of lexicology? There are specificsub-branches of lexicology. They are: etymology, word-formation,semantics, phraseology, lexicography, etc., each of which has its ownaim of study, its own object of investigation, its own methods oflinguistic research. As an example we look at the question of sourcesof lexicon.

The great quality of English is its teeming vocabulary, 80 per centof which is foreign-born. A glance through a modest etymologicaldictionary of the English language will immediately reveal the varietyof immigrants. For example, Arabic is a collection of words that havepassed into English: admiral, magazine, almanac, camel, giraffe, cotton,mohair, amber, apricot, alcohol, asparagus, candy, coffee, orange, rice,sugar, sofa.

Precisely because its roots are so varied Celtic, Germanic(German, Scandinavian and Dutch) and Romance (Latin, French,and Spanish) it has words in common with virtually every languagein Europe: German, Yiddish, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Swedish,

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French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. English is unique in thisrespect.

The following list provides a sample set of words that have beenincorporated into English:

French: cuisine, army, elite, saut 2, cul-de-sac, raffle.Latin: cup, fork, pound, vice versa.Greek: polysemy, synonymy, chemistry, physics, phenomenon.Native American languages: caucus, pecan, raccoon, pow-wow.Spanish: junta, siesta, cigar.German: rucksack, hamburger, frankfurter, seminar.Scandinavian languages: law, saga, ski, them, they, their.Italian: piano, soprano, confetti, spaghetti, vendetta.South Asian languages: bungalow, jungle, sandal, thing.Yiddish: goy, knish, schmuck.Dutch: cruise, curl, dock, leak, pump, scum, yacht.Chinese: mandarin, tea, serge.Japanese: bonsai, hara-kiri, kimono, tycoon, karate, judo.

There is an important balance between the stock of native wordsand borrowings into English. In a survey of the 1,000 most frequentlyused words in English, it was found that only 61.7 per cent had oldEnglish origin. The other 38.3 per cent were borrowed from a varietyof other languages: 30.9 per cent French, 2.9 per cent Latin, 1.7 per centScandinavian, 1.3 per cent mixed, and 0.3 per cent Low German andDutch. (Stefanie Jannedy. Language Files. The Ohio State University,Columbus, 6th ed., p. 136.)

Thus, there is a specific branch of lexicology etymology, the goalof which is the discovery of earlier, true, meanings of words and theirorigin.

Word formation turns out to play a crucial part in Englishvocabulary growth. A word can consist of a prefix, a base, and a suffix.Not every word, however, will have a prefix and/or a suffix. A prefixis one or more syllables that can be added to the front of a word orbase, while a suffix can be added to the end. Their function is to changethe meaning of the word. Many prefixes and suffixes come from Latinor Greek.

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Look at the following word:

LINGU IST ICBase Suffix Suffix

The meaning of these parts is:

lingu tongue, language

ist noun suffix

ic adjectival suffix

Therefore we know that this is an adjective referring to somethingabout language.

Have you ever heard the word educationalize? There is a patternthat permits the addition of -al to almost any noun ending in -ion. Inturn, the pattern is very extensive for adding the factitive suffix -izeto any adjective ending in this suffix -al.

Very often suffixes change meanings of words. For example, verbscan be turned into adjectives by adding -ed and -ing. The -ed is usuallya passive form that shows the quality a person or thing feels: I felt bored.However, an -ing is an active form which usually shows the quality aperson or thing gives to others: She made me feel boring. Comparesurprised and surprising, puzzled and puzzling, excited and exciting, etc.

Thus, the study of the morphology of the word, or the parts of aword, and the patterns on which a language builds new words is thesubject matter of word-formation.

One more issue to be taken into consideration is the statistics ofEnglish which are astonishing. Of all the worlds languages (which nownumber some 2,700), it is the richest in vocabulary. The compendiousOxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a furtherhalf million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued.According to traditional estimates, neighbouring German has avocabulary of about 185,000 words and French fewer than 100,000.

An essential part of investigations in lexicology is reflected indictionary making lexicography, which is also a branch of lexicology.Dictionaries are descriptions of the distribution of language units(usually words) in terms of linguistic and cultural contexts.

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What shall we call the units of meaning which appear as theheadwords in a dictionary? The tradition is to call them words. However,in a serious study of the lexicon the term lexeme is used. The termlexeme, introduced by Benjamin Lee Whorf in 1938, has been used forthe lexical word. A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning, which existsregardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number ofwords it may contain. Thus, the headwords in a dictionary are alllexemes.

Lexicology deals with words, their meaning and vocabularystructure. And what are the problems that can be studied referring tothe words? They are:

the definition of the word,

the meaning of the word,

the processes of semantic change,

word groups,

combinability,

idioms,

the structure of the lexicon and several other central concepts.

1.3. Lexicology and Sociolinguistics

What is the place of lexicology among other linguistic disciplines?The component parts of the theory of any language are: theoreticalgrammar, theoretical phonetics, and lexicology. Grammatical systemof the language has been studied for several centuries already whilelexicology and theoretical phonetics became separate fields oflinguistics only in the 19th century.

What makes lexicology a special science, so different from grammaror phonetics? There is a tremendous difference between lexicology, onthe one hand, and phonology, morphology and syntax, on the other.And the difference lies in the fact that the word-stock (the vocabulary)of a language directly and immediately reacts to whatever happens inthe social life of the speech community in question.

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The extra-linguistic factors influence usage and development oflanguage. They are dealt with in sociolinguistics which may be definedas the study of the influence produced upon language by various socialfactors. This influence is particularly strong in lexis. Lets consider thefollowing examples:

The new language of cyberspace (cybervocabulary). As computersgradually extended their influence, so did cyber-, as a prefix having todo with computers and electronic communication. Cybernetics (1948)became the progenitor of a wide range of cyber-compounds in the 1980sand 90s, relating to the use of the Internet, and virtual reality:cyberphobia, cyberpunk, cyberspace, cyberart, cyberhippy, cyberlawyer,cyberworld, cybermat, cybercop, cybercha, cyber-community, cybernaut,cybrarian the new language of cyberspace. Many words discussingtechnology are coined with byte, net, mega, web, and digi: digitizedcyberads, gigabyte, megalomania.

PIN (1981) is an abbreviation of personal identification number, anumber allocated by a bank, etc., to a customer for use with a cashcard. (1981 Sunday Times: Cards with PINs written on them have beenstolen .)

E-mail (1982) is an abbreviation of electronic mail, which by themiddle of the 1980s has established itself as the standard term; hacker(1983), Internet (1986), cellphone (1984), mobile (1990), spam (1994),web (1994). English took on a new meaning for a word over 400 yearsold, at the same time conferring a new meaning on a punctuation markonce simply called period, now a dot as in dot com.

The power of English is not confined to the invention andmanufacture of new technology. Dis-, diss- (1986) is to put someonedown, to show disrespect for a person by insulting language orbehaviour. Are you dissing me? = Are you showing disrespect forme? Dis- is a permanent feature of political discussion that includesdisagreement, disputes, disappointments, disillusion, distress, dissidents,and disorder.

Another example: the suffix holic, -aholic, -oholoc (workaholic[1968]) describes all-consuming obsessions, not all of them serious.We could be addicted to play, foods, shopping, news, credit, and junk:golfaholic, footballaholic, computerholic, leisureholic, etc. Yahoopublished a news story Eating Chocolate Is Healthy, Doctors Say by

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Patricia Reaney. Good news for chocoholics. The treat favored by mil-lions not only tastes delicious but is healthy for you... (http://dailynews,yahoo.com/h/nm/20010903/ts/health). Chocoholic, a com-pulsive eater of chocolate, appeared in 1976. Shopaholic, a compulsiveshopper, appeared in 1984.

New words comprise various structural types: simple (cable, dude,rap); derived (buyout, to upchuck, animalist, synergy, whicked);compound (awesome, blockbuster, ecofriendly, high-maintenance, job-hunt, script-show); shortenings (dis, to veg, ATM, WWW 1994, theWorld Wide Wait, a nickname for the WWW as delays can be frequentdepending on the speed of your Internet connection).

Language is always in a state of flux, it can surprise you every day.The adjective awesome, for instance, has changed its meaning and beganto be used in the sense of marvellous, wonderful, stunning (1980).This meaning has dribbled down from the original awe-inspiring viaremarkable (1961): I just know itd be an awesome band (Making Music1986).

In the end of the century the whole world worried about themillennium bug (1995), because computers recognized years by theirlast two digits, and couldnt tell the year 2000 from 1900. Another namefor it is the Year 2000 Problem, abbreviated Y2K (K-n from the Greekprefix kilo- one thousand). The problem was managed to keep uscool. Over the years, many different meanings of cool have accumulated.Cool has meant daring (1839), clever (1924), exciting (1933),stylish (1946), cautious or under control (1952), and satisfac-tory or OK (1952). To cool it has meant to stop (1952), to die(1960), and to relax (1986). In the 1990s, among young people, coolin the sense approval or appreciation has even taken on a distinctivepronunciation closer to that of cull.

The question arises: Do we expect the phonemes or tenses to changewhen something happens in the social life of the society in question?The answer is an emphatic No.

In contrast with phonology, morphology and syntax, lexicology isa sociolinguistic discipline. It is based on establishing interrelationsbetween the language, the social life and conventions of language use.

Conventions associated with social situations can have an influenceon the structure of individual speech interactions. These can include

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anything from conventions for beginning a casual conversation toconventions for asking a question in a formal classroom setting orconventions for writing a manual or a novel. No matter what sort ofinteraction is involved, it is a representation of some type of discourse.

Discourse (fr. L. argument, conversation) is verbal interchangeof ideas; connected speech or writing. It is a set of utterances thatconstitute a speech event, piece of writing or conversation.

Analysis of the structure of discourse concentrates on howutterances are put together by speakers in individual interactions. Bothwritten and spoken discourse can be subject to discourse analysis usingvarious methods such as, for example, the study of pragmatics,ethnography of communication, ethnomethodology, and text analysis.

In the new millennium, there is the unprecedented rapidity oflanguage change introduced by new technology, expansion of Englishfor specific purposes in science, medicine, business, and politics, globalresearch possibilities, distance education all this requires effectivecommunicative competence. To understand a word and to use itcorrectly, we must understand and know its semantics, its pragmaticaspect, and its cultural aspect.

All this makes lexicology a branch of linguistics with its own aimsand methods of research; its basic goal being a study and systematicdescription of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and use.This is a current approach to the most important issues of lexicology.

1.4. The Definition of the Word

What is a word? The definition of the word is one of the mostdifficult in linguistics because the word has many aspects. It has a soundform because it is a certain arrangement of phonemes; it has itsmorphological structure, being a certain arrangement of morphemes;it is used in different word-forms and various meanings in speech. Theword is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax,and morphology.

If we evaluate the place of the word in particular language plans,we come to an important difference in the place of the word and ofother language units in the language system.

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The difference lies in the fact that the phoneme, morpheme andsentence have their fixed place in the language system, whereas theword belongs both to the morphological and to the syntactical andlexical plans. The word is a bridge between morphology and syntax,making the transition from morphology to syntax gradual andimperceptible. Extreme cases are those of the identification of the wordwith the morpheme, on one hand, and with the sentence, on the otherhand. The place of these basic units in the language system can berepresented in the following way:

phonological morphological syntactical lexical

PHONEME MORPHEME SENTENCE WORD

WORD

phoneme word

morpheme

phoneme

There have been many attempts to define the word. The efforts ofmany prominent scholars threw light on this problem. Linguists definethe word as the basic unit of language. It is a unity of form and content.Its content or meaning is not identical to notion.

A word usually conveys a notion. Notion is psychological category.Notion and linguistic categories are closely connected. Notions arerealized through words, without words they cannot exist. Notions arerealized through the component of the word called meaning. So bymeaning we understand the component of the word through which thenotion is realized.

We cannot identify word and notion, notion and meaning, word andmeaning. Word is wider than meaning. Meaning is not identical to notion,but it may reflect human notions, and in this sense may be considered asthe form of their existence. Notions fixed in meanings of words are formedas generalized and approximately correct reflections of reality; thereforein signifying them words reflect reality in their content.

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Babich G. Lexicology a Current Guide.fragment