LEXICOLOGY

:
1.
Word-meaning. Referenial and
functional approach to meaning. Types of
meaning. Motivation of words.
2.
Change of meaning: causes and
nature. Results of semantic changes.
3.
Polysemy. Semantic structure of
polysemic words.
4.
Homonymy.
5.
Meaning relations in paradigmatics
and semantic classification of words:
synonyms and antonyms.
6.
Hyponyms, hyperonyms.Collocation
of words.
7.
Word structure: morphemes, types
of morphemes. Morphological
classification of words.
8.
Affixation
9.
Conversion
10. Compound words
11. Phraseological units.
12. Lexicography

#3 Polysemy. Semantic structure of polysemantic

words.
When analyzing word meaning we observe that words are not units of one
single meaning.

Monosemantic words words which have one meaning, comparatively few

in number and they are mainly scientific terms.
The majority of English words are polysemantic they have more than one
meaning.
The actual number of meaning of such words ranges from 5 to about a
hundred. The commoner the word is the more meanings it has.
The word table has at least 9 meanings in modern English:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)

A piece of furniture
The people seated at the table
The food put on the table
A thin, flat piece of wood, stone or metal
Slaps of stone
Words cut into the Slaps of stone or written on them
An arrangement of facts, ideas, or figures
Part of a machine tool on which the work is put to be operated on
A level area

In polysemy we are faced with the problem of the interrelation and the
interdependence of the various meanings in the semantic structure of one
and the same polysemantic words.
Examining this problem we have two approaches:
I.

Diachronic approach

If polysemy is viewed diachronically it is understood as the growth and

development or as the change in the semantic structure of the
polysemantic word.
It means that a word may preserve its previous meaning or meanings and
at the same time it may acquire one or several new meanings. In the
course of its diachronic semantic analysis we find out that the primary
meaning of the word we talk is a flat slab of stone or wood, which is proper
to the word in the old English period.
All the other meanings are secondary, because they are derived from the
primary meaning of the word, and also they appear at later period.
Therefore we conclude here that the main source of polysemy is a change
in the semantic structure of the word. Semantic changes result as a rule in
new meanings which are added to the meanings already existing in the
semantic structure of the given word. Some of the old may become
obsolete or they may even disappear but the majority of English words
tends to an increase in their number of meaning.
II.

Synchronically

We understand polysemy as the co-existence of all the various

meanings in the semantic structure of one and the same structure at a
certain period of development in the English language.
Here arises the problem of interrelation and the interdependence of the
individual meanings making up the semantic structure of the word.
So synchronically we are faced with the problem: are all 9 meanings (of
the word table) equally representative of the word itself? The meaning
which first occurs to us when we hear or see the word table is a piece
of furniture. This meaning emerges as the basic or the central meaning
of the word and all the other meanings are secondary in comparison.
The basic meaning occurs in a various and widely different context
while the minor meanings could be observed in more specific contexts.
We assume that the meaning a piece of furniture occupies the central
place in the semantic structure of the word table and all the other
meanings seem to be graded according to the frequency of their
occurrence in speech.
The concept of the basic and the minor meanings may be interpreted in
terms of their relative frequency in speech. The meaning of the
highest frequency the one, representative of the semantic structure
of the word, synchronically speaking the basic meaning of the word.

Specialization occurs when a word acquires additional terms. Words

denoting parts of the human body are used in technical terms.

Borrowings from another language:

In English a word of foreign origin may have a different meaning from
the word it had in the language it was borrowed from. In some cases
the old meaning may still influence the meaning, especially for
people speaking the two languages and keep in contact: intrigue

#5 Meaning relations in paradigmatics and

semantic classification of words:
synonyms and antonyms.

Synonymy
Synonymy is the relationship of sameness of meaning between lexical
items. Words most nearly alike in their meaning.
The study of synonymic forms of expression peculiar to a given national
language helps us to determine its living, active styles and the laws of
their development.
The existence of numerous groups of synonyms is one of the characteristic
features of the vocabulary.
The study of the vocabulary leads us to the observation that many words
suggest more than they literally mean, and sometimes words which have
the same literal or actual meaning (denotion) and they differ very much in
their suggestive meaning (connotation).
Some words are more general, colorless and neutral in tone, but other
words have a distinctly literary or poetic suggestion which may be
colloquial, formal, humorous, childish, learned, stilted or technical.
Among synonyms we find words which have the same literal meaning but
which are appropriate only to definite linguistic context.

horse (general)
stead (literal)
nag (colloquial)
stallion
charger

Here we may conclude that the synonyms of a given word are not always
interchangeable with that word.
goodbye (general)
so long (colloquial)
adieu (facetious)
ta-ta (childish)
farewell (elevated)
So the context determines the selection of a synonym.

Classifications of synonyms.
As to their origin we may distinguish the following basic types of
synonyms:
1) Here belong synonyms which originated from the native stock of
language and which are mostly denoting different shades of one and
the same meaning.
handsome, pretty, lovely, bold, manful
2) Here we have synonyms created through the adoption of words from
dialects:
glamour charm
bairn child
bogle ghost
3) Here we have synonyms which owe their origin to borrowings from
foreign languages:
aid help
commence begin
raise rear
4) Here we have synonyms connected with the figurative usage of
words in expressive language
to get the creeps pins and needles

dreamer stargazer
5) Synonyms connected with the use of euphemisms and vulgarisms
employed for certain stylistic purposes.
lying distorts the facts
drunk elevated, sizzled
spend a lot of money blowin ( )
steal shoop
As to their nature we may distinguish the following types of
synonyms:
1) These are called absolute or perfect synonyms.
Absolute synonyms are very rare in the language. Because their
meaning is so fully identical that one of them can be always
substituted for the other:
fatherland motherland
Sometimes we may find absolute synonyms in special
terminology:
truce armistice
scarlet fever scarlatina
2) Relative synonyms they denote different shades of meaning or
different degrees of a given quality:
beautiful fine handsome pretty
Such words as beautiful are called dominant.
clever3 able5 intelligent1 keen4 smart2
3) Stylistic synonyms they are connected with the meaning and
the general effect of the whole context and they differ only in
their emotional colouring.
billow wave ( )
maid gire
morn morning
woe sorrow
vale valley
bliss happiness

Antonymy
Oppositeness of meaning. Adjectives are mostly subjective to antonymy.
A word may have different opposites in different linguistic contexts.
light bag heavy bag
light wind strong wind
light colours dark colours

rough sea calm sea

rough texture smooth texture
rough person easy-going person
Therefor the antonyms of a given word cannot interchange in different
linguistic contexts.
Types of antonyms:
1) Contradictories (ungradables)
The use of one of the terms excludes the use of the other one:
alive dead
single married
day night
quick slow
angel devil
The specific feature of contradictories is that they do not allow the
existence of intermediate terms between them. That is why they are also
called ungradables.
2) Contraries (gradables)
They allow the existence of intermediate terms between them:
hot cold
boiling>burning>blistering>smeltering>blazing>hot>warm>tepid>cool>
chilly>cold>freezing>bitterly cold> frost-bitten
3) Incompatibles
Incompatibility exist among antonyms with the common component of
meaning and may be described as the relationship of exclusion and not of
contradiction.
To say morning that is not to say afternoon, not evening, not night.
Antonyms are used as stylistic means or used in poetry and prose. Often
intensity of feeling is achieved by accumulating many antonyms. Example:
Romeo and Juliet

#6 Hyponyms, hyperonyms. Collocation of words.

Hyponymy
Inclusion between lexical items.
Hyponymy is one of the basic principles for organizing vocabulary units. It
is the semantic relationship of inclusion between lexical items.
Hyponymy includes items into lexical sets on the basis of some common
semantic component between them. In that way it arranges them into
specific structures, starting with the general term Hyperonym:
The word which renders the common semantic component between all the
words. All the other words are its hyponyms and between themselves they
are co-hyponyms. Which is also another semantic relationship between
the,.
Sometimes these hyponymyc structures could be in the form of
derivational three-type diagrams which are called taxonomy (taxonomies)
The general term in them is the hyperonym and the other terms imply the
general, common meaning between them, and besides that they also have
their own individual meaning which distinguishes them one from the other:

body hyperonym
|
Trunk Limbs hyponyms
|
|
Head, Torso

|
Arms, Legs

Season hyperonym

|
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter hyponyms
These hyponymyc arrangements of words are very useful in day-to-day
dealing with the language, especially for beginners who have to learn a lot
of new words. If they are given ungraded series it would be easier for
students to learn them.
The principles of such hyponymyc classification is subjectively reflecting
the structure of the vocabulary and is considered by modern linguistics as
one of the most important principles of description of meaning.
This principle is widely used by scientists in varying fields of research
biology, geology, etc

Collocation of words
Collocation is the ability of words belonging to different word classes to
combine with each other.
But this ability is not haphazard, that is, it is restricted by the semantic
laws of the language existing at a given period of its development.

Examples:
With the word: beige
She has a beige car. -
She has a beige hair X

With the word: blond

She has a blond hair. -
She has a blond car X

#7 Word structure: morphemes, types of

morphemes.
Words are freestanding items in the language with their own independent
meaning.

eat|ing morpheme
Morpheme is the smallest meaningful two-faced (meaning and content)
language unit which cannot be further sub-divided.
Morphemes are not independent and are found in actual speech only as
integral parts of the word.
I.

Semantical classification of Morphemes. Two sub-parts:

1) Root Morphemes

Root morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word: it has a very general
and abstract lexical meaning typical to a set of semantically-related words
building up one word-cluster
teach teach|er teach|ing
Besides the lexical meaning, root morphemes poses all other types of
meaning specific for morphemes except the part of speech meaning which
is found in roots.
2) Affixational morphemes
a. Inflexions
Inflexions carry only grammatical meaning and in that way they are
relevant only for the formation of word forms.
b. Affixes
Affixes are relevant for building various types of words. They are lexically
always dependant on the root, which they modify. They possess the same
types of meaning which is found in roots, but unlike root morphemes most
if them have the part of speech meaning which makes them structurally
the important part of the word, because the condition the lexicalgrammatical word belongs to.
Due to this component of their meaning the affixes are classified into
affixes building parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
II.
Structural classification of morphemes
1) Free morphemes coincide with word forms of independently
functioning words. Actually the FM (free morphemes) are root
morphemes, semantically speaking.
un|desir|able
pen hold|er
2) Bound morphemes are morphemes which cannot exist
independently in a language. They only make part of the word.
Affixes are typical bound morphemes.

3) Semi-bound morphemes are morphemes which in one morphemic

sequence function as FM and in another function as BM (bound
morphemes)
Free morphemes:
half an hour
sleep well
Bound morphemes:
half-eaten
well-done
According to the number of morphemes, words can be classified into
monomorphic (root words) and polymorphic.
Monomorphic words consist of just one root morpheme:
dog, table, chair, sun
Polymorphic words fall into two sub-groups according to the number of
root morphemes in their structure:
1) Derived words
The derived words are composed of one root morpheme and one or more
affixes:
accept|able
out|number
en|light|ment
2) Compound words contain at least two root morphemes or more, and
the number of derivational affixes is not so important here. There
can be both root and derivational morphemes in compounds (light
mind|ed|ness), or just two root morphemes (lamp|shade)

#9 Conversion
Conversion is one of the principal ways of forming new words in English
which is highly productive.
Conversion is a word formation process in which a word of one
grammatical form becomes a word of another grammatical form without
any changes of spelling or pronunciation.
The term conversion refers to the numerous eases of phonetic identity of
word forms of two words belonging to different parts of speech.

work (noun) -> to work (verb)

doctor (noun) to doctor (verb)
If we regard such weird bias as doctor to doctor from the point of view
of their morphemic structure we see that the root words on the
derivational level one of these words should be regarded as a derived
word because it belongs to a different part of speech and is understood
through its semantic and structural relation with the other word. The
conception of conversion is derivation with other word.
As a rule conversion deals with root words though there may be some
exceptions
condition -> to condition
Another typical feature of conversion is that words belonging to one and
the same word class cannot be formed by this type of word formation.
Conversion applies mainly to the category of the verb and the category of
the noun.
Basic types of conversional pairs:
I.

Deverbal nouns (the converted noun may also demote the agent
of the action)
1) The verb is generally referring to an action and the converted noun
may be denote:
to step a step
to jump a jump
2) Agent of the action (the converted noun may also demote the agent
of the action.
to cook a cook
to trump a trump
3) Place of the action
to leak a leak
to drive a drive
4) Object or result of the action
to find a find
to peel a peel
II.
Denominal verbs (verbs converted from nouns)
The semantic relations between the verb and the noun are various. If the
noun refers to some object of reality the converted verb may denote.

1) Action characteristic of the object.

ape to
nurse to
thunder to
2) Instrumental use of the object
drum to
saw to
hammer to
nose to
3) Acquisition or addition of the object
fish to
age to
coat to
4) Deprivation of the object
dust to
skin to

ape
nurse
thunder
drum
saw
hammer
nose
fish
age
coat
dust
skin

Exercise 1
He is a comfort to her.
He is comforting her. -> agent
The loan started at the beach, jumping over the brick walks.
If you go there, you will get the feel of the country.
She was wearing a fur coat, furry made in cut.
She gave out a sigh of disappointment the moment she saw him.
She sighted of disappointment the moment she saw him.

The relationship is fundamental in the study of the vocabulary and it is

regarded as an important organizing principal.