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The term lexicology is composed of two Greek morphemes lexic word, phrase & logos which denotes learning a
department of knowledge. Literally - 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.
Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistics :
Phonetics - investigates the phonetic structure of language. Grammar - the study of the grammatical structure of language.
Stylistics - is concerned with a study of a nature , functions & styles of languages .
In lexicology the word is studied as a part of the system. In lexicography it is studied as an individual unit in respect of its
meaning and use from the practical point of its use by the reader of the dictionary for learning the language or
comprehending texts in it or for any other purpose like checking correct spelling, pronunciation etc. The aim of lexicology is
to study the vocabulary of a language as a system. Its goal is systematization in the study as a whole but not completeness as
regards individual units.
Lexicography is the science and art of compiling dictionary.
Approaches to language study
There are two approaches in linguistic science to the study of language material : synchronic & diachronic. The synchronic
approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a particular language as it exists at a given time. The diachronic approach deals
with the changes & the development of vocabulary in the coarse of time. It is Special Historical lexicology.
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.
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 as well as any linguistic sign is a two-faced unit possessing
both form & content or , to be more exact , sound-form & meaning.
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 . 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 (to see saw - seen seeing). Besides the grammatical forms of words there are lexical varieties which are
called variants of words. (to make a dress, to make smbd. do smth). These are lexico-semantic variants, phonetic &
morphological variants. There are morphological variants. (meaning is the same but the model is different).
Methods of investigation
The process of scientific investigation may be subdivided into several stages :
* Observation - includes linguistics & is the center of what is called the inductive method of inquiry . The role of
inductive procedures is that the statements of fact must be based on observation not on logical conclusions or personal
preferences .
* 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 havent , thus we can come to the conclusion that -er can be found in derived & non-derived
words .)
* generalization , the collection of data & their classification must 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 .)
* verification of the generalizations that are the result of his inquires . For these aims different methods & procedures are
used: contrastive analyses , statistical methods of analyses , distributional analyses , componental analyses & method of
semantic differentiation .
Contrastive analysis (detailed comparison of the structure of a native & a target language)
Contrastive analysis is applied to reveal the features of sameness & difference in the lexical meaning & the semantic
structure of correlated words in different languages. Contrastive analysis can be carried out at three linguistic levels:
phonology , grammar ( morphology & syntax ) & lexis. Differences in the lexical meaning ( a new dress - new potatoes , new
bread ). Grammatical meaning (singular or prular). Idioms.
Contrastive linguists attempt to find out similarities & differences in both related & non-related languages
This theory takes paradigms as a central notion. states generalizations that hold between the forms of inflectional paradigms.
The major point behind this approach is that many such generalizations are hard to state with either of the other approaches.
Homonyms - Different words with the same sounds: bear
bare
CLASSES OF WORDS
1. Lexical Content Words - open class words
The classes of words that are defined as words which have stateable LEXICAL MEAING. They are also called pen class words,
since we can add new words to these classes. We can and regularly do add new words to these classes
e. g. - download : entered English with the computer revolution
- Nouns (attached by the suffix -s to mark plural, take s to mark possessive)
- Verbs (attached by the suffixes -ed, -s, -ing, -en): walked, walks, walking
- Adjectives (attached by the suffixes -er, -est or use with more, most): taller , tallest, morebeautiful
- Adverbs (attached by the suffix -ly; or use with more, most): nicely , more beautifully
2. Function Words (Grammatical Words) --closed class words
The class of words whose role is largely grammatical and do not carry the main semantic content. They are closed class words
since the number of function words are limited in a language.
Determiners
articles the, a/an, some, lots of, few
Auxiliary
can, could, shall, should, may, might, must
Negation
no, not
Relations
subordinate conjunction while
Intensifier
very, too
Connectors
and, or, but (connect two independent clauses)
Preposition
in, of
Pronouns
I, me, mine, he, she, and so on
MORPHEME
A grammatical unit in which there is an arbitrary union of a sound and a meaning that cannot be further analyzed.
One morpheme
Two morpheme
Three morpheme
Four morpheme
More than four
1. Free Morphemes : Morphemes which can be used as a word on its own (without the need for further elements, i.e. affixes)
e. g.: girl, system, desire, hope, act, phone, happy..
2. Bound Morphemes: Morphemes which cannot occur on its own as an independent (or separate) word: affixes (prefix, suffix,
infix and circumfix)
3. Root vs. Stem Non-affix lexical content morphemes that cannot be analyzed into smaller parts. When a root morpheme is
combined with affix morphemes, it forms a stem.
Root
believe (verb)
Stem
believe + able (verb + suffix)
Word
un + believe + able (prefix + verb + suffix)
4. Derivational morphemes vs. Inflectional Morphemes (Bound morphemes)
Derivational Morphemes
1. Derivational morphemes derive a new word by being attached to root morphemes or stems.
2. They can be both suffixes and prefixes in English.
3. Change of Meaning : un+do (the opposite meaning of do), sing+er (new word with the meaning of a person who sings).
4. Change of the syntactic category (optionally)
Inflectional Morphemes
1. Inflectional morphemes signal grammatical information such as number (plural), tense, possession and so on.
2. They are only found in suffixes in English: boys, Marys , walked
3. No change of Meaning: walk vs. walks, toy vs. toys
4. Change of the syntactic category (optionally)
English Inflectional Morphemes
-s third person singular present
Examples
She waits at home.
-ed
-ing
-en
-s
-s
-er
-est
past tense
progressive
past participle
plural
possessive
comparative
superlative
i) Change of category
Noun to Adjective
Verb to Noun
Adjective to Adverb
Noun to Verb
Adjective to Noun
1.2 Lexicography and Linguistics: as already noted, the basic concern of lexicography is 'word'
which is studied in different branches of linguistics, viz, phonetics, grammar, stylistics etc.
Lexicography is not only related to linguistics but is an applied discipline under it. The practical
problems of lexicography are solved by the application of the researches of linguistic works. As
we shall see below, in his entire work from the selection of entries, fixation of head words, the
definition of words to the arrangement of meanings and entries, the lexicographer is helped by
the work of different branches of linguistics.
One of the most widely accepted criteria for selection of entries in many dictionaries is usually
frequency count. The frequency of head words the lexicographer usually chooses the canonical
or the most frequently occurring form of a word. This is found out from the grammatical study of
the language. For written languages and languages with established grammatical traditions the
problem of selection of the head word is not so difficult as in the case of unwritten languages.
Here the lexicographer has to be his own linguist and have recourse to the linguistic analysis of
the language. For data collection he takes the help of field linguistics and for analysis, of
descriptive linguistics. For giving definitions of flora and fauna as also of artifacts and other
cultural items the lexicographer gives encyclopaedic information. For this the principle of the
hierarchical structure of the vocabulary in terms of folk taxonomy is utilized by a lexicographer.
Thus he enters the domain of ethnolinguistics.
For giving spellings and pronunciation of words in his dictionary the lexicographer is helped by
the phonetic study of the language. For grammatical information he has to depend on the
morphological analysis of the language.
In the determination of the central meaning of a polysemous word the lexicographer is helped by
historical linguistics. Etymology gives him the clue to decide the basic meaning. In the fixation
of the number of meanings and their interrelationship the lexicographer has to take recourse to
the linguistic methods of set collocations, valency and selective restrictions etc.
Historical linguistics helps in tracing the origin and development of the form and meaning of the
words in historical dictionaries. In descriptive dictionaries such labels as archaic, obsolete etc.,
denoting the temporal status of words, are decided with the help of historical linguistics.
Historical linguistics, especially etymological study, helps in distinguishing between homonymy
and polysemy. But where etymological consideration is not applicable for want of such studies it
is the native speaker's intuition which is taken as the determining factor. In this the lexicographer
is helped by psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics also helps in providing material for vocabulary
development which might be used for the preparation of the graded dictionaries.
Dictionaries give status labels like slang, jargon, taboo, figurative, formal, graamya (vulgar) etc.
These labels are decided with the help of sociolinguistic and stylistic studies.
For dialect dictionaries dialectology is a necessary helpmate.
A basic prerequisite of bilingual dictionaries is a contrastive analysis of the linguistic systems of
the two languages. This is provided by contrastive linguistics.
All this shows that in his work the lexicographer has, to a large extent, always to depend on the
findings of different branches of linguistics. But this is not so in actual life. Lexicographical
works had preceded grammatical works in many languages. It is not only the findings of
linguistics which help in the solution of lexicographical problems, the lexicographical findings
are equally utilized by the linguists for different purposes of authenticating their hypothesis, in
helping standardization of the languages, especially in the fields of technical terminologies.
The problems of a lexicographer are practical and need based requiring at-the-moment solution.
The lexicographer cannot wait for certain findings in the field of linguistics or other disciplines
for the solution of his problems. It is here that linguistics might fail to meet the needs of a
lexicographer. There are different schools of linguistics vying with each other in theoretical
researches. The findings of one school are contradicted by the other. There are different studies
on the same aspect of a language. Nothing is final. The lexicographer might not afford to wait for
the final word to come. Moreover, many languages still remain uninvestigated. So the
lexicographer has to find his own way. In his entire work, the lexicographer is guided by the
practical considerations of a dictionary user. The linguistic theories are quite important for the
lexicographer but practical utility is more basic for him. As rightly put forward by Urdang
"Lexicography, in practice is a form of applied linguistics and although more theoreticians would
be a welcome addition to the field, they must remember that their theories should be
interpretable above all in terms of practicality." (Urdang, 1963, 594)