Lexicology of the English Language
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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. «-
er», «-ing», «-ment» form nouns from verbal stems («teacher», «dancing»,
«movement»), «-ness», «-ity» are used to form nouns from adjective stems
(«clannishnes», «marginality»).
According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a word
there are different structural types of words in English: simple, derived, compound, compound-derived.
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