lexicology lecture

ULAANBAATAR UNIVERSITYULAANBAATAR UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

LEXICOLOGY

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Ts. DAGIIMAA, Ph.D 1Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D

Õè÷ýýëèéí èíäåêñ: ENGL 210Õè÷ýýëèéí íýð: ¯ãñèéí ñàíãèéí ñóäëàëÀãóóëãûí áàãòààìæ: 3 êðåäèòÑóäëàõ àíãè: Àíãëè õýëíèé áàãø,

Àíãëè õýëíèé îð÷óóëàã÷Ñóäëàõ óëèðàë: VI

Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D 2

Ëåêöèéí àãóóëãà

1. Lexicology. Word. Word formation. Word-building. Affixation. Semantics of affixes. Root and stem.2. Prefixation. Suffixation. Composition. Classification of English compounds. 3. English compounds. Ways of forming compound words. Semantic aspect of compound words. Conversion.4. “Stone wall” combinations. Shortenings. Sound imitations. Abbreviations. Graphical abbreviations. Initial abbreviations. Blending. 5. Secondary ways of word-building. Stress interchange. Clipping. Back formation. Semantic changes. Meaning. Word meaning. Types of meaning. Lexical meaning-notion. 6. The main lexicological problems. Meaning and context. How word develop new meanings. Causes of development of new meanings. The process of development and change of meaning. Metaphor. Metonymy. Generalization of meaning.7. Specialization of meaning. Elevation, Degradation. Hyperbole. Litote. Reduplication. Neoclassical formation. Miscellaneous. Formal style. Informal style. Colloguial words. Slang. Dialect words. Learned words.8. Archaic and Obsolete words. Professional terminology. Basic vocabulary. The etymology of English words. Etymological doublets. International words. Translation loans.


9. Polysemy. Phraseology. The origin of the phraseological units. ways of forming phraseological units. Semantic classification of phraseological units.10. Structural classification of phraseological units. Syntactical classification of phraseological units. How to distinguish phraseological units from free word groups. Proverbs.11. Homonyms. Sources of Homonyms. Classification of Homonyms. Synonyms. Criteria of Synonymy. Types of Synonyms.12. Types of connotations. The dominant synonym. Euphemisms. Antonyms. 13. Borrowings. Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect and degree of assimilation. Borrowings of French, Italian, Spanish, Germanic, Scandinavian, Holland and Russian words.14. Local varieties of English. British and American English. Differences of spelling and pronunciation. Archaism. Neologism. 15. English idioms. Lexicography. 16. English dictionaries. Classification of dictionaries.


LECTURE 1

Lexicology. Word. Word formation. Word-building. Affixation. Semantics of affixes. Root and stem.


What Is Lexicology? What Is a Word? Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with

the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word groups. Vocabulary is used to denote the system of words

and word groups. Word denotes the main lexical unit of a language

resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. 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. Semasiology is a branch of lexicology which deals

with the meaning.Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D 6

We know very little about the nature of relations between the word and the referent (i.e. object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the word). If we assume that there is a direct relation between the word and the referent it gives rise to another question: how should we explain the fact that the same referent is designated by quite different sound groups in different languages. The list of unknowns could be extended, but it is

probably high time to look at the brighter side and register some of the things we do know about the nature of the word.


First, we do know that the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the purposes of human communication. The word can be defined as a unit of communication. Secondly, the word can be perceived as

the total of the sounds which comprise it. Third, the word, viewed structurally,

possesses several characteristics. The modern approach to word studies is

based on distinguishing between the external and the internal structures of the word.


By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For example, in the word post-impressionists

the following morphemes can be distinguished: the prefixes post-, im-, the root press, the noun-forming suffixes -ion, -ist, and the grammatical suffix of plurality -s. All these morphemes constitute the external

structure of the word post-impressionists.


The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as the word's semantic structure. This is certainly the word's main aspect. Words

can serve the purposes of human communication solely due to their meanings. The area of lexicology specialising in the

semantic studies of the word is called semantics. Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both external (or formal)

unity and semantic unity. Formal unity of the word is sometimes inaccurately interpreted as indivisibility.


The formal unity of the word can best be illustrated by comparing a word and a word-group comprising identical constituents. The difference between a blackbird and a black bird is best explained by their relationship with the grammatical system of the language. The word blackbird, which is characterised by unity, possesses a single grammatical framing: blackbird/s. The first constituent black is not subject to any grammatical changes. In the word-group a black bird each constituent can acquire grammatical forms of its own: the blackest birds I've ever seen.


Other words can be inserted between the components which is impossible so far as the word is concerned as it would violate its unity: a black night bird. The same example may be used to illustrate what we mean by semantic unity. In the word-group a black bird each of the meaningful words conveys a separate concept: bird - a kind of living creature; black - a colour.

The word blackbird conveys only one concept: the type of bird. This is one of the main features of any word: it always conveys one concept, no matter how many component morphemes it may have in its external structure.


A further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. In speech most words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are realised.

The word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical employment and characterised by formal and semantic unity.

13Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D


. Word formation Morpheme is the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words. Some morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are known as allomorph. Types of morpheme:1.Free morphemes – independent morphemes which have complete meanings and used as free grammatical units are called free morphemes.2.Bound morphemes – Morphemes bound to other morphemes to form words which cannot be used as separate words are called bound morphemes.


Wordbuilding Wordbuilding is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are 4 main ways of wordbuilding in English: affixation

composition conversion abbreviation

Secondary ways of wordbuilding: sound interchangestress interchangesound imitationblendsback formation


All morphemes are subdivided into two large classes: roots and affixes. The latter fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure of the word and suffixes which follow the root. Word which consist of a root and an affix are called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of wordbuilding known as affixation. Derived words are numerous in English vocabulary.


By wordbuilding are understood processes of producing new words from the resources of this particular language. Together with borrowing, wordbuilding provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary of the language. This type is widely represented by a great number of words belonging to the original English stock and has been greatly enlarged by the type of wordbuilding called conversion. Another wide spread word structure is a compound word consisting of two or more stems. Words of this structural type are produced by the wordbuilding process called composition.


The four types (root words, derived words, compounds, shortenings) represent the main structural types of Modern English words and conversion, derivation and composition the most productive ways of wordbuilding.

Affixation

Affixation is one of the most productive ways of wordbuilding. Affixation is divided into:

suffixationprefixation


The process of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. According to the functions they are divided into two groups:1. Inflectional affixes. They are attached to the end of the words to indicate grammatical relationships. For example, plural affixes of plurality, comparative and superlative and third person singular affixes.2. Derivational affixes. As the term indicates these affixes are added to other morphemes to create new words. They further divided into prefixes and suffixes.


Semantics of affixes

Affixes have widely generalised meanings and refer the concept conveyed by the whole word. The noun-forming suffix -er could be defined as designating persons from the object of their occupation or labour or from their place of origin or abode The adjective-forming suffix -ful has the meaning of "full of", "characterised by" (beautiful, careful) whereas -ish may often imply insufficiency of quality (greenish - green, but not quite; youngish - not quite young but looking it).


There are numerous derived words whose meanings can really be easily deduced from the meanings of their constituent parts. The semantic distinctions of words produced from the same root by means of different affixes are also of considerable interest, both for language studies and research work. Compare: womanly - womanish, flowery - flowered - flowering, starry – starred, reddened - reddish, shortened- shortish.


The semantic difference between the members of these groups is very obvious: the meanings of the suffixes are so distinct that they colour the whole words.

Womanly is used in a complimentary manner about girls and women, whereas womanish is used to indicate an effeminate man and certainly implies criticism.


Some Productive affixes Noun-forming suffixes: -er, -ing, -ness, -ism

(materialism), -ist (impressionist), -anceAdjective-forming suffixes: -y, -ish, -ed (learned), -able, -lessAdverb-forming suffixes: -lyVerb-forming suffixes: -ize/-ise (realise), -atePrefixes: un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis- (disapoint)


Root and Stem A root is the basic form and the main component of the word. We can not divide the root further into parts. Stem is part of the word consisting of root and affix. In English words stern and root often coincide. From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into the same two large groups as words: native and borrowed. A stem may consist of a simple root morphemes as in “iron”.


Derivation or affixation is a formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes. The words formed in this way are called derivations. According to the positions which affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into two subclasses:

Prefixation and Suffixation

LECTURE 2

Prefixation. Suffixation. Classification of English Compounds.



Prefixation Prefixation – formation of new words by

adding prefixes to stems. Prefixes changes the word-class of stems

and modify the meaning. For example: courage - encourage; asleep-sleep.But the majority of prefixes are characterized

by their non-class-changing nature. Their chief function is to change meanings of

the stems.


Accordingly, they are classified on a semantic basis into nine groups:

1. Negative prefixes2. Reversative prefixes3. Pejorative prefixes 4. Prefixes of degree or size5. Prefixes of orientation and attitude:

antinuclear; contraflow; pro-democracy 6. Locative prefixes 7. Prefixes of time and order 8. Number prefixes 9. Miscellaneous prefixes


SuffixationThe main function of suffixes in Modern English is

to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech.

There are different classifications of suffixes:1.Part-of-speech classification Suffixes which can form different parts of speech are given here:a) noun-forming suffixes, such as:-er b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as:-able c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen


2.Semantic classification Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the stem can be subdivided into groups. Noun-forming suffixes can denote:a) the agent of the action -er b) nationality –ian, -ese c) collectivity -dom d) diminutiveness -ie, -let, -ling e) quality -ness, -ity


3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem

Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:a)suffixes added to verbal stems, such as: -er, -ing, -able, -ment, -ationb) suffixes added to noun stems, such as: -less, -ful, -ism, -ster, -nik, -ishc) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as: -en, -ly, -ish, -ness


4. Origin of suffixes

Here we can point out the following groups: a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly. b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer. c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize. d) Russian, such as -nik.


5. Productivity

Here we can point out the following groups: a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, --ly, -ness. b) semi-productive, such as : -eer, -ette, -ward. c) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), - th (length).Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can

form nouns with the following meanings: - agent, doer of the action expressed by the stem (speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), - a device, a tool (transmitter).


By productive affixes we mean the ones, which take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms and so-called nonce-words, i. e. words coined and used only for this particular occasion. There are quite a number of high-frequency affixes which, nevertheless, are no longer used in word-derivation. E.g: the adjective-forming native suffixes -ful, -ly; the adjective-forming suffixes of Latin origin -ant, -ent, -al which are quite frequent).


Classification of English compounds

I. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into: 1. Noun compounds: this is the commonest type, and new specimens a constantly being formed. Noun compounds are subclassified according to the syntactic relation of the compounding elements:a) Subject and verb: the verb may take the form of the base or that of the base plus –ing. b) Verb and object: The verb may take the form of the base or that of the base + -ing.


c) Verb and adverbial: Verbal noun in - ing +adverbial (consisting of a prepositional phrase) d) Subject and object: steamboat “steam powers the boat”; honeybee “the bee produces honey”.e) Restrictive relation: the first element restricts the meaning of the second: raindrop “a drop of rain”; evening school “a school in the evening”; tablecloth “a cloth for table”; breakfast time “time for breakfast”. f) Appositive relation: the first element is in apposition to the second one.


When the first element of a noun compound is itself a compound, such a compound is called a string compound. Compound nouns can also be formed from phrasal verbs. This type is very common in contemporary English. 2. Adjective compounds: Adjective compounds are also subclassified according to the syntactic relation of the compounding elements:a)Subject and a verb: the verb is in the form ofpast participle. This type is highly productive.b) Verb and object: the verb is in the form of present participle. It is a productive type.


c) Verb and adverbial: The verb is in the form of present participle or past participle. d) Noun and adjective:• The noun denoting respect.• The noun denoting the thing with which the adjective is compared. e) coordinating relationship: The two adjectives are in a coordinating relationship.


3. Verb compounds: Verb compounds fall into two main groups according to their method of formation: a) Those formed by back- formation. E.g: house-keep is formed by deleting – ing and –er from housekeeping and housekeeper, which entered the language much earlier. b) Those formed by conversion. In this case, the verb compounds are converted from noun compounds. These verb compounds are very often used in colloquial speech.


Compounds are very often used because of their brevity and vividness. E.g. “up-to-the-minute information” is more vivid than “the latest information.”4. adverbs 5. prepositions6. numerals


LECTURE 3 Composition. Ways of forming compound words. Semantic aspect of compound

words. Conversion.


II. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into: a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element :vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s». c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems.


III. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into: a) compound words proper which consist of two stems b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, d) compound-shortened words,


IV. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into: a)subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these subordinative relations can be different: with comparative relations. b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two functions. Such compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication.V. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order.


CompositionComposition is the way of wordbuilding when

a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word.

The structural unity of a compound word depends upon:

a)the unity of stress, b)solid or hyphenated spelling,

c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical

functioning.


This type of word-building, in which new words are produced by combining two or more stems, is one of the three most productive types in Modern English, the other two are conversion and affixation. Compounds, though certainly fewer in quantity

than derived or root words, still represent one of the most typical and specific features of English word-structure.


1. For English compounds some of these factors are not very reliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on the first component). We can also have a double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first component and with a secondary stress on the second component. The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups unless they have solid or hyphonated spelling.


2. Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they can have different spelling even in the same text. In Modern English a special type of compound words which are called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a break.


3. The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components. In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong.


4. English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it

and only one component changes grammatically. There are at least three aspects of composition

that present special interest. The first is the structural aspect. Compounds

are not homogeneous in structure. Traditionally three types are distinguished:

neutral, morphological and syntactic.


Ways of forming compound words

Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of:

a) reduplication. b) conversion from word-groups. c) back formation from compound nouns

or word-groups. d) analogy.


Semantic aspect of compound words Unstable compounds

Semantically compounds are divided into idiomatic and non-idiomatic.

1. Non-idiomatic compounds are the words in which the meaning of the whole is the sum of the meanings of components.

2. Idiomatic compounds are those in which the meaning is changes or transferred.


The degree of transparence of meaning may be different. There are idiomatic compounds in which only one of the components has change its meaning. The meaning of the whole can be guessed. The difference between non-idiomatic and idiomatic compounds is based on the degree of the semantic cohesion of its elements.


There are several criteria which help us distinguish between a compound and a word combination:1) Semantic criterion. A compound denotes one notion a word combination, denotes two or several or more notions. 2) Phonetic criterion – in a compound there is one stress, in a word combination there are two stresses. 3) Morphological criterion – a compound has single grammatical framig a word combination doesn’t have such a quality. 4) Syntactical criterion. We can always enlarge a word combination by inserting a word.


Conversion Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. Conversion is a convenient and "easy" way of enriching the vocabulary with new words. It is certainly an advantage to have two (or more) words where there was one, all of them fixed on the same structural and semantic base. The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs. Verbs made from nouns are the most numerous amongst the words produced by conversion. Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs.


Converted nouns can denote: 1. The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool 2. The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour considered typical of this animal. 3. The name of a part of the human body - an action performed by it. 4. The name of a profession or occupation- an activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to groom. 5. The name of a place - the process of occupying the place or of putting smth./smb. in it. 6. The name of a container - the act of putting smth. within the container. 7. The name of a meal - the process of taking it.


Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings. a) Verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body. They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons. b) Verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted by the noun from which they have been converted. Sometimes the noun names the agent of the action expressed in the verb, the action being characteristic of what is named by the noun.


c) Verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are formed from nouns denoting an object. d) Verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun from which they have been converted. e) Verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun from which they have been converted. f) Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote the change of the state.


LECTURE 4 “Stone wall” combinations.

Shortenings. Sound imitations. Abbreviations. Graphical abbreviations. Initial abbreviations. Blending.


« Stone Wall » combinationsThe problem whether adjectives can be formed by

conversion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. If the first component is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups (adjective + noun).

This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the following facts:

1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as

adjectives in the function of an attribute do in English.3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its

meaning in most cases is plural, and adjectives in English have no plural form.


4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the Comparative or the Superlative degree. 5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs. 6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun. 7. After the first component the pronoun can be used instead of a noun.


There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups: 1. time relation 2. space relation 3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made 4. cause relation 5. relations between a part and the whole 6. relations between the object and an action


7. relations between the agent and an action 8. relations between the object and its designation 9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized object 10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second component 11. comparative relation 12. qualitative relation


Shortening (Contraction) Shortenings are produced in two different ways. The first is to make a new word from a syllable of the original word. The second way of shortening is to make a new word from the initial letters of a word group.Both types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of uncultivated speech particularly.


Sound - Imitation (Onomatopoeia) Word-building are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, insects, human beings and inanimate objects. This type of word-formation is now also called echoism represented by quite different sound groups in different languages. The majority of them serve to name sounds or movements and most of them are verbs easily turned into nouns. Sound imitative words form a considerable part of interjections.


Semantically, according to the source of sounds imitative words fall into a few very define groups.1. Sounds product by human beings in the process of communication or in expressing their feelings.2. By animals, birds, insects.3. Verbs imitating the sound of water (bubble, splash) and the sound of (or noise of) metallic things.


Abbreviation

Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different from the full form of the word.

Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary word, E.g: prof is a noun and professor is also a noun.


Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate. Abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means of conversion from abbreviated nouns. Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are combined with suffixation. Pronouns, numerals, interjections, conjunctions are not abbreviated.


Graphical abbreviations Graphical abbreviations are the result of

shortening of words and word- groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used.

They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin.

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form.


We have several semantic groups of them: a) days of the week. b) names of months. c) names of counties in UK.

d) names of states in USA. e) names of address. f) military ranks. g) scientific degrees. h) units of time, length, weight.


Initial abbreviationsInitialisms are the bordering case between

graphical and lexical abbreviations. There are three types of initialisms in English: a) initialisms with alphabetical reading. b) initialisms which are read as if they are

words. c) initialisms which coincide with English

words in their sound form, such initialisms are called acronyms.


Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of wordbuilding: a) affixation. b) conversion. c) composition. d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is a complete word. In some cases the first component is a complete word and the second component is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation.


Blending Blending is a process of word-formation in

which a new word is formed by combining the meanings and sounds of two words, one of which is not in its full form or both of which are not in their full forms.

Blending is a process of both compounding and abbreviation. Like acronyms, new blends are freely produced in contemporary English.


Structurally blends may be divided into four types:1. The first part of the first word + the last part of the second word 2. The first part of the first word + the first part of the second word3. Whole form of the first word + last part of the second word4. First part of the first word + whole form of the second word


Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building are combined: abbreviation and composition. To form a blend we clip the end of the first component (apocope) and the beginning of the second component (apheresis). As a result we have a compound-shortened word. Blends formed from two synonyms are: slang language, to hustle, gasohol. Mostly blends are formed from a word-group.


LECTURE 5 Secondary ways of word-building.

Stress interchange. Clipping. Back formation. Semantic changes. Meaning. Word meaning. Types of meaning.

Lexical meaning-notion.


Secondary ways of wordbuilding – Sound interchange

Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development known to scientists.


It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimilation). In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position.


Stress interchangeStress interchange can be mostly met in verbs

and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable.

French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the end).

Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French was dropped and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable.


ClippingThe process of clipping involves the deletion of one

or more syllables from a word (usually a noun), which is also available in its full form.

Clippings may be divided into four main types:1. Back clippings2. Front clippings3. Front and back clippings 4. Phrase clippings The above two types of word-formation-acronyms

and clipping are processes of shortening. They show a typical characteristic of the vocabulary of contemporary English: the tendency to shorten the English words, reflecting the tense, fast-paced and competitive modern life.


Back-formation (Reversion) Back-formation is a term used to refer to a type of word-formation by which a shorter word is coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a longer form already present in the language. Back-formation is therefore a process of shortening, too. The majority of back- formed words are verbs. Back-formation has a long and recognized standing as one of the traditional sources of new words.


It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word.

Prof.Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the language on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a verb stem (speak- speaker).

As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.


Semantic changeThe meaning of a word can change in the course

of time. Changes of lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times. Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change. There are several types of change of meaning:

1)metaphor , 2) metonymy, 3) widening of meaning /generalization/, 4) narrowing of meaning (сужение) /specialization/, 5) elevation (улучшение),

6) Degeneration, 7) hyperbole,

8) litoteThe meaning of a word can also change due to

ellipsis.


What is "Meaning"? There are certain facts of which we can be reasonably sure, and one of them is that the very function of the word as a unit of communication is made possible by its possessing a meaning. Meaning can be more or less described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. The branch of linguistics which specialises in the study of meaning is called semantics. The modern approach to semantics is based on the assumption that the inner form of the word (its meaning) presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word.


Word meaning

Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the inner aspect (its meaning). Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language.

One and the same word in different syntactical relations can develop different meanings, e.g. the verb «treat» in sentences:

a) He treated my words as a joke. b) The book treats of poetry. c) They treated me to sweets. d) He treats his son cruelly.


In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we can speak about polysemy. On the other hand, one and the same meaning can be expressed by different sound forms, e.g. «pilot» , and «airman», «horror» and «terror». In such cases we have synonyms. Word meaning - the word is the combination of form (pronunciation and spelling) and meaning.


1. Reference - It is relationship between language and the world. In other words only when a connection has been established between the linguistic sign and a referent, and object, a phenomenon, a person, etc does the sign become meaningful. 2. Concept - Concept is the result of human cognition reflecting the objective world in the human mind. A concept can have as many referring expressions as there are languages in the world. Even in the some language the some concept can be expressed in different words. 3. Sense - Sense denotes the relationships inside the language. Every word that has meaning has sense.


4. Motivation - Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. As the relationship between the word-form and meaning is conventional and arbitrary. 4.1.Onomatopoeic motivation - In modern English there are some words meanings of which we can suggest by their sounds. For example: bang, bow-wow, tick-tuck, miaow, ha ha are onomatopoeically motivated words. 4.2.Morphological motivation - Compound and derived words are multi-morphemic and the meaning of many of them are the sum total of the morphemes combined. 4.3.Semantic motivation - Refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word.4.4.Etymological motivation - The meanings of many words are of often related directly to their origins.


Types of Meaning

1. Grammatical meaning and Lexical meaning Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the

meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words (nouns, verbs, adj, adverbs) singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verb and their inflectional forms.

It becomes important only when the word is used in actual context.


2. Conceptual meaning and Associative meaning Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning) is the given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning. Being constant and relatively stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all speakers of the same language. Associative meaning comprises four types:

a) Connotative meaningb) Stylistic meaning c) Affective meaningd) Collocative meaning


Lexical Meaning – Notion

The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is a unit of thinking.

There are also words which express both, notions and emotions, when used metaphorically/.

The term «notion» was introduced into lexicology from logics. A notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their relations.


LECTURE 6 The main lexicological problems.

Meaning and context. How word develop new meanings.

Causes of development of new meanings. The process of

development and change of meaning. Metaphor. Metonymy. Generalization of meaning.


The main Lexicological problems The problem of word-building is associated with prevailing morphological word-structures and with processes of making new words. Semantics is the study of meaning. Modern approaches to this problem are characterised by two different levels of study: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. On the syntagmatic level - the semantic structure of the word is analysed in its linear relationships with neighbouring words in connected speech. In other words, the semantic characteristics of the word are observed, described and studied on the basis of its typical contexts.


On the paradigmatic level - the word is studied in its relationships with other words in the vocabulary system. A word may be studied in comparison with other words of similar meaning. The main problems of paradigmatic studies are synonymy, antonymy, functional styles. Phraseology is the branch of lexicology specialising in word-groups which are characterised by stability of structure and transferred meaning.


Meaning and context It is common knowledge that context is a powerful preventative against any misunderstanding of meanings. Current research in semantics is largely based on the assumption that one of the more promising methods of investigating the semantic structure of a word is by studying the word's linear relationships with other words in typical contexts.


There is an interesting hypothesis that the semantics of words regularly used in common contexts (E.g: bright colours, to build a house, to create a work of art.) are so intimately correlated that each of them casts, as it were, a kind of permanent reflection on the meaning of its neighbour.


How words develop new meanings

It has been mentioned that the systems of meanings of polysemantic words evolve gradually.

The normal pattern of a word's semantic development is from monosemy to a simple semantic structure encompassing only two or three meanings, with a further movement to an increasingly more complex semantic structure.


There are two aspects to this problem, which can be generally described in the following way: a) Why should new meanings appear at all? What circumstances cause and stimulate their development? b) How does it happen? What is the nature of the very process of development of new meanings?


Causes of development of new meanings The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra-linguistic. Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps appearing in the vocabulary which beg to be filled. Newly created objects, new concepts and phenomena must be named. We already know of two ways for providing new names for newly created concepts: making new words (word-building) and borrowing foreign ones. One more way of filling such vocabulary gaps is by applying some old word to a new object or notion.


The history of English nouns describing different parts of a theatre may also serve as a good illustration of how well-established words can be used to denote newly-created objects and phenomena. New meanings can also be developed due to linguistic factors. Linguistically speaking, the development of new meanings, and also a complete change of meaning, all the parts of the theatre are named by borrowed words caused through the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms.


The process of development and change of meaning Most scholars distinguish between the terms development of meaning and change of meaning. In actual fact, all cases of development or change of meaning are based on some association. The process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference. Two types of transference are distinguishable depending on the two types of logical associations underlying the semantic process.


Metaphor Transference based on resemblance (similarity) is a metaphor. It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. Herman Paul points out that metaphor can be based on different types of similarity: a) similarity of shape b) similarity of position c) similarity of function, behaviour d) similarity of colour


Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body. A special type of metaphor is when Proper names become common nouns. This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects (phenomena, qualities) due to their outward similarity. Transference is also based on the association of two physical objects.


Metonymy Another term for this type of transference based on contiguity is linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied by the image of the other; or they may be associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, of some material and an object which is made of it.


Generalization of meaning

It is a process contrary to specializaton, in such cases the meaning of a word becomes more general in the course of time. All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of their lexical meaning because they developed a grammatical meaning: «have», «be», «do», «shall», «will» when used as auxiliary verbs are devoid of their lexical meaning which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs.


Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in range of meaning. The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity (the concept of coming somewhere is the same for both meanings) but the range of the second meaning is much broader.


LECTURE 7 Specialization of meaning. Elevation, Degradation. Hyperbole. Litote. Reduplication. Neoclassical formation. Miscellaneous. Formal style. Informal style. Colloguial words. Slang. Dialect words. Learned words.


Specialisation of meaning

1. It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some special sphere of communication. The difference between these meanings is revealed in the context.

2. The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general usage. It happens in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms when one of them must specialize in its meaning to remain in the language.


3. The third way of specialization is the formation of Proper names from common nouns, it is often used in toponimics. 4. The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. In such cases primaraly we have a word-group of the type «attribute + noun», which is used constantly in a definite situation. Due to it the attribute can be dropped and the noun can get the meaning of the whole word-group.


Elevation It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes better in the course of time. Degradation It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the course of time. It is usually connected with nouns denoting common people. Hyperbole It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration. Hyperbole is often used to form phraseological units.


Litote It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses affirmative with the negative. Reduplication In reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye (coll, for good-bye) or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat (this second type is called gradational reduplication).


This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in Modern English by the vast number of monosyllables. Stylistically speaking, most words made by reduplication represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang. Reduplication is a minor type of word-formation by

which a compound word is created by the repetition 1) of one word like: go-go; 2) of two almost identical words with a change in the

vowels such as: pingpong; 3) of two almost identical words with a change in the

initial consonants, as: in willy-nilly “willingly or unwillingly”.


Neoclassical formation Neoclassical formation denotes the process by which words are formed from elements derived from Latin and Greek. The majority of neoclassical formations are scientific and technical. Neoclassical formation plays a prominent role in word-formation today, esp. in creating new scientific terms.


Miscellaneous Genuine coinage is rare. An American physicist Murray Gell-Mann coined the word quark as the name of an imaginary particle bearing a charge of electricity. Some new words are coined by analogy: earthquake-youthquake, air pollution-environment pollution, handbag-airbag, sunrise-earthrise, future shock-culture shock, nightmare-daymare


Formal style We have already pointed out that formal style is restricted to formal situations. In general, formal words fall into two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of so-called learned words. The term functional style is generally accepted in modern linguistics. Professor I.V.Arnold defines it as "a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere of communication".


By the sphere of communication we mean the circumstances attending the process of speech in each particular case: professional communication, a lecture, an informal talk, a formal letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court. All these circumstances or situations can be roughly classified into two types: formal and informal. Accordingly, functional styles are classified into two groups, with further subdivisions depending on different situations.


Informal style Informal vocabulary is used in one's immediate circle: family, relatives or friends. Informal style is relaxed, free-and-easy, familiar and unpretentious. But it should be pointed out that the informal talk of well-educated people considerably differs from that of the illiterate or the semi-educated; the choice of words with adults is different from the vocabulary of teenagers; people living in the provinces use certain regional words and expressions. Informal words and word-groups are traditionally divided into three types: colloquial, slang and dialect words and word-groups.


Colloquial words Among other informal words, colloquialisms are the least exclusive: they are used by everybody, and their sphere of communication is comparatively wide, at least of literary colloquial words. These are informal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups. The sphere of communication of literary colloquial words also includes the printed page, which shows that the term "colloquial" Literary colloquial words are to be distinguished from familiar colloquial and low colloquial. The borderline between the literary and familiar colloquial is not always clearly marked.


Slang The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as "language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense." Here is another definition of slang by the famous English writer G.K.Chesterton: "The one stream of poetry which in constantly flowing is slang. Every day some nameless poet weaves some fairy tracery of popular language. All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. The world of slang is a kind of poetry, full of blue moons and white elephants, of men losing their heads, and men whose tongues run away with them - a whole chaos of fairy tales."


All or most slang words are current words whose meanings have been metaphorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a joke and most slang words are metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical colouring. People use slang for a number of reasons:- to be picturesque, arresting, striking and, above all, different from others. - to avoid the tedium of outmoded "common" words. - to demonstrate one's spiritual independence and daring. - to sound "modern" and "up-to-date".


Dialect words H.W.Fowler defines a dialect as "a variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and phrase". England is a small country, yet it has many dialects which have their own distinctive features. So dialects are regional forms of English. Dialectal peculiarities, especially those of vocabulary, are constantly being incorporated into everyday colloquial speech or slang.


Learned words Learned words are mainly associated with the printed page. It is in this vocabulary stratum that poetry and fiction find their main resources. The term "learned" is not precise and does not adequately describe the exact characteristics of these words. The term "learned" includes several heterogeneous subdivisions of words. We find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour. Probably the most interesting subdivision of learned words is represented by the words found in descriptive passages of fiction.


LECTURE 8 Archaic and Obsolete words.

Professional terminology. Basic vocabulary. The etymology of English words. Etymological doublets. International words. Translation loans.


Archaic and obsolete words Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of Shakespeare, are in fact examples of everyday language of Shakespeare's time. The terms "archaic" and "obsolete" are used more or less indiscriminately by some authors.


Professional terminology Thousands of words belong to special scientific, professional or trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people outside the particular speciality. Every field of modern activity has its specialised vocabulary. There is a special medical vocabulary, and similarly special terminologies for psychology, botany, music, linguistics, teaching methods and many others. Term, as traditionally understood, is a word or a word-group which is specifically employed by a particular branch of science.


Basic vocabulary The words of basic vocabulary are used every day, everywhere and by everybody, regardless of profession, occupation, educational level, age group or geographical location. The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical foundation and living core. Basic vocabulary words can be recognised not only by their stylistic neutrality but, also, by entire lack of other connotations (i. e. attendant meanings). Their meanings are broad, general and directly convey the concept, without supplying any additional information.


The etymology of English words This question partially concerns the historical circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign words are in effect imposed upon the reluctant conquered nation. There are also periods of peace when the process of borrowing is due to trade and international cultural relations. The difference in the consequences of these evidently similar historical events is usually explained by the divergence in the level of civilisation of the two conflicting nations.


But all this only serves to explain the conditions which encourage the borrowing process. The question of why words are borrowed by one language from another is still unanswered. But there is also a great number of words which are borrowed for other reasons. There may be a word (or even several words) which expresses some particular concept, so that there is no gap in the vocabulary and there does not seem to be any need for borrowing. It is borrowed because it represents the same concept in some new aspect, supplies a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring. This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms and greatly provides to enrich the expressive resources of the vocabulary.


Etymological doublets Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets. Such words as these two originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape and in meaning are called etymological doublets. They may enter the vocabulary by different routes. Others are represented by two borrowings from different languages which are historically descended from the same root.


Etymological triplets (i. e. groups of three words of common root) occur rarer, but here are at least two examples: hospital (Lat.) - hostel (Norm. Fr.) - hotel (Par. Fr.), to capture (Lat.) - to catch (Norm. Fr.) - to chase (Par. Fr.). There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same language during different historical periods, such as French doublets: gentil, etymological doublets are: gentle - and genteel. From the French word gallant etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - and ga’llant. Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different grammaticalforms of the same word.


International words It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages. Such words usually convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication. Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, E.g: philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, linguistics, lexicology. There are also numerous terms of art in this group: music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, artist, primadonna. XX century scientific and technological advances brought a great number of new international words.


Translation loans The term loan-word is equivalent to borrowing. By translation-loans we indicate borrowings of a special kind. They are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less in the same phonemic shape in which they have been functioning in their own language, but undergo the process of translation.


LECTURE 9 Polysemy. Phraseology. The origin of the phraseological

units. Ways of forming phraseological

units. Semantic classification of phraseological units.


Polysemy The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only in the language. A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic. Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the proximity of notions which they express.There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation and concatination. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primmary meaning. In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain. In such cases it is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary one.


A word having several meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by the term polysemy. The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones. So the complicated processes of polysemy development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones.


Phraseology The vocabulary of a language is enriched not

only by words but also by phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units.

Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning, according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.


The origin of the phraseological units There are several sources of phraseological units. One of them is the development of cultural and economical spheres of life. Phraseological units may come from the following spheares:

- from engeniring and technology- from agro-cultural - from sea-travelling business- from trade and commerce - national customs and traditions

A great many phraseological units come from the words of Greek and Latin classics from the Bible and from myths and legends.


Ways of forming phraseological units A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming phraseological units. Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is formed on the basis of a free word-group: a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups. b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups by transforming their meaning.


c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is characteristic for forming interjections e) they can be formed by means of distorting a word group f) they can be formed by using archaisms g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life h) they can be formed when we use some unreal image i) they can be formed by using expressions of writers or polititions in everyday life


Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit; they are: a) conversion b) changing the grammar form c) analogy d) contrast e) shortening of proverbs or sayings f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as translation loans


Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style and are not used very often. Phraseological units are subdivided into the following four classes according to their function in communication determined by their structural-semantic characteristics.1. Nominative phraseological units2. Nominative-communicative phraseological units 3. Phraseological units 4. Communicative phraseological units These four classes are divided into sub-groups according to the type of structure of the phraseological unit.


Semantic classification of phraseological units V.V.Vinogradov's classification system is founded on the degree of semantic cohesion between the components of a phraseological unit. Units with a partially transferred meaning show the weakest cohesion between their components. Accordingly, Vinogradov classifies phraseological units into three classes: phraseological combinations, unities and fusions. 1) Phraseological fusions demotrare word-groups with a completely changed meaning but, in contrast to the unities, they are demotivated, that is, their meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of the constituent parts; the metaphor, on which the shift of meaning was based, has lost its clarity and is obscure.


2) Phraseological unities are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of the unit does not correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts. Such phraseological units have completely transfered meaning. They are not motivated and the metaphor on which the changed of meaning is waste is not clear. 3) Phraseological combinations are word-groups with a partially changed meaning. They may be said to be clearly motivated, that is, the meaning of the unit can be easily deduced from the meanings of its constituents. Words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages,


LECTURE 10 Structural classification of phraseological units. Syntactical classification of phraseological units. How to distinguish phraseological

units from Free word groups. Proverbs.


Structural classification of phraseological units Prof. A.I.Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.


The structural principle of classifying phraseological units is based on their ability to perform the same syntactical functions as words. In the traditional structural approach, the following principal groups of phraseological units are distinguishable. 1. Verbal 2. Substantive 3. Adjectival 4. Adverbial 5. Interjectional


Prof Smirnitsky offered another classification system. In it tried to combine the structural and the semantic principles. Phraseological units are grouped according to their semantics. He worked out structural classification of phraseological units, comparing them with words. There are two groups in this classification. He points out one-top units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.


Among one-top units he points out three structural types and subdivided into:a) verbal-adverbial units equivalent to verbs in which the semantic and the grammatical centres coincide in the first constituent. b) units equivalent to verbs which have their semantic centre in the second constituent and their grammatical centre in the first. c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part,


2) two-summit and multi-summit, which have 2 or more meaningfull elements. E.g: first night – премьера; In this classification its interesting to see the correlation of the syntactic and semantic center of the combination. E.g: to give (syntactic center) up (semantic center) Two-summit and multi-summit phraseological units are classified into: attributive-nominal. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. b) verbal-substantive two-summit units equivalent to verbs. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.


c) phraseological repetitions equivalent to adverbs. Phraseological repetitions can be built on antonyms. Components in repetitions are joined by means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic. d) adverbial multi-summit units. If synonyms can be figuratively referred to as the tints and colours of the vocabulary, then phraseology is a kind of picture gallery in which are collected vivid and amusing sketches of the nation's customs, traditions and prejudices, recollections of its past history, scraps of folk songs and fairy-tales.


Syntactical classification of phraseological units Phraseological units can be classified as parts of speech. This classification was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following groups: a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, E.g: loose as a goose, dull as lead, d) adverb phraseological units e) preposition phraseological units f) interjection phraseological units


How to distinguish phraseological units from free word-groups This is probably the most discussed and the most controversial problem in the field of phraseology. There are two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseological units and free word-groups: semantic and structural. The semantic shift affecting phraseological units does not consist in a mere change of meanings of each separate constituent part of the unit. The meanings of the constituents merge to produce an entirely new meaning. That is what is meant when phraseological units are said to be characterised by semantic unity. In the traditional approach, phraseological units have been defined as word-groups conveying a single concept.


The structural criterion also brings forth pronounced distinctive features characterising phraseological units and contrasting them to free word-groups. Structural invariability is an essential feature of phraseological units, some of them possess it to a lesser degree than others. Structural invariability of phraseological units finds expression in a number of restrictions. First of all, restriction in substitution. The second type of restriction is the restriction in introducing any additional components into the structure of a phraseological unit. The third type of structural restrictions in phraseological units is grammatical invariability.


Proverbs Proverbs are different from phraseological units, the first distinctive feature that is the obvious structural dissimilarity. Phraseological units are a kind of ready-made blocks which fit into the structure of a sentence performing a certain syntactical function. Proverbs in their structural aspect, are sentences and cannot be used in the way in which phraseological units are used. Proverbs could be best compared with minute fables for, like the latter, they sum up the collective experience of the community. They moralise, give advice, give warning, admonish, criticise


Professor A.V.Koonin includes proverbs in his classification of phraseological units and labels them communicative phraseological units. The criterion of nomination and communication cannot be applied here either, says Professor A.V.Koonin, because there are a considerable number of verbal phraseological units which are word-groups (nominative units) when the verb is used in the Active Voice, and sentences (communicative units) when the verb is used in the Passive Voice.


LECTURE 11 Homonym. Sources of Homonyms. Classification of Homonyms. Synonym. Criteria of Synonymy. Types of Synonyms.


Homonyms Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and spelling. Homonyms can appear in the language not only as the result of the split of polysemy, but also as the result of levelling of grammar inflexions, when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect. They can be also formed by means of conversion. They can be formed with the help of the same suffix from the same stem. Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning.


English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development. In the process of communication homonyms are more of an encumbrance, leading sometimes to confusion and misunderstanding. It is this very characteristic which makes them one of the most important sources of popular humour.Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are traditionally termed homonyms proper. Homophones are the same in sound but different in spelling. The third type of homonyms is called homographs. These are words which are the same in spelling but different in sound.


Sources of homonyms Phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and thus become homonyms. Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. Word-building also contributes significantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type in this respect is undoubtedly conversion.


Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number of homonyms. Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words. The above-described sources of homonyms have one important feature in common. In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy.


Classification of homonyms Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out three groups: 1. perfect homonyms that is words identical in sound and spelling2. homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced differently3. homophones that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently. Another classification was suggested by A.I.Smirnitsky. He added to Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning.


He subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeat’s classification into two types of homonyms: perfect which are identical in their spelling, pronunciation and their grammar form homoforms which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning A more detailed classification was given by I.V.Arnold. He classified only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification: - lexical meaning, - grammatical meaning, - basic forms and - paradigms.


According to these criteria I.V.Arnold pointed out the following groups:a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings b) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different in their lexical meanings and paradigms c) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms d) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms


Accordingly, Professor A.I.Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes: I. full homonyms, II. partial homonyms. Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm.


Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups:A. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words which belong to the same category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form.B. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech which have one identical form in their paradigms.C. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms.


Synonyms Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or similar in their inner aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms, because there are many borrowings. Synonymy is one of modern linguistics' most controversial problems. The very existence of words traditionally called synonyms is disputed by some linguists; the nature and essence of the relationships of these words is hotly debated and treated in quite different ways by the representatives of different linguistic schools.


Sources of synonyms:1. Borrowing: as a result of borrowing, words of native origin from many couplets and triplets with those from other languages2. Dialects and regional English3. Coincidence with idiomatic expressions4. Discrimination of synonyms. Generally speaking, relative synonyms differ in one way or another and these differences boil down to three areas.5. Difference in denotation. Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity.


6. Difference in connotation: By connotation we mean the stylistic and emotive colouring of words. 7. Difference in application: Many synonyms are different in usage in simple terms and they form different collocations and fit into different sentence patterns. After a word is borrowed it undergoes desynonymization, because absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. In cases of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can specialize in its meaning and we get semantic synonyms. Sometimes one of the absolute synonyms is specialized in its usage and we get stylistic synonyms,


Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of abbreviation. In most cases the abbreviated form belongs to the colloquial style, and the full form to the neutral style. Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a special group of words which are called euphemisms. These are words used to substitute some unpleasant or offensive words. There are also phraseological synonyms, these words are identical in their meanings and styles but different in their combining with other words in the sentence.


Criteria of synonyms Synonymy is associated with some theoretical problems which at present are still an object of controversy. Probably, the most controversial among these is the problem of criteria of synonymy. Traditional linguistics solved this problem with the conceptual criterion and defined synonyms as words of the same category of parts of speech conveying the same concept but differing either in shades of meaning or in stylistic characteristics.


In contemporary research on synonymy semantic criterion is frequently used. In terms of componential analysis synonyms may be defined as words with the same denotation, or the same denotative component, but differing in connotations, or in connotative components. In modern research on synonyms the criterion of interchangeability is sometimes applied. According to this, synonyms are defined as words which are interchangeable at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in denotational meaning.


Synonyms are frequently said to be the vocabulary's colours, tints and hues (so the term shade is not so inadequate, after all, for those who can understand a metaphor). Attempts at ascribing to synonyms the quality of interchangeability are equal to stating that subtle tints in a painting can be exchanged without destroying the picture's effect.


Types of synonyms The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by Academician V.V.Vinogradov, the famous Russian scholar. In his classification system there are three types of synonyms: ideographic, stylistic and absolute Absolute synonyms complete synonyms which are identical in meaning in all aspect, i.e. both in grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including conceptual and associative meanings. Ideographic synonyms the vagueness of the term "shades of meaning" has already been mentioned.There are numerous synonyms which are distinguished by both shades of meaning and stylistic colouring.


LECTURE 12 Types of connotations. The dominant synonym. Antonym.


Types of connotations1. The connotation of degree or intensity can be traced in such groups of synonyms as: to surprise - to astonish - to amaze - to astound; 2. In the group of synonyms to stare - to glare - to gaze - to glance - to peep - to peer, all the synonyms except to glance denote a lasting act of looking at somebody or something, whereas to glance describes a brief, passing look. These synonyms may be said to have a connotation of duration in their semantic structure.3. The synonyms to stare - to glare - to gaze are differentiated from the other words of the group by emotive connotations, and from each other by the nature of the emotion they imply


4. The evaluative connotation conveys the speaker's attitude towards the referent, labelling it as good or bad. So in the group well-known - famous - notorious - celebrated, the adjective notorious bears a negative evaluative connotation and celebrated a positive one. 5. The causative connotation can be illustrated by the examples to sparkle and to glitter given above: one's eyes sparkle with positive emotions and glitter with negative emotions.


6. The connotation of manner can be singled out in some groups of verbal synonyms. The verbs to stroll - to stride - to trot - to pace all denote different ways and types of walking, encoding in their semantic structures the length of pace, tempo, gait and carriage, purposefulness or lack of purpose.7. The verbs to peep and to peer have already been mentioned. They are differentiated by connotations of duration and manner. But there is some other curious peculiarity in their semantic structures. We call this the connotation of attendant circumstances.8. The synonyms pretty, handsome, beautiful have been mentioned as the ones which are more or less interchangeable. This connotation is the connotation of attendant features.


9. Stylistic connotations stand somewhat apart for two reasons. Firstly, some scholars do not regard the word's stylistic characteristic as a connotative component of its semantic structure. Secondly, stylistic connotations are subject to further classification, namely: colloquial, slang, dialect, learned, poetic, terminological, archaic. Here again we are dealing with stylistically marked words, but this time we approach the feature of stylistic characteristics from a different angle: from the point of view of synonyms frequent differentiation characteristics.


The dominant synonyms All synonymic groups have a "central" word of this kind whose meaning is equal to the denotation common to all the synonymic group. This word is called the dominant synonym. The dominant synonym expresses the notion common to all synonyms of the group in the most general way, without contributing any additional information as to the manner, intensity, duration or any attending feature of the referent.


Summing up what has been said, the following characteristic features of the dominant synonym can be underlined: 1. High frequency of usage. 2. Broad combinability, i. e. ability to be used in combinations with various classes of words.3.Broad general meaning.4.Lack of connotations. (This goes for stylistic connotations as well, so that neutrality as to style is also a typical feature of the dominant synonym.)


Euphemisms There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite. As the "offensive" referents, for which these words stand, they are often described in a round-about way, by using substitutes called euphemisms. Euphemisms may be used due to genuine concern not to hurt someone's feelings. All the euphemisms that have been described so far are used to avoid the so-called social taboos. Their use, as has already been said, is inspired by social convention.Superstitious taboos gave rise to the use of other type of euphemisms. The reluctance to call things by their proper names is also typical of this type of euphemisms, but this time it is based on a deeply-rooted subconscious fear.


Antonyms Antonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech expressing contrary or contradictory notions. V.N.Comissarov in his dictionary of antonyms classified them into two groups: absolute or root antonyms «late» - «early»; and derivational antonyms «to please-«to displease». Absolute antonyms have different roots and derivational antonyms have the same roots but different affixes. In most cases negative prefixes form antonyms / un-, dis- , non-/.


Antonyms are words opposite in meaning and they fall into three groups:1. Contradictory terms. The antonyms are opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. 2. Contrary terms. The two opposites are gradable and one exists in comparison with the other .3. Relative terms. These antonyms denote the relational opposition. We use the term antonyms to indicate words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meanings.


Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given: friend - enemy, joy - grief, good - evil, heaven - earth, love - hatred. Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups: a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly - coldly, merrily - sadly, loudly - softly; b) adverbs proper: now - then, here - there, ever - never, up - down, in - out. The number of antonyms with the suffixes ful- and -less is not very large, and sometimes even if we have a word with one of these suffixes its antonym is formed not by substituting -ful by less-.


Leonard Lipka in the book «Outline of English Lexicology» describes different types of oppositeness, and subdivides them into three types: a) complementary b) antonyms c) converseness Antonymy is the second class of oppositeness. It is distinguished from complimentarity by being based on different logical relationships. An important linguistic difference from complementaries is that antonyms are always fully gradable. Converseness is mirror-image relations or functions.


LECTURE 13

Borrowings.Classification of borrowings according

to the degree of assimilation. Classification of borrowings. French, Italian, Spanish, Germanic,

Scandinavian, Holland and Russian borrowings.


Borrowings Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English throughout its history more than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Borrowed words are different from native ones by their phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their grammatical forms. It is also characterisitic of borrowings to be non- motivated semantically. Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria: a) according to the aspect which is borrowed, b) according to the degree of assimilation, c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.


Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect There are the following groups: - phonetic borrowings,

- translation loans, - semantic borrowings, - morphemic borrowings.


1. Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages they are called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed.

2. Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units.


3. Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two relative languages which have common words with different meanings.4. Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language.


Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is borrowed: orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated quicker,


c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it is. Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated, partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms). Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the language, the French word «sport» and the native word «start». Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs.


Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups:a) borrowings non-assimilated semanticallyb) borrowings non-assimilated grammaticallyc) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are used by Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated.


Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they were borrowed /Romanic borrowings, Latin borrowings/ Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire. Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific words because Latin was the language of science at the time. Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes.


French borrowings The influence of French on the English spelling. The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations of letters,


Borrowings of French words There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings: a) words relating to government b) words relating to military affairs c) words relating to jury d) words relating to fashion e) words relating to jewelry f ) words relating to food and cooking:


Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings: a) words relating to literature and music b) words relating to military affairs c) words relating to buildings and furniture d) words relating to food and cooking


Italian borrowings Cultural and trade relations between Italy

and England brought many Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into English in the XIV century. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their benches, it was called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt» originated. In the XVII century some geological terms were borrowed.

But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo- European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian.


Spanish borrowings Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant. There are the following semantic groups of them: a) trade terms b) names of dances and musical instruments c) names of vegetables and fruit Germanic borrowings English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though their number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.


Scandinavian borrowingsBy the end of the Old English period English

underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.

Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life, their cultural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost identical.


German borrowings There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. There were also words denoting objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German. In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed some words. Holland borrowingsHolland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the XIV century. Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are also borrowings from a lot of other languages.


Russian borrowings There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings there are mainly words connected with trade relations and words relating to nature. There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English through Rushian literature of the XIX century and words which were formed in Russian with Latin roots. After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were borrowed into English.


LECTURE 14 Local varieties of English on

the British Isles. British and American English. Difference of spelling. Difference in pronunciation. Archaisms. Neologisms.


Local Varieties of English on the British Isles

On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English which developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them: Lowland /Scottish/, Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. These varieties are used in oral speech by the local population. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature.

One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of London -Cockney.


Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang. The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out.


British and American English British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people living in these countries. In 1919 H.N.Menken published a book called «The American Language». But most scientists, American ones including, criticized his point of view because differences between the two variants are not systematic.


American English begins its history at the beginning of the XVII century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth the First. The second period of American English history begins in the XIX century. Immigrants tinued to come from Europe to America. When large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their words were borrowed into English.


During the second period of American English history there appeared quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new poitical system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its independence.


Differences of spelling The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the English spelling are as follows: a) the delition of the letter «u» in words ending in «our» b) the delition of the second consonant in words with double consonants


c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin d) the delition of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin d) delition of unpronounced endings in native words


Differences in pronunciation But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a proof that British and American are different languages. Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the number of words which come out of active usage.


Archaisms Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but they are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity. Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism. Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism.


Neologisms Neologisms are new words or word combinations which are created to name new objects or express new concepts. A new word is created in speech, by a group of people or by one person only. If it doesn’t break the norms of the language it may be come a unit of the general language and then it is registered in dictionaries. An other absolute neologism was introduced by Y.Swift “Lilliput”. It entered the English vocabulary and then it was borrowed into other languages and became an international word.


New words are created according to productive patterns of word-building. E.g: by affixation: a non-teacher. New words appear in speech of an individual person who wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called «originater». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media. Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, E.g: the word «umbrella». A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it.


A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. A new lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have «a proper neologism», many of them are cases of new terminology. Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words used: a) to denote different types of computers b) to denote parts of computers c) to denote computer languages d) to denote notions connected with work on computers


There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life: a) food b) clothing c) footwear d) bags Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed. They are subdivided into:

- phonological neologisms- borrowings- semantic neologisms - syntactical neologisms


Syntactical neologisms are divided into: - morphological /word-building/ and - phraseological /forming word- groups/.

Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of sounds, they are called artificial. These are strong neologisms. Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings. Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns existing in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of strong neologisms. Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of different types, such as «free-fall».


LECTURE 15 English Idioms Lexicography


English idioms

Idioms consisit of set phrases and short sentences, which are peculiar to the language in question and loaded with the native cultures and ideas. Therefore, idioms are colourful, forcible and thought-provoking. In a broad sense, idioms may include colloquialisms, slang expressions, proverbs, which form an important part of the English Vocabulary. Being phrases or sentences, idioms each consist of more than one word, but each is a semantic unity. Quite often the idiom functions as one word.


Unlike free phrases, the structure of an idiom is to large extent unchangeable. 1. The constituents of idiom cannot be replaced. 2. The word order cannot be inverted or changed. 3. The constituents of an idiom cannot be deleted or added, not even an article. 4. Many idioms are grammatically unanalysable.


Studies on English idioms to this day and various dictionaries of idioms have provided a variety of criteria for classifying idioms. By this criterion, idioms may be classified into 5 groups:

1. idioms nominal in nature 2. idioms adjectival in nature 3. idioms verbal in nature 4. idioms adverbal in nature 5. sentence idoms


Idioms are generally felt to be informal. Occasionally, we find idioms which are extremely formal and used only in frozen style.

1. Colloquialisms2. Slang:3. Literary expressions4. Rhetorical manipulation


Lexicography

The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicography. The first unilingual dictionary explaining difficult words appeared in 1604, the author was Robert Cawdry, a schoolmaster. He compiled his dictionary for schoolchildren. In 1721 an English scientist and writer Nathan Bailey published the first etymological dictionary which explained the origin of English words. It was the first scientific dictionary, it was compiled for philologists.


In 1775 an English scientist compiled a famous explanatory dictionary. Its author was Samuel Johnson. Every word in his dictionary was illustrated by examples from English literature, the meanings of words were clear from the contexts in which they were used. The dictionary was a great success and it influenced the development of lexicography in all countries. The dictionary influenced normalization of the English vocabulary. But at the same time it helped to preserve the English spelling in its conservative form.


In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford English Dictionary», because the work on the dictionary was conducted in Oxford. This dictionary contained 13 volumes. As the dictionary was very large and terribly expensive scientists continued their work and compiled shorter editions of the dictionary: «A Shorter Oxford Dictionary» consisting of two volumes. It had the same number of entries, but far less examples from literature. They also compiled «A Concise Oxford Dictionary» consisting of one volume and including only modern words and no examples from literature.


The American lexicography began to develop much later, at the end of the XVIII century. The most famous American English dictionary was compiled by Noah Webster. He was an active stateman and public man and he published his first dictionary in 1806. He went on with his work on the dictionary and in 1828 he published a two-volume dictionary. He tried to simplify the English spelling and transcription.


LECTURE 16 English dictionaries


English dictionaries

The dominant sense of the word “Dictionary” for English-speaking people is a book which presents an alphabetical order the words of English, with information as to their spelling, pronunciation, meaning, usage, rules of grammar, and in some, their etymology.

Types of dictionaries:1. Monolingual and bilingual dictionariesMonolingual dictionaries are written in one

language. That is the headword or entries are defined and illustrated in the same language.


Bilingual dictionaries involve 2 languages. The main entries are generally defined or

explained in the same language with translations.2.Linguistic and Encyclopedic DictionariesLinguistic dictionaries aim at defining words and

explaining their usages in the language. They usually cover such areas as spelling,

pronunciation, meaning, grammatical function, usage and etymology.

These dictionaries can be monolingual and bilingual.


Encyclopedic dictionaries can be further divided into encyclopedia and encyclopedic information concerning each headword. The well-known ones are “The Encyclopedia Britannica” in 20 volumes and “The Encyclopedia Americana” in 30 volumes. Kinds of dictionaries:- general dictionaries; - etymological dictionaries;- special dictionaries: - dictionaries of synonyms;- bilingual dictionaries; - phraseological dictionaries- explanatory dictionaries; - spelling dictionaries- pronouncing dictionaries;


Dictionaries give the meanings of many kinds of words. Most modern dictionaries describe the facts of a language as educated speakers and writers use it. Most general dictionaries include: 1) the ordinary words of everyday life 2) literary words 3) technical word 4) words used chiefly on informal occasions


5) words used in writing to give an old-fashioned flavor 6) words not used today but found in the writtings of some authors 7) words or phrases form other languages 8) Idioms 9) Abbreviations10) Important proper names


Besides ordinary words used in everyday speech, the English language includes thousands of geograpfical names, technical terms, names of inspects alone. New words are coined for newscientific and technical discoveries, and slang words and specific vocabularies constantly spring up. All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries. Encyclopedic dictionaries describe different objects, phenomena, people and give some data about them. Linguistic dictionaries describe vocabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin, their usage. Words are usually given in the alphabetical order. Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized.


To general dictionries are most widely used dictionaries belong: explanatory and translation dictionaries. General dictionaries range in size from small pocket dictionaries to large multivolume or table dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries are designed to give more information in particular fields than general dictionaries can. Specialized dictionaries include dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, collocations, word-frequency, neologisms, slang, pronouncing, etymological, phraseological and others.


Dictionaries of this kind can be divided into such group as: 1) Explanatory dictionaries 2) Etymological dictionaries 3) Dictionaries of synonyms 4) Phraseological dictionaries. Explanatory dictionaries give definitions of word meanings. In fact to a certain extent they acquaint us with the history of vocabulary development. In explanatory dictionaries the entry consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings, examples, phraseology. Etymological dictionaries state the origin of words. If borrowed, the source of borrowing and the original form are given, with all the subsequent changes in meaning and usage.


Dictionaries of synonyms give either groups of synonyms without any explanations of difference in shades of meaning or usage, as concise dictionaries usually do, or as in full-size synonymic dictionaries, one can find lengthy definitions of every synonym that the group contains with even directions as to how to use them. Phraseological dictionaries deal with phraseological group of a certain language(“English Idioms” by W.G.Smith, “English Idioms and how to use them” by W. McMordie) Phraseological dictionaries describe idioms and colloquial phrases, proverbs. Some of them have examples from literature.

lexicology lecture

Education