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Лекция 1 What is Lexicology?
1.What is the Word?
Lexicology, a branch of linguistics, is the study of words. It is significant that many scholars have attempted to define the word as a linguistic phenomenon.
First, we do know that the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the purposes of human communication. Thus, 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.
By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. The external structure of words, and also typical word-formation patterns, are studied in the section on word-building. 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.
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. The formal unity of the word can best be illustrated by comparing a word and a word-group comprising identical constituents. 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.
All that we have said about the word can be summed up as follows. 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.
2.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. o 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. 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.
One further important objective of lexicological studies is the study of the vocabulary of a language as a system. The vocabulary can be studied synchronically, that is, at a given stage of its development, or diachronically, that is, in the context of the processes through which it grew, developed and acquired its modern form). The opposition of the two approaches accepted in modern linguistics is nevertheless disputable as the vocabulary, as well as the word which is its fundamental unit, is not only what it is now, at this particular stage of the language's development, but, also, what it was centuries ago and has been throughout its history.