Seminar 1: The General Characteristics of the English Vocabulary
Learn the basic definitions and principal concepts for the dictation or oral questioning
Lexicology, a branch of linguistics, is the study of words.
Word is a speech unit used for the purposes of a human communication, materially representing a group of sound possessing a meaning susceptible to grammatical employment and characterised by formal and semantic unity.
Paradigm – the system of the grammatical forms of a word.
Word-stock (vocabulary, lexicon) – the total sum of its words.
Syntagmatic relationships – linguistic relationships based on the linear character of speech.
Paradigmatic relations – linguistic relationships based on the interdependence of words within the vocabulary.
Neologism – newly coined words.
Archaisms – words that were once common but now are replaced by synonyms.
Historism – words denoting objects and phenomena which are things of the past and no longer exist.
Obsolete words – words dropped from the language and not registered in a dictionary.
Semantic extension of words is a powerful source of replenishment of the voc-ry. It consists in the splitting of polysemy that results in the appearance of new voc-ry units (homonyms).
Lexico -grammatical group – a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, a common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possibly a characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning.
Terms – words or word-groups used to name a notion characteristic of some special field of knowledge, industry or culture.
Be ready to answer the following questions:
1. The subject matter of lexicology and its main problems:
1) What is lexicology? What does it aim at?
2) What branches of lexicology do you know? What do they study?
3) Why is it difficult to define the notion “word”?
4) What is understood by the internal and external structures of the word?
5) What is the paradigm? What approaches to the paradigm do you know?
2. English vocabulary as a system:
1) Is the vocabulary of a language homogeneous?
2) What is the principal difference between analyzing words syntagmatically and paradigmatically?
3) What are the major means and ways of enriching the vocabulary?
4) How can you discriminate between neologisms, archaisms, historisms and obsolete words?
3. The classification of the English vocabulary:
1) What morphological and lexico-grammatical groupings of the English vocabulary can you name? Illustrate your answer.
2) What is the basis of thematic grouping?
3) How are words classed in ideographic groups?
4) What are the peculiarities of terminological systems?
5) What is the difference between emotionally coloured and neutral vocabulary?
6) How can we arrange words nonsemantically?
Tasks and exercises
1. Which of the following possesses semantic unity and why?
A greyhound (Rus. борзая) or a grey hound (Rus. Серая охотничья собака)
A bluebell (Rus. колокольчик) or a blue bell (Rus. Синий бубенчик)
A goldfinch (Rus. щегол) or a gold finch (Rus. Золотой зяблик)
2. What sources of vocabulary replenishment can you trace in the words listed below?
To tongue-tie
Baby-sitter
OPEC
Penicillin
To freeze wages
Sound-track
Ltd
Hot money
Refresher
Protein
Fall-out
Top-model
3. Group the following words into neologisms, archaisms, historisms and obsolete words:
Bookaholic
Chide v “scold”
Galleon
Cyninge n “king”
Sword
Billow n “wave”
Babushkaphobia
Zombie(e)
Breastplate n “a piece of metal armour worn by knights over the chest to protect it in battle”
Mōnað n “month”
Morn n “morning”
Save prep. “except”
Diligence n “a horse drawn carriage”
Cashmachine
Brain drain n “emigration of scientists”
Forbears n “ancestors”
Bonnet n “a hat with a chin ribbon”
Wīf n “wife”
Damsel n “girl”
4. Read the famous 19th century poem and point out archaic words here.
She is not fair to outward view
As many maidens be;
Her loveliness I never knew
Until she smiled on me.
O then I saw her eye was bright,
A well of love, a spring of light.
But now her looks are coy and cold,
To mine they ne’er reply,
And yet I cease not to behold
The love-light in her eye:
Her very frowns are fairer far
Than smiles of other maidens are. (H. Coleridge)
5. According to what principle are the given words classified?
1) Silver, silvery, silversmith, silver-tongued, silverware, silver-fox, silver-fir, silver-paper.
2) Horse, mare, stallion, foal.
3) Unfair, uneasy, unhappy, unripe, unworthy, unknown, uneven.
4) A rifleman, to shoot, a target, accurate.
6. What types of non-semantic groupings are employed here? Make sure you know the meaning of each word.
Age
Ally
Agile
Anchor
Avarice
Adequate
Authentic
Adolescent
Application
Affectionate
Icicle
Idea
Idiom
Ignore
Illusion
Impulse
Indulge
Iron
Island
Ivory
Dramatize
Memorize
Popularize
Advertise
Diarise
Vandalise
Bowdlerize
Tantalize
Winterize
Rationalize
Recommended literature
1. Antrushina G.B., Afanasyeva O.V., Morosova N.N. English Lexicology: Учеб.для студ.пед.ин-тов по спец. №2103 «Иностр.яз.». – М.: Высш. шк., 1999.
2. Ginzburg R.S., Khidekel S.S., Knyaseva G.Y., Sankin A.A. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. – M.: Higher School, 1979.
3. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка: Учеб.для ин-тов и фак.иностр.яз. – М.: Высш. шк., 1986. – На англ.яз.