Lectures 1&2 Flashcards
An area of language study concerned with the nature, meaning, history and use of
words and word elements and also with the critical description of lexicography.
Tom McArthur- about lexicology
The study of the whole structure and history of the vocabulary of a language
Collins English Dictionary- about lexicology
A branch of linguistics that concerned with the meaning and use of words
Longman Concise English Dictionary- about lexicology
The study of the form, meaning and behaviour of words
New Oxford Dictionary of English-about lexicology
The study of the lexis
Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar- about lexicology
LEXIS
A term used especially in British linguistics for the vocabulary of a language; it consists especially of its stock of lexemes
LEXICON
A term used especially in American linguistics for the vocabulary of a language; it consists of its stock of lexemes
is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words; the study of the structure of words
Morphology
Syntax
the study of the arrangement of words in phrases, clauses, sentences
Morpheme
A minimal unit of form and meaning;
the smallest meaningful unit of language;
it is the smallest because it cannot be divided into smaller units; it is meaningful because it shows that there is a relationship between the morpheme and the non-linguistic world
Morphemes can be:
free [e.g. dog, boy, cat, sing, read] – they can occur s individual words
bound [-er, -ing, -s, plural] – they can occur only with free morphemes
Morph
is a concrete/actual/physical realization of a morpheme in a given utterance (dog, cat, read, sing, -ing, -er are all morphs).
Do not confuse morphs with syllables. Morphs are realizations of morphemes and
represent a specific meaning; syllables are parts of words which are isolated on the basis of pronunciation.
Etymology
- refers to the historically verifiable sources of the formation of a word and the development of its meaning;
- etymology is defined as the study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin.
- The term was coined by the Stoics, a group of Greek philosophers and logicians, 4th c. BC.
Etymon
– the earliest traceable form from which a later word is derived
- e.g. rex/regis (king) is the Latin etymon of English regal, while the Indo-European verbal root reg- (to move in a straight line, lead, rule) is the etymon of rex/regis
- the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning
2. a branch of semiotics dealing with the relation between signs and the objects they refer to.
Longman Concise English Dictionary- about semantics
- the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes of
meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between words and their meanings. - the study of the relationship between signs and symbols what they represent.
Collins English Dictionary- about semantics
-the study or analysis of the relationships between linguistic forms
and meaning.
- is defined as the study of meaning. Its aim is to explain and describe meaning.
-The term is a borrowing of the French term la Semantique (M. Breal, 1883).
Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar- about semantics
the principles of the editing of a dictionary – making of dictionaries
Longman Concise E. Dictionary- about lexicography
- the process of writing/compiling a dictionary – making of dictionaries
- The term refers to a special technique, the writing and compilation of dictionaries, the process of compiling dictionaries.
- may be seen as derived from lexicological theory, so lexicography is ‘applied lexicology’.
- Lexicology, morphology, syntax, phonology and sociolinguistics are essential
Collins English Dictionary- about lexicography
Syntax:
- deals with the arrangement of words in sentences; it is basic to language study; it is accountable for the manner/way in which we understand sentences;
- Syntax is basic to language study; it deals with general facts about language;
- it deals with rules that apply to classes of words as a whole.
- Lexicology deals with the way in which individual words function.
Morpheme - According to Bloomfield:
+E.g. ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’
- The morpheme is the unit of morphology
- Language is analyzed as an arrangement of data.
- Language consists of minimal units of form and meaning
E.g. ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
- This is an eight-word sentence.
- It consists of 11 morphemes: [boy, -s, and, girl, -s, were, sing, -ing, in, the, rain]
Morpheme- According to Vendryes:
+E.g.: ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
Language is analyzed as units of:
a. grammatical meaning (morphemes)
b. lexical meaning (lexemes)
E.g.: ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
- This is an eight-word sentence.
- It consists of: 5 lexemes (upper-case items) + 7 morphemes (lower-case items)
BOY + -s + and + GIRL + -s + BE + past + SING + -ing + in + the + RAIN
Folk Etymology
– process where speakers cannot analyze an old, ancient form, so they replace it with a different form
• example of F.E.: bridegroom – in Middle English the spelling was ‘bridegome’; the form ‘gome’ ceased to be unuderstood and was altered to the word ‘groom’
• adder (=reptila) – Old Eng: ‘noedre’; Middle Eng: ‘a naddre’ => the word was altered to ‘an adder’
Phonology
the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages
