Lexicology Flashcards
The Lexicon
Vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge
Lexeme
A unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain
E.g. speak up, or cholestrol.
Unit of meaning in a dictionary/vocabulary.
Word Classes:
Noun (n)
Words that name people, places, things, qualities or actions.
E.g. dog, cat, loyalty.
Word Classes:
Common noun
Nouns
Nouns that can be concrete (felt through the senses) or abstract (ideas, concepts or emotions), count (can be counted and made plural) or non-count
Concrete: Kangaroo, skeleton. Abstract: truth, justice, bravery. Count: coin, book. Non-count: traffic, information.
Word Classes:
Proper Nouns
Nouns
Names of specific things, that are always capitalised
E.g. Melbourne or Raha
Word Classes:
Collective Nouns
Nouns
Names for groups of animals, people and things
E.g. Swarm of bees, murder of crows
Word Classes:
Regular or Irregular Plural Nouns
Nouns
A way of distinguishing the bound morphemes that a word can take
Regular plural: atlas-atlases, bug-bugs, ox-oxen. Irregular plural: goose-geese (stem change), sheep (no change).
Word Classes:
Pronoun (pron, pn)
(Noun)
Short words that can replace nouns and noun phrases in a sentence
Various types
Subject pronouns: I, you, he/she/it, they, we
Object pronouns: me, you, him/her/it, them, us
Possesive pronouns: my, your, his/hers/its, theirs ours
Relative pronouns: that, who/whoever, whom/whomever, which/whichever
Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those
Word Classes:
Verbs (v)
Verbs denote actions, processes and states. Regular verbs use the suffix -ed in the past tense, e.g. (jump)
Inflectional morpheme -ing to indicate a continuing action
Morpheme -s indicates second person singular verb form (he/she/it)
Word Classes:
Auxillary Verb (aux)
(Verb)
Verbs that modify/change a main verb, creating a range of tenses, negatives, questions, and create constructions such as the passive voice.
E.g. was dancing, have been walking, do you like pumpkin?
Usually, to be, to have, to do and modal verbs.
Word Classes:
Modal Verb
(Verb)
Can, could, shall, should, will, would, may might, and must.
Word Classes:
Adjective (adj)
Define or modify (provide additional information about) nouns, by referring to qualities (red), size (big), judgements (delicious), or comparative degrees (harder).
Typically in front of nouns (fat dog), or aftter certain verbs (seems tired). Usually gradable using morphemes -er (fatter) or -est (fastest), or using more/less/most/least in front.
Word Classes:
Adverb (adv)
Words that modify verbs, or adjectives, or other adverbs (very slowly). Used for time (later), frequency (often), manner (slowly), place (here), or degree (very/somewhat).
Most common form is adding -ly
Useful to answer: how, how often, where, when, how much? Flexible syntactical location.
Word Classes:
Preposition (prep, p)
Function words that show the relationship between nouns/pronouns and other words in a sentence. They position things in space, time, or describe the manner in which an action is performed.
E.g. under, behind, in, before, after, with, by
Word Classes:
Conjunctions (conj, cj)
Words that connect other words or larger elements of a sentence
Word Classes:
Subordinators
(Conjunctions)
Used to join clauses together. Subordinate clause is linked to main clause.
Causational: because, since.
Conditional: if (…then), unless
Comparative: while, whereas
Word Classes:
Coordinators
(Conjunctions)
Used to link words, phrases and clauses together
Jackson loves art but Jules doesn’t. Clauses are equal in value
FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
Word Classes:
Determiners (d)
Introduce noun phrases and function as modifiers
Articles (a, an, the), possessive adjectives (my, your, their), demonstratives (this, that), indefinite determiners (each, every, all, some), and numbers - cardinals (one, two), and ordinals (first, second.)
Word Classes:
Interjections (int)
Words or phrases that express a sudden or strong emotion or feeling
E.g. ouch, oh no, sorry
They can stand alone, or be placed throughout a sentence, and are not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence. Often includes swear words, greetings ‘hey’, and other signalling words ‘yes’, ‘okay’, or ‘no’
Function Words
Convey grammatical relationships between words in a sentence
Determiners, pronouns, auxillary verbs, conjunctions, modal verbs, interjections, prepositions
Content Words
Words in a sentence that carry real-world meaning, and the content of the sentence.
Nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
Word Formation Processes:
Neologism
Newly coined words, expressions, or usages.
E.g. googol -> google -> to google
Word Formation Processes:
Borrowing
The incorporation of words from other languages into the English lexicon.
E.g. alcohol comes from arabic
Word Formation Processes:
Commonisation
The development of common everday words from words that began as proper nouns.
E.g. Lord Lamington (QLD governor) -> lamington
Often during commonisation, capitalisation becomes lowercase. The words that result are called eponyms.
Word Formation Processes:
Nominalisation
A verb or adjective that functions as a noun.
E.g. analyse -> analysis, react -> reaction.
Words ending in: -ment, -ion, -ence, -ance, -ity, -ent, -ant, and -ancy are often nominalizations.
Word Loss
Obsolescence
When words become obsolete.
Occurs: when objects/concepts disappear from society (gramophone), or taboo (coney - pronounced cunny aka female genitalia), or unknown.
Word Loss
Archaism
Words from old english that are no longer used in everyday life.
E.g. thy & thine, thee & thou-> your & you
