The subject of Lexicology and types of Lexicology Branches of English Lexicology Connections with other branches of Linguistics

LECTURE 1. ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY AS A SUBJECT
Plan of the lecture:

1. 
   The subject of Lexicology and types of Lexicology
   
2. 
   Branches of English Lexicology
   
3. 
   Connections with other branches of Linguistics
   
4. 
   Word as the basic lexical unit
   
5. 
   Synchronic and diachronic approaches to the study of lexical units
   
6. 
   Significance of vocabulary studies in language learning
   

Lexicology (from Greek ‘lexis’ - word, phrase, and ‘logos’ - learning) is a branch of Linguistics which deals with the study of the vocabulary. The vocabulary consists of words, word groups and word-formational morphemes, which, taken together, constitute the word stock of the language. Hence, Lexicology is a branch of Linguistics which studies the word stock, or the lexicon of the language in respect to its composition, origin, development and current use.
According to the language material studied we distinguish:
a) General Lexicology - which studies the vocabulary of the language as a universal human phenomenon, is respective of the specific features of any particular language.
b) Special Lexicology - studies the vocabulary of a particular language (German, Uzbek, English, etc.).
According to the time axis, we can analyse the vocabulary and its units from the synchronic (gr. `syn`-`together with’, and `chronos`,-`time`) and the diachronic (`dia`-`through`) approaches.
The synchronic approach is specific for the Descriptive Lexicology and the diachronic approach is specific for the Historical Lexicology.
Closely connected with the Historical Lexicology are the Contrastive and the Comparative Lexicologies. Their aims are to study the correlation between the vocabularies of two or more languages and find out the correspondences between the types and peculiarities of vocabulary units of the languages under comparison. Let’s look at the semantic field of kinship terms in English and Uzbek:
English and Uzbek terms
father ота, ада, дада
mother она, опа, ойи, ая
grandfather бува, дода
grandmother буви, ойи
aunt амма, хола
uncle тога, амаки
sister опа, сингил
brother ака, ука
sister-in-law кайинсингил, кайнагач
brother-in-law кайин
son-in-law куев
daughter-in-law келин
son угил
daughter киз
cousin n/a
niece жиян
nephew жиян
The difference in number, structure and meaning of the kinship words in English and Uzbek may be due to different social, cultural and historical conditions of the language development and nationally specific family relations.
Lexicology analyses the vocabulary from different aspects. Each aspect of the lexical units which make up the vocabulary has its own methods and principles of analysis. There the following main branches of Lexicology which study separate aspects of lexical units:

1. 
   Lexicography;
   
2. 
   Word-Structure;
   

2. Word-Formation;
3. Semasiology and semantic classifications of words;
4. Etymology;
5. Phraseology (stable word-groups and proverbs and sayings);
6. Variants and dialects of Modern English;
7. Methodology of linguistic research.
Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic groupings and semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, semantic fields, etc.
Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in Semasiology — the study of meaning which is relevant both for Lexicology, Grammar, Stylistics, etc.
Morphology as a branch of Lexicology studying the structure of a word, types of morphemes and stems; Word formation as a branch of Lexicology studies all types of creating new words, some of which are productive (affixation, compounding, etc.), and others which either were productive diachronically (sound and stress interchange), or are frequently used in certain registers (abbreviation, blending, etc.). Phraseology as a branch of Lexicology is specializing in the phraseological subsystem of language and is concerned with all types of set expressions; Lexicography as the science of dictionary-compiling, deals with the problems of the printed presentation of the vocabulary units, their forms, meaning, usage, origin, etc.; Etymology is the science studying the origin of the words, native and borrowed lexical units, ways of the assimilation of borrowed words, external replenishment of the vocabulary, and Methodology of linguistic research, the branch specializing the description and ways of application of the methods of lexicological analysis of the texts. A special branch of Lexicology deals with the English language varieties, studying the variants and dialects of English.

All branches of Lexicology are closely connected with other sciences of the language – its History, Phonetics, Grammar, Stylistics, etc. These branches provide data for the studies in Lexicology and vice versa. Each of the linguistic science in its turn has different aspects and subdivisions depending on the research approach and data collected and analysed.
The vocabulary of the language is comprised of lexical units- which are two-facet language units with a sound form and a meaning. In Lexicology we distinguish 3 types of lexicological elements - words, word-formational morphemes and word-groups (or phraseological units /set expressions).
E.g.
care, -less, man
careful, -ful, mankind
bodycare, -ment freshman
to take care of, mis- showman
to care for, un- man of the world
to care about post- man of god - priest
However it is supposed that the word is the basic unit of the language system, the largest in the morphological and the smallest in the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis. Speaking about linguistic meaning linguists most often imply the meaning of the word, as the word integrates most of the features of all language elements: it has a sound form, it has a meaning, it can function as a word, as a part of the word, as a part of the sentence and as a sentence. Although there are many definitions of the word (phonetic, grammatical, lexical, communicative, even typographical, etc.), still there is no one universal definition, due to its multifaceted nature. Compare the meanings of the lexeme WORD in LinguoUniversal dictionary:
“Word - 1) one of the units of speech or writing that native speakers of a language usually regard as the smallest isolable meaningful element of the language, although linguists would analyse these further into morphemes Related adj: lexical , verbal; 2) an instance of vocal intercourse; chat, talk, or discussion to have a word with someone; 3) an utterance or expression, esp a brief one a word of greeting; 4) news or information he sent word that he would be late; 5) a verbal signal for action; command when I give the word, fire!;
6) an undertaking or promise I give you my word, he kept his word; 7) an autocratic decree or utterance; order his word must be obeyed; 8) a watchword or slogan, as of a political party the word now is "freedom"; 9) computing a set of bits used to store, transmit, or operate upon an item of information in a computer, such as a program instruction; Phrases: 10) - as good as one's word; 11) - at a word; 12) - by word of mouth; 13) - in a word; 14) - my word! ;15) - of one's word; 16) - put in a good word for; 17) - take someone at his / her word; 18) - take someone's word for it; 19) - the last word ;20) - the word; 21) - upon my word!;22) - word for word; 23) - word of honour; 24) (modifier) of, relating to, or consisting of words a word list; 25) (verb) to state in words, usually specially selected ones; phrase; 26) (often foll by up) informal: to inform or advise (a person) • See also others…