Гос филология / Гос филология / Лексикология / 11. Lexicology as a branch of lingistics

Lexicology as a branch of lingistics, its connection with other branches of linguistics.

Lexicology is a branch of Linguistics studying the vocabulary of the language.

The word is the subject-matter of Lexicology. All the words in a language make up the vocabulary of the language.

A word is the smallest significant unit of a given language, capable of functioning alone and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability, semantic integrity.

The basic task of Lexicology is the study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.

Distinction is naturally made between General Lexicology and Special Lexicology.

General Lexicology is the general study of words and the vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of any particular language.

Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particular language. It is the study and description of the vocabulary of a given language. English Lexicology is Special Lexicology, dealing with the English vocabulary.

Historical Lexicology studies the vocabulary as a system in its evolution. It describes the origin of words, their change and development in the course of time.

Descriptive Lexicology studies the vocabulary in its synchronic aspect that is at a given stage of its development. The diachronic and synchronic approaches should not be contrasted, as in fact they are interconnected, . E.g. treated diachronically the word "friendship" is a compound, but synchronically it is a derivative, as the element "ship" has lost its status of a root-morpheme and is considered to be a suffix now.

Theoretical value. One of the key questions in Linquistics– the relationship between the name and the thing named – is studied within Semasiology and Onomasiology – parts of Lexicology dealing with the meaning of the word.

Pracrical value. Lexicology meets the needs of many branches of Linguistics, namely of lexicography, machine translation, the study of professional jargons, speech therapy and especially of foreign language teaching.

Lexicography, deals with compiling and describing dictionaries. The practical value of Lexicology for Lexicography is obvious. The practical valve of Lexicology in teaching foreign languages lies in the fact that it helps stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of the vocabulary.

Lexicology is connected with other branches of Linguistics:

Phonetics studies the sound form of the word, its outer form. Phonetic means are employed in word building (sound interchange (e.g. blood – to bleed, speech – to speak), shift of stress (e.g. the noun ‘conduct – ‘поведение’, the verb to con’duct – ‘вести, направлять’)), the formation of new words studied in Lexicology.

Grammar. Words possess both lexical and grammatical meanings. Some nouns have two plural forms: the older form and the regular –s form. As a result, different plural form have acquired different lexical meanings: e.g. brother – 1. brothers (expressing family relationship), 2. brethren (members of some club or a society).

The ties between Lexicology and Grammar are strong in the sphere of word-building. The suffix of plurality ‘s’ may be used to form not only the plural form, but also a new word with a new meaning.

Stylistics studies different functional styles of human speech. Functional styles are defined as systems of linguistic expressive means: phonetic, grammatical and lexical, peculiar to certain spheres of communication. Lexicology studies lexical means, that is words, characteristic of different functional style.

History of the Language as the latter serves to explain a lot of peculiarities in the vocabulary of present-day English It reveals the origin of synonyms and homonyms and traces the routes of etymological doublets. Etymological doublets are words different in form and meaning in present-day English, but originating from one and the same word.

There are 2 principal approaches to the study of any language, namely the diachronic approach (from Greek "dia" {through) + "chronos" (time)), or historical approach, and the synchronic approach (from Greek "syn" ("together, with") + "chronos" (time)), or descriptive approach.

Thus, Lexicology is one of the most important branches of Linguistics, dealing with the vocabulary of language and closely connected through its subject with other branches of Linguistics.