1)Lexicology as a branch of linguistics

1 Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Lexical units

lexicology

lexicon

task

general lexicology

special lexicology

contrastive lexicology

aspects of vocabulary

english

value of lexicology

lexical units

Lexicology (from Gr lexis word and logos learning) is a part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and words as the main units of language.

Lexicology has an object of research which is vocabulary or lexicon. The term lexicon previously referred to a dictionary. Today it is still used in such meaning.

The term lexicon has developed a more abstract sense. Today it refers to the total stock of meaningful units in a language (parts of words, combining forms).

One of the major tasks of lexicology is to reveal how lexicon is organized, structured, systematized and how it is used for the purpose of communication.

The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are called language universals.

Special lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of the given language.

A relatively new branch of study is called contrastive lexicology. It provides the theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be compared and described.

To study the lexicon of English is to study all aspects of the vocabulary of the language: how words are formed, how they are developed, how they are used, related in meaning to each other, how words are handed in dictionaries.

The importance of English lexicology is based on the fact that today it’s the world’s most widely used language. It is spoken as a native language by nearly 300 mln people in Britain, the USA, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa etc. The knowledge of English is widely spread geographically- it is in fact used in all continents. It is also spoken in many countries as a second language and used in official and business activities there. This is a case in India, Pakistan and other former British colonies. English is one of the working languages in the United Nations. More than a half world’s scientific literature is published in English and 60 % of the world’s radio broadcasts are in English. For all these reasons English is studied all over the world.

The theoretical value of lexicology becomes obvious if we realize that it forms the study of one of the 3 main aspects of language(vocabulary, grammar and sound system).

The treatment of words in lexicology can’t be divorced from the study of all the other elements of the language, as in the actual process of communication all the elements are interdependent and stand in definite relations. So lexicology is closely connected with Phonetics, Grammar, Stylistics, History of English.

Lexical units.

Lexicology is not a science in the full sense of the word. However many linguists aim to make it a science. Any branch of research must define its basic units. Lexicology is associated with such terms as lexical item or unit, then with the term lexeme. Lexeme is an abstract unit.

Narrow interpretation- it is a notion word.

Broad interpretation- …+idioms, lexical phrases. In English lexeme may be a single word, a group of words, compounds, idioms or shortened forms.

Aristotle- word is the smallest significant part of speech.

Blumfield- word is a minimum free form.

Computer- word is a sequence of graphics which can occur between spaces.

It is obvious that the term word must be defined afresh within a system of every language. As a result the word as the element of speech is language specific, not language universal.