- •1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics, its aims and significance. Links with other branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study.
- •2. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.
- •3. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.
- •4. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.
- •5. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.
- •6. Latin borrowings. Features of Latin borrowings. Periods of borrowings from Latin.
- •7. Celtic elements (5-6 c. Ad) in the English vocabulary.
- •8. Scandinavian loan-words(8-11 c.Ad) in Modern English.
- •9. French elements in the English vocabulary. Features of French borrowings. Periods of borrowings from French.
- •10. Greek borrowings. Features of Greek borrowings.
- •11. The morphemic structure of English words. Typology of morphemes. Structural and semantic classifications of morphemes.
- •Inflections
- •12. The derivative structure of English words. The distinction between morphological stem and derivational base. Morphemic analysis vs derivational analysis.
- •23. The nature and causes of semantic change. Types of semantic change.
- •24. Transference of meaning.
- •25. Traditional lexicological groupings of words: thematic and ideographic groups, lexicosemantic groups, semantic fields.
- •26. Dynamics of the English vocabulary. Neologisms: their sources and formation.
- •Idiomatic Neologisms
- •27. Polysemy. Semantic structure of English words. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy. Types of polysemy.
- •28. Homonyms. Classifications and sources of homonyms.
- •29. Syntagmatic vs paradigmatic relations among English words.
- •In psycholinguistics these terms are used in a different sense.
- •30. Synonyms. The notion of a synonymic dominant. Types of synonyms. Sources of synonymy.
- •31. Antonyms. Definition. Morphological and semantic classifications of antonyms.
- •32. Grammatical and lexical valency. Grammatical and lexical context.
- •33. Lexical syntagmatics. Free word-groups vs phraseological units.
- •34. Free word-groups. Definition. Classifications.
- •35. Phraseological units: a variety of terms and the problem of definition. Characteristic features of phraseological units.
- •36. Approaches to the classifications of phraseological units in modern linguistics.
- •37. Polysemy, synonymy and stylistic features of phraseological units.
- •38. Origins and sources of phraseological units.
- •39. Dialectology as a branch of linguistics, its aim and basic notions. A dialect vs a variant.
- •40. Standard English: characteristic features and the problem of definition.
- •41. Local dialects in the British Isles. Scottish English. Irish English.
- •Variants
- •42. Characteristic features of the American English lexicon.
- •43. Lexicography as a branch of linguistics, its aim, basic notions and main problems.
- •44. Typology of dictionaries.
- •45. Important milestones in the history of British and American lexicography.
39. Dialectology as a branch of linguistics, its aim and basic notions. A dialect vs a variant.
Dialectology is a linguistic subdiscipline concerned with dialects. Its origin — apart from a few early glossaries and dialect dictionaries — can be traced back to the early 19th c. historical and comparative linguistics.
In 1876 Georg Wenkersent postal questionnaires out over Northern Germany. These postal questionnaires contained a list of sentences written in Standard German, which were then transcribed into the local dialect, reflecting dialectal differences. Many studies proceeded from this, and over the next century dialect studies were carried out all over the world.
During the Romantic era the ‘dialects of the common people,’ which were up to then held in low esteem, were elevated to the position of ‘more original’ linguistic forms; the comparative method was used to reconstruct the earlier stages of a language from its dialects.
In the investigation of general historical linguistic principles by the Neogrammarians, the dialects were even seen as being superior to the written language, since it was here that ‘consistencies in sound formation’ were genuinely apparent.
Commonly studied concepts in dialectology include:
-the problem of mutual intelligibility in defining languages and dialects;
-situations of diglossia, where two dialects are used for different functions;
-ialect continuum, i.e. a network of dialects in which geographically adjacent dialects are mutually comprehensible, but with comprehensibility steadily decreasing as distance between the dialects increases, e.g. Dutch-German dialect continuum, a vast network of dialects with two recognized literary standards;
-pluricentrism, where what is essentially a single genetic language exists as two or more standard varieties.
Basic Notions
According to the New English Dictionary, the oldest sense of the term dialect (1577) was ‘a manner of speaking’ or ‘phraseology’, in accordance with its derivation from the Gr. dialectos ‘a discourse or way of speaking’. The modern meaning is somewhat more precise. In relation to a language such as English, the term dialect is used in a special sense to signify ‘a local variety of speech differing from the standard or literary language’.
A dialect is a linguistic system that
-shows a high degree of similarity to other systems so that at least partial mutual intelligibility is possible;
-is tied to a specific region in such a way that the regional distribution of the system does not overlap with an area covered by another such system;
-does not have a written or standardised form, i.e. does not have officially standardised orthographic and grammatical rules.
A regional accent refers to features of pronunciation against a geographical background. Accents may also convey social implications and be prestigious, neutral or low class.
A regional dialect refers to features of grammar and vocabulary against a geographical background. A regional dialect includes a distinctive regional accent but the reverse does not necessarily follow.
Dialect linguistics (areal linguistics, linguistic geography) is a subdiscipline of dialectology concerned with the investigation of the geographic distribution of linguistic phenomena. In dialect geography, phonetic, phonological, morphological, and lexical approaches are primarily employed.
The recorded data are presented in the form of linguistic maps which facilitate the interpretation of the specific geographic distribution and the structure of individual features from a historical, cultural, social (extralinguistic), and language-internal (intralinguistic) point of view.
A linguistic atlas is a comprehensive representation of dialectal features for a whole region or a whole linguistic area.