2. The Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology

The theoretical value of lexicology becomes obvious if we realize that it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of language, i.e. its vocabulary, the other two being its grammar and sound system. Lexicology investigates very important problems of lexicon, such as word meaning, word formation, principles of classification of vocabulary units into various groupings, phraseology, etymology and many others. The data obtained within lexicology is important for general linguistics, the science of language.

The problems of word meaning, theory of nomination are the object of interest not only of lexicology but also were originally developed within philosophy, theory of cognition. The philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome and their followers were interested in the relationship between the name and the thing named, or how things get their names and why the same things have different names in different languages.

Theory of nomination is one of the significant parts of ancient philosophy [Амирова 1975: 33]. “The speculations about name and its relation to thing, what we would currently call semantics were at the basis of many philosophical issues” [Степанов 1985: 9].

Lexicology came into being for certain practical needs: first of all for dictionary making. Dictionary-makers are guided by the principles laid down by lexicologists as the result of their investigations. Lexicography is the science and art of dictionary compiling. Lexicological data are also indispensable for applied linguistics including machine translation and computerized education, e.g. programmes on the usage of synonyms, proper affixes, etc., for creating terminological systems for various sciences.

Lexicology is very important for a language learner and teacher in building up the learner’s vocabulary by effective selection, grouping and analysis of words. Good knowledge of the system of word-formation helps a student guess the word meaning and memorize words, knowledge of lexical collocability enables a learner to be able to combine words in sentences. Knowledge of synonyms, antonyms homonyms, phraseological units will enrich the learner’s speech, make it more expressive. The notion of word groupings, lexico-semantic fields will impart to the student a notion of systematic character of English vocabulary. Lexicology not only gives a systematic description of the present make-up of the vocabulary but also helps to master the literary standards and norms of word usage. It also imparts the necessary skills of using dictionaries and reference books.

Questions and Tasks

1. What is the subject matter of lexicology?

2. What is lexicon?

3. What are the elements of the lexical system?

4. What are the aims and objectives of lexicology?

5. What do you know of the two main approaches in language study?

6. What is general, special, descriptive, historical, contrastive lexicology?

7. What other branches of linguistics lexicology is linked with?

8. What is the theoretical and practical value of lexicology?

CHAPTER I

WORD AS THE BASIC UNIT OF THE LEXICAL

SYSTEM OF THE LANGUAGE

1. Word as an Element of the Lexical System

Lexical units: morphemes, words, phraseological units are elements of the lexico-semantic system of a language. But the word is considered to be the basic and fundamental unit of the language. One cannot imagine any language without words. As professor A.I.Smirnitsky pointed out “all other language units (for instance morphemes, phraseological units, grammar patterns) are conditioned by words and presuppose such a unit as the word” [Смирницкий 1956: 20]. F.de Saussure also emphasized the central role the word plays in the language system [Соссюр 1977: 142].

The word is represented on all the levels of linguistic analysis: phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactical levels, on the discourse (text) level. It may coincide with a phoneme, with a morpheme, a lexeme, a sentence and text, for example the pronoun I. The word is a linking element of the language system. It is the basic unit of the language system, the largest on the morphological and the smallest on the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis.

Words are used to give names to things, objects, phenomena, therefore the main function of the word is nominating. Being a language unit the word is also a speech unit which serves the purposes of human communication. Thus, the word has also a communicative function. These are the most significant functions of words, though they have other linguistic functions, such as the function of expression as words are used to express ideas, the cognitive function as they are used to cognize (study, investigate) the world, the emotive function to express emotions and some others.

How things get their names or how the word performs its nominating function is the question which has not yet received a definite answer. What’s in a name? Is there any direct correlation between a word and the object it represents? It is evident in case of the so-called sound imitation, e.g. a cuckoo, splash, bang, etc. but in the overwhelming majority of cases it is impossible to trace any correspondence between the object (the referent) and the word.

Modern linguists claim that language is a system of signs, and the word being its element, is a linguistic sign, as it signifies, or means something. Sign is a material, sensually perceived object (phenomenon, action, process), which represents or substitutes another object (phenomenon, action, process) in the processes of people’s cognition and communication [Степанов 1985: 9]. As a linguistic sign, the word represents an object (phenomenon, action, process), i.e. its referent.

The word is a two-facet unit possessing both form and content. It has its outer facet – its sound or graphic form and its inner facet – its meaning. In other words, it has its external structure (also its plane of expression) and the internal structure (the plane of content). To external structure belong sound and graphic forms of the word. Word also possesses its morphological structure which is considered to be its external structure [Antrushina 1999: 8] but the morphological structure of the word has certain relevance to word meaning, as morphemes are meaningful units. For example, in the word extra-linguistic the following morphemes can be distinguished: extra- the prefixal morpheme, ling- the root and suffixes -ist and -ic. The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as the word’s semantic structure.

Words possess some structural and functional properties that help us differentiate them either from morphemes or word-groups (word combinations). An important structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. Unlike morphemes, in speech words can be used in different grammatical forms. A leading functional feature of the word is its paradigm. The morphological paradigm of the word is the word in all its forms (e.g. boy, boy’s, boys, boys’ is the paradigm of the noun ‘boy’; take, takes, took, taking is the paradigm of the verb ‘to take’).

The word is characterized by both external (or formal) and semantic unity or integrity. Professor A.I.Smirnitsky, who put forward this idea, referred to it as ‘цельнооформленность’ as his book is written in Russian [Смирницкий 1956: 39]. This is the criterion to distinguish the word from the word-group, e.g. the word a blackbird (чёрный дрозд) which possesses structural and semantic integrity from the word-group (phrase, word combination) a black bird (чёрная птица) which is characterized by structural separateness. Comparing the paradigms of the word a blackbird and the word-group a black bird we discover that a blackbird possesses a single grammatical framing, the inflections are added to the word base: blackbirds. The first component black- cannot be subjected to any changes. In the word-group a black bird each constituent can acquire grammatical forms of its own: the blackest birds I have ever seen. Structural separateness also manifests itself in the possibility to insert other words between the components of a word-group: a black night bird which is impossible in case of the word a blackbird [Антрушина 1999: 9].

A further structural feature of the word is its positional mobility within a sentence. The word is the smallest significant unit of the language capable of functioning alone, unlike a phoneme or a morpheme. It can occupy any place in a sentence within its syntactic patterns, e.g. Dinner is usually at eight o’clock. Usually dinner is at eight o’clock. Dinner is at eight o’clock usually.

Each word as an element of the lexico-semantic system is characterized by its relations with other words (see chapter 3).

Thus, investigating major properties of the word we observe that it has many various aspects and peculiarities, all this testifies to complexity of the word as a linguistic unit. Though much has been done in elaboration of the theory of the word by scholars, certain essential aspects of the word escape us. Many questions remain unanswered, e.g. we know very little about mechanisms of nomination, about relations between the word and the referent, etc.