LEXICOLOGY

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.

(the Gospel of John)

LECTURE 1
 1. Lexicology as a Branch of
Linguistics.
 2. Etymological Peculiarities of the
English Language
 2. 1. Words of Native Origin
 2. 2. The Foreign Element in the
English Vocabulary
 2. 3. Criteria of Borrowing
 2. 4. Classification of Borrowings
Lexicology
 the part of linguistics dealing with the
vocabulary of a language and the
properties of words as the main units of
language. The term Lexicology is
composed of two Greek morphemes:
 lexis - “word, phrase”
 logos - “learning, a department of
knowledge”
 Lexicology - “science of the word”.
Lexicology
 The basic task - a study and
systematic description of
vocabulary in respect to its origin,
development and current use.
 Vocabulary - the system
formed by the sum total of all
the words and the morphemes
which make up words, word-
groups and phraseological units.
 Word - the basic unit of a given
language resulting from the
association of a given meaning with
a given group of sounds susceptible
of a given grammatical
employment.
 Word equivalents - set
expressions similar to words in so
far as they are integrated
semantically, not created in speech
but introduced into the act of
communication ready-made, and
also because they are syntactically
treated like single words.
 The subject-matter - the
word, its morphemic
structure, history and
meaning.
General Lexicology

 ispart of General Linguistics.

It is concerned with the
study of vocabulary
irrespective of the specific
features of any particular
language.
Special Lexicology

 is
the Lexicology of a
particular language (e.g.
English, etc.) that is the
study and description of its
vocabulary and vocabulary
units.
Etymology

 (from Gr. etymon – ‘true,

real’) is the branch of
linguistics which deals with
the origin of a word.
Semasiology
 (from Gr. semasia – ‘signification’)
is the branch of linguistics whose
subject-matter is the study of word
meaning and the classification of
changes in the signification of words
or forms, viewed as normal and
vital factors of linguistic
development.
Onomasiology

 isthe study of the principles

and regularities of the
signification of things and
notions by lexical and lexico-
phraseological means of a
given language.
Lexicology
 came into being to meet the needs
of many different branches of
applied linguistics:
 lexicography,
 literary criticism,
 standardization of terminology
 foreign language teaching.
 It is particularly useful in building up the
learner’s vocabulary by an effective
selection, grouping and analysis of new
words.
 A good knowledge of the system of word-
formation helps the student to guess and
retain in his memory the meaning of new
words on the basis of their motivation and
by comparing and contrasting them with
the previously learned elements or
patterns.
ETYMOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES
OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

 To comprehend the nature of the

English vocabulary and its historical
development it is necessary: to
examine the etymology of its
different layers, the historical
causes of their appearance, their
volume and role and the
comparative importance of native
and borrowed elements in
replenishing the English vocabulary.
 Approximately 70% of the English
vocabulary are borrowings and
about 30% are words native in
origin.
 The most characteristic feature of
English, especially of its word-stock,
is its mixed character.
Words of Native Origin

 The term native is conventionally

used to denote words of Anglo-
Saxon origin brought to the British
Isles from the continent in the fifth
century by Germanic tribes.
The native element
 of the English vocabulary is
subdivided into words of the Indo-
European stock and those of
common German origin.
 The words having cognates in the
vocabularies of different Indo-
European languages belong to the
oldest layer.
 father: German – Vater, Greek –
pater, Latin – pater;
 brother: German – Bruder, Ukr. –
брат, Latin – frater;
 mother: German – Mutter, Ukr. –
мати, Latin – mater, Greek – meter.
 A much bigger part of this native
vocabulary is formed by words of
the Common Germanic stock, i. e.
of words having parallels in
German, Norwegian, Dutch,
Icelandic, etc., but none in Slavonic
or Romanic languages.
The native stock includes:

 auxiliary and modal verbs (shall, will, can,

may, must),
 most verbs of the strong conjugation,
denoting common actions (to do, to
make, to go, to come, to see, to hear, to
eat, to keep, to know, to meet, etc.),
 pronouns (I, you, he, my, his, who, etc.),
 most numerals (one, two, three, etc.),
 prepositions (in, on, out, under) and
 conjunctions (and, but, till, as, etc.).
Notional words of Anglo-Saxon origin include nouns
denoting:

 parts of the body (hand, head,

arm, back, body, breast, chin,
ear, elbow, eye, finger, foot,
heart, heel, knee, neck, nose,
shoulder, throat);
 kinship terms (father, mother,
brother, son, daughter, boy, girl,
man, woman, widow);
 names of natural phenomena and
planets (snow, rain, wind, moon,
star);
 names of animals, birds, fish,
insects (bat, bee, bug, bull, calf, cat,
chicken, cock, cow, deer, dog,
donkey, duck, fox, goat, hen, horse,
mouse);
 names of plants and their fruit
(barley, berry, daisy, garlic, grass,
lime, nut, oak, oats, rye, willow);
 names of things of everyday life,
instruments, clothes, buildings
(barn, bench, boat, box, broom,
bucket, cloth, gate, hat, jar, knife,
ladder, lock, nail, needle, pan, roof,
room, shelter, spade, spoon, stool,
yard);
 some place names (cliff, land, hill,
meadow, marsh).
 Here belong also many adjectives
denoting common qualities and
properties (black, broad, cool, dark,
deep, even, hot, keen, light, long,
new, old, red, slow, sweet, white,
yellow, young).
The Foreign Element in the English
Vocabulary

 In the 15 century long history

recorded in its written manuscripts
the English language happened to
come in long and close contact with
several other languages. As a result
of these contacts many foreign
words were borrowed by English.
The term borrowing
 is used in linguistics to denote the
process of adopting words from
other languages and also the result
of this process, the language
material itself, i. e. words, word-
building affixes (e.g. -able, -ment,
-ity, etc.) and word-groups (e.g.
vis- à -vis, tête- à -tête).
 Borrowings enter the language
in two ways: through oral
speech (by immediate contacts
between the peoples) and
through written speech (by
indirect contact through books,
etc.).
Criteria of Borrowing

 phonetical,

 grammatical,
 lexical
Phonetical criterion
 the pronunciation of the word
(strange sounds, sound
combinations, position of stress), its
spelling and the correlation between
sounds and letters are an indication
of the foreign origin of the word.
 waltz (G.), psychology (Gr.),
communiqué (Fr.).
 The initial position of the sounds
[v], [dʒ], [z] or the letters x, j, z:
volcano (It.), vase (Fr.), jungle
(Hindi), zero (Fr.), zinc (G.), etc.
Grammatical criterion
 Morphological structure of the word:
neurosis (Gr.),violoncello (It.)

 Grammatical forms:
bacteria (pl)- bacterium (sing). L
data (pl)- datum (sing). L
Lexical criterion
 Last but not least is the lexical
meaning of the word. The
concept denoted by the words
ricksha(w), pagoda (Chin.)
make us sure that we deal with
borrowings.
Classification of Borrowings

 1)Accordingto the
language from which the
word was borrowed.
The Celtic Element in the English Vocabulary

 Walter William Skeat (the author of

the Etymological Dictionary of
Modern English) registers 165
words borrowed directly or
indirectly from the Celts, including
in this number words of uncertain
origin supposed to be derived from
the Celtic.
 Examples of Celtic words appearing
in Old English and preserved until
the present time are: dun (темно-
сірий колір), bin (засік), bald
(лисий), bog (болото), gull
(чайка), loop (петля), peat (хмиз),
penguin (пінгвін), tall (високий),
twig (гілка).
 From other Celtic languages were
borrowed such words as crowd,
flannel (from Welsh), clan, loch,
slogan, whiskey (from Gallic),
shanty, Tory (from Irish).
 Some Celtic words penetrated into
English through other languages.
Thus, the words beak, budget,
cloak, clock, gravel, harness,
javelin, job, lawn, mine, mineral,
mutton came through French.
 The Celtic language left many
proper names, namely: Aileen,
Cathleen, Coleen, Doreen, Mona,
Sheila and Alan, Brian, Donald,
Roy, etc.
 The influence of the Celtic language
upon English may also be traced in
names of places. Celtic names are
common in all parts of England
though much more largely in the
north and west and especially in
Scotland and Ireland. The names of
the rivers Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux
originate from Celtic words meaning
‘river’ and ‘water’.