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Lexicology as a subdivision of linguistics. Its object and tasks.
Lexicology is a subdivision of linguistics that studies the vocabulary of a language — its words, word combinations, and their meanings, origin, structure, and use.
🔹 Object of Lexicology
The object of lexicology is the word as the basic unit of language and vocabulary, as well as word combinations (like idioms or fixed phrases).
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🎯 Main Tasks of Lexicology
1. To describe and analyze words in terms of their meaning, structure, and function;
2. To classify words (by origin, frequency, usage, function, etc.);
3. To study how words are formed and how they change over time;
4. To explain word meanings and their relationships (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homonyms);
5. To explore how vocabulary reflects culture and society;
6. To assist in practical areas like dictionary-making (lexicography), language teaching, and translation.
Historical Lexicology versus Descriptive Lexicology.
The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as of its single elements, forms the object of historical lexicology.
This branch of linguistics discusses the origin of various words, their change and development, and researches the lingual and extra-lingual factors modifying their form, meaning and usage.
Historical lexicology is closely connected with etymology (έτυμολογία - primary meaning of the word, the root word from which others are derived) which deals with the origin of a word by pointing out the root or primitive upon which it is based. I.K.Bilodid considers etymology a part of historical lexicology
🔷 Historical Lexicology
(Also called Diachronic Lexicology)
✅ What it studies:
• The origin and history of words.
• How words have changed in form, meaning, and use over time.
📌 Main features:
• Focuses on the evolution of vocabulary.
• Studies etymology (word origins).
• Analyzes semantic change (e.g., broadening, narrowing, shift in meaning).
• Explores borrowings from other languages and changes in word structure.
📘 Example:
• The Old English word “hus” became “house” in Modern English.
• “Knight” used to mean servant, now it means a warrior of noble rank.
Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development,
⚫ studies morphological and semantic structures of words researching the interdependence between these two aspects,
⚫ is concerned with stylistic differentiation of the lexical units of modern languages, their active and passive layers at the present state of functioning.
🔶 Descriptive Lexicology
(Also called Synchronic Lexicology)
✅ What it studies:
• The vocabulary of a language at a certain point in time, usually the present.
• The structure, meaning, and use of words as they are now.
📌 Main features:
• Focuses on modern usage.
• Analyzes word formation, meaning, function, and stylistic features.
• Describes the current system of vocabulary and how words relate to each other.
📘 Example:
• Studying the word “mouse” in modern English — both as an animal and a computer device.
• Analyzing synonyms like big, large, huge in present-day English.
Theoretical and practical value of lexicological studies.
📘 Theoretical Value of Lexicology
• Lexicology is one of the three main components of language, alongside grammar and phonetics (sound system).
→ It studies vocabulary, which is essential for communication.
• Just like a small set of Arabic numerals (0–9) can create infinite numbers,
→ A limited set of sounds and letters can be combined to form an unlimited number of words.
→ Lexicology explains how these combinations work and carry meaning.
• It provides a systematic understanding of:
• Word structure and formation
• Meaning and usage
• Word relationships (synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, etc.)
• Vocabulary organization in the mental lexicon
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.
⚫ just as the small set of Arabic numerals can be combined to express in writing any natural numbers, so the small set of sounds and letters can be combined to express in speech and writing respectively an indefinitely large number of words
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📙 Practical Value of Lexicology
Lexicology is highly applicable in many fields of applied linguistics, such as:
• 🔁 Translation – choosing correct word equivalents and understanding context
• 📚 Lexicography – creating dictionaries and reference materials
• 🧾 Terminology standardization – developing consistent terms in science, law, tech, etc.
• 💻 Information processing – used in machine translation, text analysis, AI, and search engines
• 🌍 Foreign language teaching – selecting and teaching vocabulary systematically
• 📖 Literary criticism – analyzing the author’s word choice and style
✅ It trains linguists to analyze vocabulary in a structured way and improves language competence.
Lexicology and phonology: points of intersection.
✅ Lexicology and Phonology: Points of Intersection
Lexicology and phonology are both branches of linguistics, and although they focus on different aspects of language — words vs. sounds — they often intersect. Here’s how:
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🔹 1. Phonological Contrast and Lexical Meaning
• Phonology studies sound patterns in languages.
• Some sounds contrast in a way that changes meaning — this makes them lexicologically relevant.
📌 Example:
• [s] vs. [z]:
• sip [sɪp] vs. zip [zɪp] → different words, different meanings.
• [ɪ] vs. [eɪ]:
• hit [hɪt] vs. hate [heɪt]
✅ When a change in sound creates a change in meaning, phonology and lexicology overlap.
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🔹 2. Language-Specific Contrasts
• Phonological contrasts are not universal.
• What’s meaningful in one language might be meaningless in another.
📌 Example:
• English:
• Ben [ben] vs. ban [bæn] → different words.
• Ukrainian:
• перо [pero] vs. [pæro] → same word, no change in meaning.
✅ This affects how learners acquire vocabulary and how words are perceived across languages.
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🔹 3. Historical Phonology & Lexicology
• Over time, sound changes affect word forms, which can:
• Create new meanings (semantic change),
• Lead to homonyms, synonyms, or polysemy.
📌 Example:
• Words like whole, heal, and hail:
• All come from the same root meaning unharmed.
• Sound changes led to differences in form and meaning:
• Whole → unbroken
• Heal → to make whole
• Hail → greeting, from the idea of “be healthy”
✅ Sound evolution can split related words into different lexical items.
Lexicology and morphology: points of intersection.
Lexicology (study of words) and morphology (study of word structure) are closely related and often overlap in several key areas. Here’s how:
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🔹 1. Word Structure and Morphemes
• Words are not simple units; they have an internal structure made up of morphemes — the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function.
📌 Example:
• Unbelievable → un- (negative) + believe (root) + -able (adjective marker)
✅ Morphology provides the tools to analyze how words are built, while lexicology interprets their meaning and usage.
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🔹 2. Contrastive Lexicology and Morphological Differences
• Contrastive lexicology compares word formation across languages (e.g., English and Ukrainian).
Not every semantic contrast morphologically expressed in Eng. will also be manifested in Ukr.
📌 Examples of differences:
• English articles (a, the) have no equivalents in Ukrainian.
• Ukrainian gender markers:
• кравець (male tailor) vs. кравчиня (female tailor) – such gender distinctions are not morphologically marked in English.
✅ These differences show how morphology affects lexical meaning and language-specific contrasts.
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🔹 3. Lexical vs. Grammatical Morphology
When morphology deals with words as lexical units it is concerned with their structural modification.
Morphology interacts with lexicology in two main ways:
🔸 Lexical Morphology (Word-building):
• Forms new words (derivation, compounding, etc.)
• happy → happiness
• clean → cleaner
🔸 Grammatical Morphology (Form-building):
• Creates grammatical forms of the same word
• cat → cats (plural)
• run → ran (past tense)
✅ Lexicology studies how word-building and form-building impact word meaning, usage, and classification.
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🔹 4. Morphological Forms Affect Lexical Meaning
Some grammatical changes (like pluralization) bring a shift in lexical meaning, not just grammar.
📌 Examples:
• English:
• damage = injury;
• damages = legal compensation (different meaning!)
• Ukrainian:
• вік = lifetime
• віки = ages, long time (shift in meaning)
✅ These examples show that form changes (plural/suffixes) may lead to semantic changes.
Lexicology and syntax: points of intersection.
Lexicology and syntax: points of intersection.
Interactions between vocabulary and grammar have their own peculiarities in syntax. These are revealed in actual use of syntactic patterns of different types. E.g. the distinction between semantic and syntactic transitivity:
⚫ Intransitive use
⚫ (a) The child jumped with joy.
⚫ (b) He jumped ten pages of the book.
Transitive use
⚫ (a) He breathed freely.
⚫ (b) He couldn’t breathe a word.
To find out what particular class a given word belongs to it is often not enough to study an isolated form. E.g.round:
He took his daily rounds - noun
a round table − adjective,
He failed to round the lamp-post − verb, Come round tomorrow − adverb,
He walked round the house − preposition. When such paradygmatic homonymy occurs syntactic relations between words make the necessary meaning clear.
A shift of voice in verb phrases containing modal auxiliaries may be accompanied with a shift of modal meaning:
⚫ John cannot do it. − It cannot be done (by John).
⚫ John can’t be taught - She can’t teach John
Some differences between the meaning of an active sentence and its passive counterpart have also been noted in examples where transformations are not possible:
⚫ Winston Churchill has twice visited Harvard
⚫ Harvard has twice been visited by Winston Churchill.
This passage is quite advanced and touches on deep interactions between vocabulary and grammar in syntax. Here’s a clearer explanation with breakdowns and simple examples—especially useful if you’re preparing to explain this to learners or trying to understand it yourself.
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🧠 Main Idea:
Vocabulary (words) and grammar (how words are used) interact in specific ways in sentences. These interactions affect meaning, structure, and sometimes word class.
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- 🔁 Semantic vs. Syntactic Transitivity
Some verbs can be transitive (have an object) or intransitive (no object), and their meaning changes:
Example: “Jump”
• (a) Intransitive: The child jumped with joy.
→ No object: “jumped” just describes the action.
• (b) Transitive: He jumped ten pages of the book.
→ Has object: “ten pages” — means he skipped pages, not physically jumped!
Example: “Breathe”
• (a) He breathed freely. (no object — just breathing)
• (b) He couldn’t breathe a word. (“a word” is the object — means “say”)
🟡 So the same verb changes meaning depending on whether it’s used with or without an object.
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- 📦 Word Class Depends on Sentence Position
Some words like “round” can be:
• Noun: He took his daily rounds.
• Adjective: a round table
• Verb: He failed to round the lamp-post.
• Adverb: Come round tomorrow.
• Preposition: He walked round the house.
👉 These are homonyms — same word form, but different parts of speech.
🧩 How to know which one it is?
Look at the syntax (sentence structure and context).
E.g. only verbs can take direct objects, only adjectives go before nouns, etc.
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- 🔄 Modal Verbs + Passive Voice
Using modal verbs (can, must, should) in passive sentences may also change meaning:
• John cannot do it. → active
• It cannot be done (by John). → passive
🟡 Same basic meaning — passive form sounds more formal or distant.
But:
• She can’t teach John. → she is not able to teach him
• John can’t be taught. → maybe no one can teach him (not just her)
🟡 The focus and even the meaning shifts.
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- 🎯 Not All Active-Passive Transformations Are Equal
Even when you can switch active ↔ passive, the nuance may change:
• Winston Churchill has twice visited Harvard.
→ Active: Focus on Winston Churchill’s actions.
• Harvard has twice been visited by Winston Churchill.
→ Passive: Focus on Harvard receiving the action.
🟡 The meaning is similar, but the emphasis is different. That’s important in communication.
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✅ Summary for Learners:
1. Same verb can act differently (transitive/intransitive) → changes meaning.
2. Word class (noun, verb, adj…) often depends on syntax, not spelling.
3. Modals in passive voice can shift the focus or meaning.
4. Passive vs. active = not always interchangeable in emphasis.
Would you like this turned into a visual chart or lesson summary for students?
Lexicology and semantics.
Here’s a clear explanation and summary of the topic “Lexicology and Semantics”, based on your text:
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🧠 1. Lexicology and Semantics
🔹 What are they?
• Lexicology = the study of words: their form, structure, and meaning.
• Semantics (or Semasiology) = the study of meaning in language.
• Comes from Greek sēmasia (“signification”) and sēma (“sign”).
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🔹 What is Lexical Semantics?
A branch of semantics that focuses specifically on word meaning (not sentence meaning).
👉 It is part of general lexicology.
It studies:
• How word meanings are structured
• How they relate to each other (synonyms, antonyms, polysemy, etc.)
• How meanings develop or change (semantic change)
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🌐 Lexicalization
❓ What is it?
Lexicalization = the process by which ideas, concepts, or experiences are turned into words.
🟡 In simple terms:
→ Turning thoughts into vocabulary
→ Putting concepts into words
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🔍 Why is this important?
Different languages may lexicalize the same concept differently — or not at all.
Example:
Concept English Russian Japanese
To make someone feel embarrassed for their own bad behavior “shame” стыдить 恥をかかせる (haji o kakaseru)
🟡 These lexicalization differences show how different languages express meaning in different ways. This helps linguists understand how language and thought interact.
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✅ Summary:
Term Meaning
Semantics Study of meaning in language
Lexical semantics Study of word-level meaning
Lexicalization Turning concepts into words
Lexicology Study of vocabulary and word systems
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Would you like a diagram or chart to visually show how these ideas are connected?
Lexicology and pragmatics.
⚫ The meaning of linguistic expressions when uttered within particular types of situations is dealt with in pragmatics, which is concerned with the communicative force of linguistic utterances. G.Leech in his “Principles of Pragmatics” points out that “the problem of distinguishing ‘language’ (langue) and ‘language use’ (parole) has centred on a boundary dispute between semantics and pragmatics
semantics and pragmatics
⚫ Both fields are concerned with meaning, but the difference between them can be traced on two different uses of the verb to mean:
⚫ [1] What does X mean? - semantics
⚫ [2] What did you mean by X? -pragmatics
lexicology and pragmatics
⚫ Semantics traditionally deals with meaning as a dyadic relation as in [1]
⚫ pragmatics deals with meaning as a triadic relation as in [2]
⚫ Thus meaning in pragmatics is defined relative to a speaker or user of the language, whereas meaning in semantics is defined purely as a property of expressions in a given language, in abstraction from particular situations, speakers or hearers” (G. Leech).
lexicology and pragmatics
⚫ the study of various factors involved in use and understanding of language, such as the following:
✔ the speaker’s intentions and how they are surmised by the addressee,
✔ the speaker’s and addressee’s background attitudes and beliefs,
✔ their understanding of the context in which the utterance is made, and their knowledge of how language can be used for a variety of purposes
inseparably connected with contrastive lexicological studies
Here is a clear explanation and summary of the connection between lexicology, semantics, and pragmatics, based on your text, with examples:
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🧩 Semantics vs Pragmatics — What’s the Difference?
✅ Both study meaning, but they focus on different kinds of meaning.
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📘 Semantics
• Studies literal, context-free meaning.
• Focuses on the dictionary definition of words and sentences.
• Meaning = a relation between words and things (dyadic = two elements: word + object)
🟡 Example:
What does “book” mean?
→ It refers to a set of printed pages bound together.
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📕 Pragmatics
• Studies meaning in use, in context.
• Focuses on what speakers intend and how listeners understand it.
• Meaning = a relation between word, speaker, and listener (triadic = 3 elements)
🟡 Example:
What did you mean by “Nice job” (when someone failed)?
→ It could be sarcasm, not praise — depends on the situation and tone.
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🔁 Comparison: Two Questions
Sentence Field Focus
What does “cold” mean? Semantics Literal meaning: “low temperature”
What did you mean by “cold” (when describing a person)? Pragmatics Implied meaning: “unfriendly”
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🔍 Lexicology and Pragmatics – What’s the Link?
Lexicology = study of words and vocabulary systems
Pragmatics = study of how those words are used in real communication
🔗 Lexicology + Pragmatics:
• Words often have multiple meanings (polysemy, idioms, irony)
• You need context to understand which meaning is used
• Pragmatics helps interpret words in real-life situations
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📌 Example of Pragmatic Meaning Shift:
Sentence: “Can you open the window?”
Field Interpretation
Semantics Asks about physical ability
Pragmatics A polite request, not a question about strength
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🧠 G. Leech’s Point:
• Semantics = meaning in general, abstract, without speaker
• Pragmatics = meaning in action, depends on speaker, hearer, context
• The boundary between them is sometimes hard to draw
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🌍 In Lexicology and Contrastive Studies (e.g. English vs Ukrainian):
Pragmatics is important because:
• The same word or phrase may be used differently in different languages
• Cultural norms affect how things are said and interpreted
• E.g. “Come in” may sound neutral in English, but the Ukrainian equivalent “Заходьте” may imply warmth or politeness based on tone and context.
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Lexicology and stylistics.
Here’s a simple and clear explanation of the link between lexicology and stylistics, with examples and emoji for clarity:
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✍️ Lexicology and Stylistics
📘 What is Stylistics?
Stylistics is the study of how language is used for effect.
It doesn’t just look at what words mean (that’s lexicology) — it looks at how words are used to create emotion, tone, or mood.
🟡 Example:
Saying “He died” is neutral.
Saying “He passed away” is softer and more emotional.
Saying “He kicked the bucket” is informal or humorous.
→ All mean the same (lexicology), but create different effects (stylistics).
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🔍 “Stylistics of the Word”
This part of stylistics looks at how vocabulary choices affect meaning and tone.
It studies:
• ✏️ Word-formation (e.g. scientific terms vs slang: microorganism vs bug)
• 📚 Synonymy (e.g. ask vs demand vs beg)
• 🎭 Ambiguity (e.g. He saw her duck – animal or action?)
• ⚖️ Precision vs vagueness (e.g. a large number vs 342 people)
• ☁️ Abstract vs concrete (e.g. freedom vs a flag)
• 🧠 Rare vs common terms (e.g. ephemeral vs short-lived)
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🔗 How Lexicology Helps Stylistics
Lexicology = studies the system of words
Stylistics = studies how words are used expressively
Lexicology gives the tools, stylistics explains the effects.
🟢 Example:
Lexicology tells us “slender”, “thin”, and “skinny” are synonyms.
Stylistics tells us:
• “Slender” → positive, elegant
• “Thin” → neutral
• “Skinny” → slightly negative or informal
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🎨 Why It Matters
Writers, poets, journalists, and speakers all choose words on purpose.
The same idea can sound:
• Formal or informal
• Emotional or neutral
• Clear or vague
• Respectful or rude
Understanding both lexicology and stylistics helps you:
✔️ Choose better words
✔️ Understand tone
✔️ Write more effectively
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Would you like a short quiz or task to practice stylistic word choice? 😊
⚫ Stylistics as a branch of linguistic study is concerned not with the elements of language as such but with their expressive potential.
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“Stylistics of the word” explores the expressive resources available in the vocabulary of a language, investigates the stylistic implications of such phenomena as word-formation, synonymy, ambiguity, or the contrast between vague and precise, abstract and concrete, rare and common terms etc.
Inductive and deductive ways of approaching lexicological data
Sure! Here’s a clear and easy-to-understand explanation of inductive and deductive approaches in lexicology — with examples and emojis to help you remember 🌟
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🔍 Inductive and Deductive Approaches to Lexicological Data
🧠 What is lexicological data?
Lexicology studies words: their meanings, forms, origins, usage, and relationships.
Lexicological data = everything we collect or observe about words: how they are used, what they mean, how they’re formed, etc.
Now let’s look at two ways to approach this data:
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🟢 1. Inductive Approach = From Examples to Rule
🔄 Induction = Bottom-up
You start by looking at real examples, and then form a general rule or pattern based on what you observe.
✨ Example:
You notice these examples:
• unhappy, unclear, unfair
→ All start with “un-” and have opposite meanings.
🧠 Then you conclude:
“Looks like ‘un-’ is a prefix that gives a word a negative meaning.”
✅ This is an inductive conclusion — based on real word data.
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🔵 2. Deductive Approach = From Rule to Examples
⏬ Deduction = Top-down
You start with a general rule or theory, and then test or apply it to specific words.
✨ Example:
You already know that:
“The prefix ‘re-’ means ‘again’”
You then look for words like:
• rebuild → build again
• rewrite → write again
• rethink → think again
✅ This is deductive: you test the rule on real examples.
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🤔 Why Does This Matter?
These two approaches help linguists, teachers, and students:
• 🧪 Inductive → useful for discovering new patterns in language (especially in modern or evolving usage)
• 📘 Deductive → useful for teaching rules, checking if words fit expected patterns
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🔁 In Summary:
🟢 Inductive 🔵 Deductive
From examples → rule From rule → examples
Data-driven Theory-driven
Discover patterns Apply/verify rules
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Would you like a few practice tasks to test these two methods? 😊
IC analysis in lexicological research.
IC analysis in lexicological research.
Here’s a clear and simple explanation of IC analysis (Immediate Constituents analysis) in lexicological research — with examples and emojis to help you understand easily:
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🧩 IC Analysis in Lexicology
(Immediate Constituents Analysis)
📌 What is it?
IC analysis is a method used to break down words or phrases into smaller parts to see how they are structurally and meaningfully related.
🟡 It’s like taking apart a puzzle to understand how the pieces fit.
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🎯 Main Goals of IC Analysis
1. 🔍 Show the internal structure of a word or phrase.
2. 🧱 Break a unit into two biggest meaningful parts (called immediate constituents).
3. ➗ Continue splitting each part until no more meaningful units can be separated (these are ultimate constituents).
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🧠 Key Terms
• Immediate Constituents (ICs) → the two main parts a word/phrase is split into
• Ultimate Constituents (UCs) → the smallest parts with both sound and meaning
• Binary structure → everything is split into two parts at a time
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📚 Origin
• 💡 Introduced by Leonard Bloomfield (in Language)
• 🛠 Developed further by Eugene Nida (in Morphology. The Descriptive Analysis of Words)
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🔍 Examples
Example 1: Word-level
Word: unhappiness
• Step 1: unhappiness
→ [un- + happiness] = ICs
• Step 2: happiness
→ [happy + -ness] = ICs
• Final UCs: un / happy / ness
These are the smallest meaningful units (morphemes).
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Example 2: Phrase-level
Phrase: old men and women
IC analysis helps clarify structure:
• Does it mean (old men) and (women)?
• Or old (men and women)?
✅ IC analysis shows how meanings change depending on structure:
• (old men) + (and women) → only the men are old
• old + (men and women) → both are old
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🧠 Why It’s Useful in Lexicology
• Helps analyze complex word formations (e.g. compounds, prefixes, suffixes)
• Reveals morphemic structure of a word
• Aids in identifying ambiguity in phrases
• Shows how meaning is built from parts
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🧩 Visual Summary
unhappiness
/ \
un- happiness
/ \
happy -ness
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Would you like practice tasks for IC analysis? 😊
