Lectures 1&2 Flashcards
(24 cards)
An area of language study concerned with the nature, meaning, history and use of
words and word elements and also with the critical description of lexicography.
Tom McArthur- about lexicology
The study of the whole structure and history of the vocabulary of a language
Collins English Dictionary- about lexicology
A branch of linguistics that concerned with the meaning and use of words
Longman Concise English Dictionary- about lexicology
The study of the form, meaning and behaviour of words
New Oxford Dictionary of English-about lexicology
The study of the lexis
Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar- about lexicology
LEXIS
A term used especially in British linguistics for the vocabulary of a language; it consists especially of its stock of lexemes
LEXICON
A term used especially in American linguistics for the vocabulary of a language; it consists of its stock of lexemes
is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words; the study of the structure of words
Morphology
Syntax
the study of the arrangement of words in phrases, clauses, sentences
Morpheme
A minimal unit of form and meaning;
the smallest meaningful unit of language;
it is the smallest because it cannot be divided into smaller units; it is meaningful because it shows that there is a relationship between the morpheme and the non-linguistic world
Morphemes can be:
free [e.g. dog, boy, cat, sing, read] – they can occur s individual words
bound [-er, -ing, -s, plural] – they can occur only with free morphemes
Morph
is a concrete/actual/physical realization of a morpheme in a given utterance (dog, cat, read, sing, -ing, -er are all morphs).
Do not confuse morphs with syllables. Morphs are realizations of morphemes and
represent a specific meaning; syllables are parts of words which are isolated on the basis of pronunciation.
Etymology
- refers to the historically verifiable sources of the formation of a word and the development of its meaning;
- etymology is defined as the study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin.
- The term was coined by the Stoics, a group of Greek philosophers and logicians, 4th c. BC.
Etymon
– the earliest traceable form from which a later word is derived
- e.g. rex/regis (king) is the Latin etymon of English regal, while the Indo-European verbal root reg- (to move in a straight line, lead, rule) is the etymon of rex/regis
- the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning
2. a branch of semiotics dealing with the relation between signs and the objects they refer to.
Longman Concise English Dictionary- about semantics
- the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes of
meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between words and their meanings. - the study of the relationship between signs and symbols what they represent.
Collins English Dictionary- about semantics
-the study or analysis of the relationships between linguistic forms
and meaning.
- is defined as the study of meaning. Its aim is to explain and describe meaning.
-The term is a borrowing of the French term la Semantique (M. Breal, 1883).
Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar- about semantics
the principles of the editing of a dictionary – making of dictionaries
Longman Concise E. Dictionary- about lexicography
- the process of writing/compiling a dictionary – making of dictionaries
- The term refers to a special technique, the writing and compilation of dictionaries, the process of compiling dictionaries.
- may be seen as derived from lexicological theory, so lexicography is ‘applied lexicology’.
- Lexicology, morphology, syntax, phonology and sociolinguistics are essential
Collins English Dictionary- about lexicography
Syntax:
- deals with the arrangement of words in sentences; it is basic to language study; it is accountable for the manner/way in which we understand sentences;
- Syntax is basic to language study; it deals with general facts about language;
- it deals with rules that apply to classes of words as a whole.
- Lexicology deals with the way in which individual words function.
Morpheme - According to Bloomfield:
+E.g. ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’
- The morpheme is the unit of morphology
- Language is analyzed as an arrangement of data.
- Language consists of minimal units of form and meaning
E.g. ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
- This is an eight-word sentence.
- It consists of 11 morphemes: [boy, -s, and, girl, -s, were, sing, -ing, in, the, rain]
Morpheme- According to Vendryes:
+E.g.: ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
Language is analyzed as units of:
a. grammatical meaning (morphemes)
b. lexical meaning (lexemes)
E.g.: ‘Boys and girls were singing in the rain’.
- This is an eight-word sentence.
- It consists of: 5 lexemes (upper-case items) + 7 morphemes (lower-case items)
BOY + -s + and + GIRL + -s + BE + past + SING + -ing + in + the + RAIN
Folk Etymology
– process where speakers cannot analyze an old, ancient form, so they replace it with a different form
• example of F.E.: bridegroom – in Middle English the spelling was ‘bridegome’; the form ‘gome’ ceased to be unuderstood and was altered to the word ‘groom’
• adder (=reptila) – Old Eng: ‘noedre’; Middle Eng: ‘a naddre’ => the word was altered to ‘an adder’
Phonology
the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages
