COURSE IN ENGLISH
LEXICOLOGY
COURSE LITERATURE
• Верба Л.Г. Порівняльна лексикологія англійської та української мови. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2003
• Korunets I. Сontrastive Typology of the English and Ukrainian Languages. – Vinnytsya: Nova Knyha
Publishers, 2003, pp. 118-178
• Арбекова Т. Пракический курс лексикологии английского языка. – М.: Просвещение, 1981
• Minayeva L.V. English Lexicology and Lexicography. – M.: Астрель, 2007
WORD-FORMATION
WORD-FORMATON is
a branch of linguistics
that is major in
studying the formal
structure of the word,
its components and
their meanings
WHAT IS MORPHEME?
a minimal formal word
component bases on the
MORPHEME is association of the given
meaning with a given sound
pattern
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
MORPHEME
STEM
WHAT IS ROOT?
ROOT is
a semantic nucleus of a word with
which no grammatical properties of this
word are connected.
WHAT IS STEM?
STEM is
a part of word that remains
unchanged throughout its
paradigm and to which the
grammatical inflections and affixes
are added.
E.g. boy-boys-boyish-boyhood;
happy-happiness, happy-unhappy-unhappiness
drama-dramatic-dramatical-nondramaticnondramatical-dramatism
WHAT IS AFFIX?
AFFIX is
a minimal word component that possesses its own
lexical and grammatical meaning that gives the
extra-semantical components to the word and
determines its grammatical properties.
E.g. poet-poetess, waiter-waitress, do-does, pretty-prettier-prettiest, makeremake-unmake
TYPES OF AFFIXES
Affixes
prefix
a derivational morpheme
standing before the root and
modifying its meaning
suffix
a derivational morpheme following
the stem and forming a new
derivative in a different part of speech
infix
an affix placed within the word
WAYS OF WORD-FORMATION
Composition
Shortening
Blending
Onomatopoeia
Reduplication
type of word-formation in
which the word is combined
by two or more stems.
Closed:
mirk+wood=mirkwood
note+book=notebook
Hyphenated: six-year-old,
mother-in-law
Open: post office, prosecutor
general, middle class
the syllable or part of
the original word is
omitted.
a combination of two words
that includes the letters or
sounds they have in
common as a linking
element.
Forming words by
imitating different
kinds of sounds that
may be produced by
things or living beings.
Formation of the new
words by doubling the
same stem.
There also can be change
of vowels and
consonants.
oil+billionaire=oilonaire
melody+drama=melodrama
motor+hotel=motel
Hush, bark, pee-wee,
om-nom, quack
omnibus – bus, are
not – aren’t
vegetarian - veg
Hush-hush, blah-blah,
criss-cross, hurdy-gurdy,
see-saw.
WAYS OF WORD-FORMATION (CONT.)
Acronymy
Reversion (BackFormation)
Conversion
Substantivation
Etymological
Doublets
a method to form a word
by the first letters of the
significant components
in a word-combination.
derivation of new words
by subtracting a real or
supposed affix from
existing words through
misinterpretation of their
structure.
process that assigns an
already existing word to
a new word class (part of
speech)
or syntactic category.
A process of transferring
the adjective into a
category of a noun.
two or more words of
the same language which
were derived by different
routes from the same
basic word.
E.g. North Atlantic Treaty
Organization - NATO
E.g. orator - -er> orate,
lecher + -er> lech,
peddler + -er> peddle,
escalator + -er> escalate,
editor + -er> edit,
swindle + -er> swindle,
sculptor + -er> sculpt,
hawker + -er> hawk.
E.g.
Henry downed a pint of
beer.
Melissa went to town
and did a buy
E.g. a private, the
private’s uniform, a
group of privates; the
rich, the poor, the
injured, captive,
conservative, criminal,
female, fugitive, grownup, intellectual, male,
mild, native, neutral,
radical, red, relative
E.g. hole-whole,
cloack-clock,
grammar-glamour
WHAT IS POLYSEMY?
a co-existence of various
meanings of the same word at
POLYSEMY is
a certain historical period of
the language development.
HOW DOES POLYSEMY DEVELOP?
• 1. RADIATION is a semantic process in which in a group of meanings one is central and the others
proceed put of it.
• 2. CONCATENATION is a semantic process when the meanings or some of them move away from their
first meaning.
• 3. SPLIT OF POLYSEMY is a process when a new meaning looses all its connections with all the other
meanings and starts its independent existence.
WHAT IS HOMONIMY?
• HOMONIMY is a phenomenon
at which the words of the
same or close pronunciation
and different spelling have
different meanings.
• Such words are called
homonyms.
accept-except, aisle-isle, giltguilt, mail-male
WHAT ARE HOMOPHONES?
HOMOPHONES are the
words of the same sound,
yet they have different
spelling.
for-four-fore, feet-feat,
beat-beet, ate-eight,
sail-sale, right-write,
ant-aunt, see-sea
WHAT ARE HOMOGRAPHS?
axes - the plural of ax or axe/the plural
of axis
HOMOGRAPHS are the
words written in the similar
manner but with different
sound and meaning.
desert - a hot, arid region/to leave or a
tasty meal at the end of the course
does - female deer (plural)/present,
third person singular form of the verb
“do”
wind - to turn/moving air
wound - turned/an injury
WHAT IS SYNONYMY?
• SYNONOMY is a relation of several words
different in sound and morphemic
components but identical within a part of
the speech and lexical meaning.
• Such words are called synonyms.
• They create a synonymic group where the
words can be distinguished by connotation,
shades of meaning and idiomatic use.
• Synonymic dominant is a dominant
element of each synonymic group
containing the specific features rendered
by all the other members of this group.
Beautiful – fine-pretty-nice-coolgorgeous-handsome
Dark – darkness-shadow-gloommirk (murk)-obscuration
Calculate – compute-reckonestimate
TYPES OF SYNONYMS
• Ideographic (the same notion with different shades of meaning)
Ascent – to mount – to climb
Happen – to occur – to befall – to chance
Look – appearance – complexion – countenance
• Stylistic (words of different stylistic features)
Child-infant-kid
Die-to kick the bucket
• Contextual (words similar in meaning only under some specific conditions)
clever
bright
brainy
intelligent
Only speaking
Is not used by the
about younger
Positive
neutral
higher educated
people by older
connotation
people
people
Dever-clever
Stylistically
remarked
TYPES OF SYNONYMS (CONT.)
• Local (words that do not differ either ideographically of stylistically but are used
in different regions or countries speaking the same language)
Lift – elevator
Queue – line
Autumn – fall
• Total (words that coincide in all the shades of meaning and in their stylistic
features, may replace each other in different contexts)
Total-absolute
WHAT IS ANTONYMY?
• ANTONYMY is a relation
between pair of words based
upon opposing their lexical
meaning.
• Such words are called
antonyms
• They create antonymic pairs.
• Beautiful-ugly
• Good-bad
• Accurate-approximate
• Create-destroy
TYPES OF ANTONYMS
• Gradable (represent rather more-or-less relations):
hot-cold, fast-slow, increase-decrease
• Complementary (if you are one, you cannot be
another ): live-dead, legal-illegal, beginning-end
• Converse (relationship between two or more things):
above-below, before-after, buy-sell, lend-borrow
WHAT IS HYPONYMY?
• HYPONYMY is a relationship of
inclusion of some words in a group
of similar words.
• HYPERNIM is a major word of this
group identifying a general class
• HYPERONYM is a word included to
the group of words with the
identical specific meaning
• FLOWER – daisy, poppy, tulip,
forget-me-not
WHAT IS PHRASEOLOGY?
• 1. a branch of linguistics
that deals with studying
the phraseological units
• 2. a whole set of the
phraseological units in the
language
WHAT IS PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT?
a word-combination
with its own fixed
lexical meaning that
PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT is
hardly can be judged
by its individual
components.
TYPES OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
• Idiom (a group of words the meaning of which is difficult or impossible to understand from knowing the words
considered separately): as easy as a pie, to crown it all, lame duck, red tape, bed of nail
• Set expression (a group of words characterized by their stability, fixed and ready-made nature): at the beginning,
at the end, get to the point
• Semi-fixed combinations (groups of words permitting a certain substitution of their elements): to go to the
(cinema, theatre etc.), give a lift (ride)
• Free phrases (group of words permitting substitution of any of its elements without semantic change in the other
element or elements): She was not managing to cut much of a figure = to cut a poor figure (to be inimportant)
• Phraseological fusion (word combinations in which the meaning of components is completely absorbed by the
meaning of the whole by its expressiveness or emotional background): tit for tat, to and fro, apples and oranges,
under the rose, once in a blue moon
• Phraseological unity (word combinations the emotional quality of which is based on the image created by the
whole; may be easily translated and allow certain substitutions) to know the way where the wind is blowing, to
stick to smb.’s guns, as dead as a doornail, to beat blue and green (to beat black and blue), to come to one’s sense,
to fall into rage
TYPES OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS (CONT)
• Phraseological combinations (word groups containing one component used in its direct meaning while
the other is used figuratively): to make an attempt, to make haste to offer an apology
• Proverbs (a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing a popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson
in a concise and imaginative way): East or West home is best. The dog barks, the caravan goes. A road to
hell is paved with good intensions.
• Cliches (phrases that have lost their original expressiveness and became state): in terms of, under
conditions that, best regards, avoid like plague, age before beauty, Pandora’s box