LEXIKOLOGIE A FRAZEOLOGIE English Lexicology and Phraseology 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • LEXICOLOGY - Greek roots (dictionary + discourse) - part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of a language (lexicon) and the properties of words as the main units of language 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • BRANCHES OF LEXICOLOGY General deals with general problems, general study of words, irrespective of a particular language Special describes the vocabulary/lexical aspects of a given language Historical studies the evolution of vocabulary Synchronic deals with the structure of vocabulary, properties and functions of words of the current period (descriptive) Other approaches to the classification of lexicology: contrastive, confrontational, etc. 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • LEXICON all the words that are used in a particular language are called the lexis, lexicon or word stock • Size of lexicon: cca 450,000 in M-W lemmas to cca 500,000 in OED entries • Single individual uses personal lexicon: active passive • Core of the language = the central vocabulary (cca 15,000 items) 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • LEXICOGRAPHY - Gr. Dictionary + to write - the art and science of dictionary creation - a basic term: a lexical item (not ‘a word‘) • DICTIONARY words arranged in alphabetical order • THESAURUS words that are similar in meaning are grouped together 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • DICTIONARY the headword – lemma pronunciation word class (part of speech) etymology definition citations (examples of its use) 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • LEMMA = the base form under which the word is entered and assigned its place (e.g. take); other forms, if predictable (regular), may not be entered; an irregular form may appear as a separate lemma with cross reference • PRONUNCIATION = indicated in a phonemic transcription • WORD CLASS = is one of the primary word classes (e.g. verb) with possible subclass (e.g. transitive verb) • ETYMOLOGY = the earliest known form and the language of origin (e.g. Old English); may indicate the cognates (i.e. words with a common origin) • DEFINITION = description and/or synonymy; may include words that are more difficult than the defined lemma • CITATIONS = show how the word is used in context; there may be fixed expressions (idioms) included 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS • THESAURUS - Peter Mark Roget – a pioneer of the language thesaurus - no separate entry for each word - words occur as a part of a list - final layer in a lexical taxonomy, i.e. organization of words into classes and sub classes based on their meaning (semantic relationship) - provides a systematic offer of a particular semantic field 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS BASIC SEMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS WHEN WORKING WITH A THESAURUS: • HYPONYMY = the semantic relation of being subordinate or belonging to a lower rank or class (horse – animal) co-hyponyms – two words in the same rank (cat, mouse – animal) • HYPERONYMY= being superordinate or belonging to a higher rank or class (animal – horse) • MERONYMY = the semantic relationship of being a part of sth. (tree – forest) • HOLONYMY = converse of meronymy, whole-to-part (apple tree – apple) 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS BASIC LEXICOLOGICAL NOTIONS: • Lexeme – bearer of meaning/lexical item covers more than just a single word e.g. nut (food, engineering, enthusiastic, head, …) • Sememe - is the meaning of the lexeme emotional, denotative, referential, cognitive, aesthetic, etc. 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS Words can have: a) DENOTATIVE MEANING an objective link between a lexeme and the reality (dog = canine, quadruped) b) CONNOTATIVE MEANING equivalent of the emotional aspect, represents the personal dimension of the lexical meaning (dog = helper, friend, faithful) LOADED LEXEME – highly charged with connotations LOADED LANGUAGE – e.g. the usage of colours in the language (red = confident, assertive, exciting, aggressive, bossy, threatening; pink = feminine, gentle, safe; blue = peaceful, trustworthy, constant) 1 GENERAL CONCEPTS LEXICAL STRUCTURE (Ferdinand de Saussure) Analyses words from the angle of two dimensions: A) HORIZONTAL dimension the relationship between lexemes in a sequence, i.e. we know intuitively which words occur together (syntagmatic level/sequence) B) VERTICAL dimension one lexeme can be substituted by another (paradigmatic level/substitution)