1-variant 1The subject matters of Lexicology

2-VARIANT

1.Types of lexicology.

There are 5 types of lexicology: 1) general; 2) special; 3) descriptive; 4) historical; 5) comparative. General lexicology is a part of general linguistics which studies the general properties of words, the specific features of words of any particular language. It studies the pecularities of words common to all the languages. General lexicology attemptas to find out the universals of vocabulary development and patterns.Linguistic pheenomena and properties common to all languages are generally called language universals. Special lexicology deals with the words of a definite language. Descripitive lexicology studies the words at a synchronic aspect. It is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as they exist at the present time. Historical or diachronic lexicology deals with the development of the vocabulary and the changes it has undergone. Ex. In dsecriptive lexicology the words “ to take “ ,“to adopt “ are considered as being English not differing from such native words as “ child ”,” foot “,” stone “ etc.But in historical lexicology they are treated as borrowed words. Comparative lexicology deals with the properties of the vocabulary of two or more languages. In comparative lexicology the main characteristic features of the words of two or more languages are compared. Ex .Russian-English lexicology, English- Friench lexicology and etc. Lexicology is closely connected with other aspects of the language: grammar, phonetics,the history of the language and stylistics.

2.Distributional analysis of words.

Distributional analysis is widely used in wordformation. The analysis of the derivational pattern N+ish-adj. showa that the suffix - “ish” is never combined with noun stems denoying time, space. It is impossible to say hourish, mileish. Many adjectives in - “ish” are formed noun+stems denoting living beings, ex. wolfish, boyish, girlish. So the distribution may be viewed as the place of words in relation to other words on the level of semantic classes and sub-classes. The distributional meanings by co-occurrence may be extra-linguistic or linguistic components of meaning.

Good doctor - who treats well

Good mother - who takes care of her children well.

Here the meaning of the adjective “good” is different and it is the extra- linguistic factors that account for the difference in meaning. The linguistic components of distributional meaning can be found when we compare correlated words in different languages.

3.The subject matter of Phraseology.

Functionally and semantically inseparable units are usually called phraseological units. Phraseological units cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready made units. The lexical components in phraseological units are stable and they are non-motivated i.e. its meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of its components and they do not allow their lexical components to be changed or substituted. In phraseological units the individual components do not seem to possess any lexical meaning outside the word group.