1-variant 1The subject matters of Lexicology

2....The extension and the restriction of meaning words. The result of semantic change can be observed in:  1) restriction (or narrowing) of meaning. Restriction of meaning is the capacity of a word to narrow its meaning in the course of historical development; 2) extention(orwidening)ofmeaning.  It  is  the  expantion  of  polymemy  in  the  course  of  its  historical development, i. e. it is the widening of meaning. Ex. The word “fowl” meant in old English “any bird” but in modern English it denotes “ a domestic hen or cock,- old meaning of “affiction” was -any feeling, new meaning is a felling of love. The word “juke” originally meant sailor’swordmeaning“oldrope”.Now itmeans“rubbishuseless  stuff”.  This  is  an  example  of  extention  of  meaning.  The  word  “meat” originally meant “food” now it means one special type of food. This is an example of narrowing of meaning. As a result of change of meaning o word may get a new meaning which will be broader or more generalized than the old one. Ex. season. The old meaning of the word “season” was “spring”. The new meaning is any part of the year. Here is another example. The old meaning of  “to bootleg” was to sell alcocholic drinks illegally” New meaning is “ to sell anothing illegally”. 

3...Conversion is a very productive way of forming new words, chiefly verbs and not so offen-nouns.  This type of word formation presents one of the characteristic features of Modern English. By conversion we mean derivation of a new word from the stem of a different part of speech without the addition of any formatives.  As  a  result  the  two  words  are  homonymous,  having  the  same morphological structure and belonging to different parts of speech.Verbs may be derived from the stem of almost any part of speech, but the commonest is the derivation from noun stems as: (a) tube- (to) tube; (a) doctor- (to) doctor; (a)face- (to) face; (a) waltz- (to) waltz; (a) star -(to) star; from compound noun  stems  as:      (a)  buttonhole  -  (to)  buttonhole;  week-end  -  (to)  week-end. Derivations from the stems of other parts of speech are less common: wrong - (to) wrong; up - (to) up; down - (to) down; encore - (to) encore. Nouns are usually derived from verb stems and may be instanced by such nouns as: (to) make - a make; (to) cut - (a) cut; to bite - (a) bite, (to) drive - (a) drive; to smoke - (a) smoke; (to) walk - (a) walk.  Such  formations  frequently  make  part  of  verb  -  noun combinations as: to take a walk, to have a smoke , to have a drink, to take a drive, to take a bite, to give a smile and others.

27-VARIANT

  1.Semasiology and its-subject matter. Semasiology is concerned with the meaning of words, studies the types of meaning the change of meaning, the semantic structure of words, semantic groupings, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms etc. There is no generally accepted definition of the term “meaning of the word”.F. de Saussure, a well-known Swiss linguist, says that the meaning is the relation between the object or nation named and the name itself.L.

Bloomfield, a well-known American linguist, points out that the meaning is the situation in which the word is uttered. The siyuations prompt people to utter speech.

Ex. if we want to know the meaning of the word “apple” we must make a situation for it.

Our Soviet linguists say that the meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system (by a linguistic sing).So the term “meaning” is a subject of discussion among the linguists. There are two main approaches to the study of the meaning of a word.

1) referential approach, 2) functional approach.