Branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study. Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’ Lexicon

A semantic field is the extensive organisation of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relations to one another.

The significance of each unit is determined by its neighbours, with the units’ semantic areas reciprocally limiting each other.

The members of the semantic fields are joined together by some common semantic component known as the common denominator of meaning.

‘Human Mind’: mind, reason, cognition, idea, concept, judgment, analysis, conclusion;

A lexico-semantic group is singled out on purely linguistic principles: words are united if they have one or more semantic components in common, but differ in some other semantic components constituting their semantic structures. The

This type of groupings is mostly applied to verbs, e.g.

-verbs of sense perception: to see, to hear, to feel, to taste;

-verbs denoting speech acts: to speak, to talk, to chat, to natter, to mumble, to ramble, to stammer, to converse;

-verbs of motion: to walk, to run, to tiptoe, to stroll, to stagger, to stomp, to swagger, to wander.

26. Dynamics of the English vocabulary. Neologisms: their sources and formation.

Language is never stationary. New words are constantly being formed; living words are constantly changing their meanings, expanding, contracting, gaining or losing caste, taking on mental, moral, or spiritual significance; and old words, though long sanctioned by custom, sometimes wither and die.

An archaism (Gr. archáios ‘ancient’) is a word that was once common but is now replaced by a synonym; it remains in the language, but mostly belong to the poetic style and are used for creating a stylistic effect, e.g.

betwixt, prep. ‘between’;

A historism is a word which denotes a thing that is no longer used; unlike archaisms, they are not replaced by synonyms. Historisms are very numerous as names for social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of the past, e.g. transport means:

brougham /'bru:(ə)m/, n. ‘a horse-drawn carriage with a roof, four wheels, and an open driver's seat in front ’;

A neologism (Gr néos ‘new’ and logos ‘word, study’) is a new lexical unit introduced into a language to denote a new object or phenomenon. The term is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event.

In January 2002 Collins Gem English Pocket Dictionary editorial board have registered 140 neologisms.

Collins Essential English Dictionary (2003) contains 5,500 new words.

The Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1999) includes articles on 2,000 new words and phrases prominent in the media or public eye in the 80s -90s.

While the typical lexical growth areas of the 1980s were the media, computers, finance, money, environment, political correctness, youth culture and music, the 1990s saw significant lexical expansion in the areas of politics, the media and the Internet.