Introducing English Linguistics

lexical semantics and deixis. Lexical semantics is con-
cerned with the overall meaning of words. Deixis concerns
the ability of words not only to have meaning but to “point.” 
Deixis:
referential/
spatial/temporal
Derivational/
inflectional affix
Lexical
decomposition
Lexical semantics
Lexicography
Morpheme 
Semantic
relations
Synonymy/
antonymy/
hyponymy
Word formation
processes
KEY TERMS
CHAPTER PREVIEW

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Words, like sentences and clauses, have a predictable internal structure.
The plural marker on nouns, for instance, occurs at the end of a word (e.g.
law
s), while what are known as 
derivational affixes
can occur at either
the beginning or the end of a word (e.g. 
un
lawful). But the similarity
between words and sentences and clauses goes beyond the fact that both
have structure. As Sinclair (1991) argues, very often the use of a particular
word evokes a whole series of other words. To describe this feature of lan-
guage, Sinclair (1991: 110) proposes the idiom principle, the idea “that a
language user has available to him or her a large number of semi-
constructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they
might appear to be analysable into segments.” For instance, Sinclair (1991:
75–6) comments that the phrasal verb set about is typically followed by an
-ing participle taking an object and preceded by some structure expressing
“uncertainty.” In the example below, set about is preceded by the conces-
sive conjunction although and followed by the -ing participle creating:
And although she does set about the task of creating a new life for her-
self and for her children, that task is complicated by failing health and
persistent pursuit from those who claim her as their property.
(CIC)
In the next example, a contrast between clauses is marked by Instead, with
the -ing participle making following set about:
Instead
of constructing a geometrical and ideal entity for study that
would never leave the bounds of the mind, he had set about making, on
the basis of an inner and rational design, a thing that would exist out-
side of the mind.
(CIC)
Sinclair (1991) was interested in studying co-occurring patterns of
words, or collocations, within the context of work he was doing with the
Cobuild Project at Birmingham University, a project conducted in collab-
oration with Collins Publishers with the purpose of producing reference
books, including dictionaries. The creation of dictionaries falls within
the province of lexical semantics, an area of linguistics concerned with
the study of the meaning of individual words. Because dictionaries are
intended as reference guides, they do not provide theoretical statements
about the nature of lexical meaning. However, lexicographers, those who
create dictionaries, have developed methodologies for discovering the
meanings of words and most effectively presenting these meanings to
users of dictionaries.
Lexical semantics has also been extensively studied within linguistics
proper. For instance, one way to describe the meanings of words in a more
general sense is to categorize the various relationships existing between
them: words with similar or identical meanings are considered