Учебное пособие в систематизированном виде содержит необходимые для изучения курса лексикологии английского языка вспомогательные материалы: планы семинаров, определения основных понятий и терминов на английском и русском языках, темы курсовых

Semantic motivation is a phenomenon based on the coexistence of direct and figurative meaning within the same synchronous system, ex. foot denotes the part of human body. At the same time it can metaphorically apply to the lowest part of a mountain.
Folk etymology (wrong motivation) is a phenomenon based on the attempts to explain the meaning of the word by associating it with some well- known roots.
Practical Assignment

1. 
   Arrange the word-groups according to the degree of their motivation, starting with the highest.
   

1. 
   gay bird, beautiful bird, blackbird;
   
2. 
   cold wind, cold feet, cold war, cold hands;
   
3. 
   light hand, light burden, light supper, light artillery;
   
4. 
   blue funk (страх), blue skirt, blue stocking, blue fox;
   
5. 
   big cheese, delicious cheese, white cheese, Swiss cheese;
   
6. 
   wicked tongue, smoked tongue, coated tongue;
   
7. 
   big boy, big house, big money, big talk;
   
8. 
   angry tone, high tone, mental tone.
   

2. 
   Find thephonetically motivated words in the following sentences. Identify the source of the sound and point out the meaning of the phonetically motivated word in each case:
   

1. 
   For a moment Penelope felt a strong desire to giggle (L. Kennedy). 2. A university tramcar rumbled past (I. Levin). 3. There was a crash of falling glass (A. Christie). 4. Crickets chirping all night and crows all day - how was a per­son supposed to get any sleep? (J. Smith). 5. The bacon sizzled in the frying pan (Lingvo). 6. And still the computer clicked busily and its lights flashed (I. Asi­mov). 7. I could hear the shouts of children at play and the clip-clop af a trotting horse (A. Marshall).
   

3. 
   What are the following sound clusters associated with?
   

1. 
   Gr- at the beginning of words (groan, growl, grumble) may suggest:
   

1. 
   something pleasant and soft;
   
2. 
   something unpleasant and miserable.
   

2. 
   Gl- at the beginning of words (gleam, glimmer, glossy, glow) may suggest:
   

1. 
   an association with light and brightness;
   
2. 
   an association with darkness.
   

4. 
   Define the way of naming used and the type of motivation in the following lexical units:
   

whisper ‘speak without vibration of vocal chords’, glass ‘glass utensils ornaments, windows, green house(s); glass vessel esp. for drinking’, happiness ‘state of being happy’, twitter ‘utter light tremulous sounds’, recording ‘process of recording, sound, etc. for later reproduction’, horn ‘thing made of horn; drinking vessel, powder-flask, made of horn’, hiccup ‘make involuntary spasms of respiratory organs...’, hidalgo ‘Spanish gentleman’, Labour Day ‘celebrated in honour of workers, esp. 1 May or first Monday in September’, Kremlin ‘citadel within Russian town, esp. that of Moscow’, the Kremlin ‘the Russian Government’.

5. 
   Comment on the so-called folk etymology. Analyze the structure and origin of the following words:
   

sand-blind, shamefaced, sparrow-grass, slow-worm, prim-rose, rosemary, walnut, crayfish, pantry, buttery, reindeer, periwig, Mayday.
It’s interesting to know...
Onomatopoeias are not the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English, di da in Mandarin, or katchin katchin in Japanese.
In the case of a frog croaking, the spelling may vary because different frog species around the world make different sounds: Ancient Greek brekekekex koax koax (only in Aristophanes' comic play The Frogs) for probably marsh frogs; English ribbit for species of frog found in North America; English verb “croak” for the common frog. Related to this is the use of tibbit for the toad.
(see [http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Onomatopoeia] and [http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Sound_symbolism]
In the movie Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo, Tigger lists onomatopoeia as a possible word that Rabbit doesn't allow to be said in his house. Tigger also announces that onomatopoeia is in fact a real word. The irony in this being that “Pooh” got his name from the sound he made when trying to blow a bee off of his nose. (see [http://www.examples-of-onomatopoeia.com/ examples/onomatopoeia.php?b=k])
Theme 5
MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
If the English language made any sense, hackadaisicah would have
something to do with a shortage of flowers.