Lexicology of the English Language

b) before fricatives and combinations of fricatives with consonants «a« is pronounced as / /, e.g. dance, answer, class, fast.
The pronunciation of some consonants is also changed : a) after a vowel /r/ is pronounced ,e.g. /ka:r/ , /ha:rt/. b)There appears an intrusive /r/ in the combinations where after the final vowel / / there is a vowel at the beginning of the next word, e.g. the idea of, Asia and Europe/ on the analogy with word combinations there is, there are/. c) /p/ and /t/ are glotalized in the middle of the word,e.g. matter is pronounced as /`m ? /, happy as /`h ? i/. d) /s/ is used instead of /sh/ before /i/ in the structure of suffixes, e.g. social /`sousi l/, negotiate / ni`gousi,eit/; e) /l/ is vocalized at the end of the word, e.g. full/ ful/( close to
/v/ in sound). f) /sh/ is voiced in the intervocal position in some geographical names, e.g . «Asia», «Persia»; g) combinations of sounds /dj/, /tj/ , /sj/ in such words as duke, tube, issue have two variants of pronunciation: /d3u:k/ and /dju:k/, /chu:b/ and
/tju:b/, /`ishu:/ and /`isju:/; g) pronunciation approaching spelling is being developed, e.g. often
/`oftn/, forehead / fo:`hed/ etc; h) /t/ and/d/ at the end of words are not pronounced, e.g. «half past five’ /`ha:f `pa:s`faiv/, «old man» /`oul `m n/.

LEXICOGRAPHY

The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicography. The history of compiling dictionaries for English comes as far back as the Old English period, where we can find glosses of religious books / interlinear translations from Latin into English/. Regular bilingual dictionaries began to appear in the 15-th century /Anglo-Latin, Anglo-French , Anglo-German/.
The first unilingual dictionary explaining difficult words appeared in
1604, the author was Robert Cawdry, a schoolmaster. He compiled his dictionary for schoolchildren. In 1721 an English scientist and writer
Nathan Bailey published the first etymological dictionary which explained the origin of English words. It was the first scientific dictionary, it was compiled for philologists.
In 1775 an English scientist compiled a famous explanatory dictionary.
Its author was Samuel Johnson. Every word in his dictionary was illustrated by examples from English literature, the meanings of words were clear from the contexts in which they were used.. The dictionary was a great success and it influenced the development of lexicography in all countries. The dictionary influenced normalization of the English vocabulary. But at the same time it helped to preserve the English spelling in its conservative form.
In 1858 one of the members of the English philological society Dr.
Trench raised the question of compiling a dictionary including all the words existing in the language. The

philological society adopted the decision to compile the dictionary and the work started. More than a thousand people took part in collecting examples, and 26 years later in 1884 the first volume was published. It contained words beginning with «A» and «B». The last volume was published in 1928 that is 70 years after the decision to compile it was adopted. The dictionary was called NED and contained 12 volumes.
In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford
English Dictionary», because the work on the dictionary was conducted in
Oxford. This dictionary contained 13 volumes. As the dictionary was very large and terribly expensive scientists continued their work and compiled shorter editions of the dictionary: «A Shorter Oxford Dictionary» consisting of two volumes. It had the same number of entries, but far less examples from literature. They also compiled «A Concise Oxford Dictionary» consisting of one volume and including only modern words and no examples from literature.
The American lexicography began to develop much later, at the end of the
18-th century. The most famous American English dictionary was compiled by
Noah Webster. He was an active stateman and public man and he published his first dictionary in 1806. He went on with his work on the dictionary and in
1828 he published a two-volume dictionary. He tried to simplify the English spelling and transcription. He introduced the alphabetical system of transcription where he used letters and combinations of letters instead of transcription signs. He denoted vowels in closed syllables by the corresponding vowels, e.g. / a/, /e/, / i/, / o/, /u/. He denoted vowels in the open syllable by the same letters, but with a dash above them,e.g.
/ a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. He denoted vowels in the position before /r/ as the same letters with two dots above them, e.g. / a/, /o/ and by the l etter «e» with two dots above it for the combinations «er», «ir», «ur» because they are pronounced identically. The same tendency is preserved for other sounds : /u:/ is denoted by /oo/, /y/ is used for the sound /j/ etc.

Classification of dictionaries
All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries. Encyclopedic dictionaries describe different objects, phenomena, people and give some data about them. Linguistic dictionaries describe vocabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin, their usage. Words are usually given in the alphabetical order.
Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized . To general dictionries two most widely used dictionaries belong: explanatory and translation dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, collocations, word-frequency, neologisms, slang, pronouncing, etymological, phraseological and others.
All types of dictionaries can be unilingual ( excepting translation ones) if the explanation is given in the same language, bilingual if the explanation is given in another language and also they can be polilingual.
There are a lot of explanatory dictionaries (NED, SOD, COD, NID, N.G.
Wyld’s «Universal Dictionary» and others). In explanatory dictionaries the entry consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings, examples, phraseology. Pronunciation is given either by means of the
International Transcription System or in British Phonetic Notation which is different in each large dictionary, e.g. /o:/ can be indicated as / aw/,
/or/, /oh/, /o/. etc.
Translation dictionaries give words and their equivalents in the other language. There are English-Russian dictionaries by I.R. Galperin, by
Y.Apresyan and others. Among general dictionaries we can also mention
Learner’s dictionaries. They began to appear in the second half of the 20- th century. The most famous is «The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary» by A.S.
Hornby. It is a unilingual dictionary based on COD, for advanced foreign learners and language teachers. It gives data about grammatical and lexical valency of words. Specialized dictionaries of synonyms are also widely used, one of them is «A Dictionary of English Synonyms and Synonymous
Expressions» by R.Soule. Another famous one is «Webster’s Dictionary of
Synonyms». These are unilingual dictionaries. The best known bilingual dictionary of synonyms is «English Synonyms» compiled by Y. Apresyan.
In 1981 «The Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English» was compiled, where words are given in 14 semantic groups of everyday nature. Each word is defined in detail, its usage is explained and illustrated, synonyms, antonyms are presented also. It describes 15000 items, and can be referred to dictionaries of synonyms and to explanatory dictionaries.
Phraseological dictionaries describe idioms and colloquial phrases, proverbs. Some of them have examples from literature. Some lexicographers include not only word-groups but also anomalies among words. In «The Oxford
Dicionary of English Proverbs» each proverb is illustrated by a lot of examples, there are stylistic references as well. The dictionary by
Vizetelli gives definitions and illustrations, but different meanings of polisemantic units are not given. The most famous bilingual dictionary of phraseology was compiled by A.V. Koonin. It is one of the best phraseological dictionaries.
Etymological dictionaries trace present-day words to the oldest forms of these words and forms of these words in other languages. One of the best etymological dictionaries was compiled by W. Skeat.
Pronouncing dictionaries record only pronunciation. The most famous is D.
Jones’ s «Pronouncing Dictionary».
Dictionaries of neologisms are : a four-volume «Supplement to NED» by
Burchfield, «The Longman Register of New Words»/1990/, «Bloomsury
Dictionary of New Words» /1996/.

SEMINARS

Seminar 1

Language units.
The smallest language unit.
The function of a root morpheme.
The main function of suffixes.
The secondary function of suffixes.
The main function of prefixes.
The secondary function of prefixes.
Splinters and their formation in English.
The difference between affixes and splinters.
Structural types of words in English.
The stem of a word and the difference beween a simple word, a stem and a root.
The difference between a block compound and a nominal benomial.
The difference between a word and a phraseological unit.
The similarity between a word and a phraseological unit.

Analyze the following lexical units according to their structure. Point out the function of morphemes. Speak about bound morphemes and free morphemes. Point out allomorphs in analyzed words: accompany unsystematic forget-me-not computerise expressionless reservation de-restrict superprivileged moisture lengthen clannish pleasure beautify workaholic reconstruction beflower inwardly counterculture specialise moneywise three-cornered round table Green Berets to sandwich in

Seminar 2.

Affixation.
Classification of suffixes according to the part of speech they form.
Classification of suffixes according to the stem they are added to.
Classification of suffixes according to their meaning.
Classification of suffixes according to their productivity.
Classification of suffixes according to their origin.
Classification of prefixes according to their meaning.
Classification of prefixes according to their origin.
Classification of prefixes according to their productivity.

Analyze the following derived words, point out suffixes and prefixes and classify them from different points of view:

to embed nourishment unsystematic to encourage inwardly to accompany translatorese dispensable clannishness to de-restrict workaholic jet-wise reconstruction to overreach thouroughly afterthought foundation childishness transgressor to re-write completenik gangsterdom pleasure concentration refusenik counter-culture brinkmanship allusion self-criticism to computerise slimster reservation translation

Seminar 3

Compound words.
Characteristic features of compound words in different languages.
Characteristic features of English compounds.
Classification of compound words according to their structure.
Classification of compound words according to the joining element.
Classification of compound words according to the parts of speech.
Classification of compound words according to the semantic relations between the components.
Ways of forming compound words.

Analyze the following compound words:

note-book speedometer son-in-law to job-hop brain-gain video-corder

fair-haired forget-me-not Anglo-Russian teach-in back-grounder biblio-klept theatre-goer well-dressed bio-engineer to book-hunt mini-term to baby-sit blood-thirsty good-for-nothing throw-away do-gooder skin-head kleptomania sportsman para-trooper airbus bus-napper cease-fire three- cornered tip-top brain-drain bread-and- butter
Compare the strucure of the following words:

demagougery tablewards heliport tobbacoless money-wise non-formal booketeria go-go motel counter-clockwise to frontpage productivity giver-away newly-created nobody

Seminar 4.

Conversion.

Conversion as a way of wordbuilding.
Different points of view on the nature of conversion.
Semantic groups of verbs which can be converted from nouns.
The meanings of verbs converted from adjectives.
Semantic groups of nouns which can be converted from verbs.
Substantivised adjectives.
Characteristic features of combinations of the type «stone wall».
Semantic groups of combinations of this type.

Analyze the following lexical units:

to eye a find to slim a grown-up to airmail steel helmet
London season resit sleep a flirt a read handout to weekend a build-up supersonics a non-formal to wireless to submarine to blue-pencil to blind - the blind - blinds distrust a jerk to radio news have-nots the
English to co-author to water to winter a sit-down mother-in-law morning star undesirables a walk a find dislike log cabin finals

Seminar 5.

Shortenings and abbreviations.

Lexical and graphical abbreviations,the main differences between them.
Types of graphical abbreviations.
Types of initias, peculiarities of their pronunciation.
Lexical shortenings of words, their reference to styles.
Compound-shortened words, their structural types.

Analyze the following lexical units:

aggro /aggression/ Algol / algorythmic language/ apex /eipeks/ - advanced purchased excursion/ payment for an excursion ninety days before the time of excursion/
A-day /announcement Day - day of announcing war/
AID / artifitial insemination by a donor/
AIDS / acquired immunity deficiency syndrome/
Ala / Alabama/ a.s.a.p. /as soon as possible/ bar-B-Q ,barb /barbecue/ to baby-sit / baby-sitter/
A-level /advanced level/ BC /birth certificate/ burger /hamberger/ Camford, Oxbridge
CALL /computer-assisted language learning/
CAT /computer-assisted training/ cauli / cauliflower/ COD / cash on delivery/
COBOL / k ubol/ /common business-oriented language/ co- ed comp /komp, k mp/ /accompaniment/
DINKY /double income ,no kids yet/
E-Day /entrance day //Common Market/ expo/exposition/ edbiz/ educational business/ el-hi / elementary and high schools/, ex lib/ex libris/ /from the library of/ etc Euratom fax /facsimile/
G-7 / group of seven: GB, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, Spain/.

FORTRAN /formula translation/.

Seminar 6.

Phraseological units.

Ways of forming phraseological units.
Semantic classification of phraseological units.
Structural classification of phraseological units.
Syntactical classification of phraseological units.

Analyze the following phraseological units according to their meaning, structure, syntactical function and the way they are formed:

When pigs fly /never/. To leap into marriage.
To be a whipping boy. To be behind scenes.
Girl Friday /a man’s assistant/. Fire in the belly.
Man Friday /a true friend/. A dear John.
To be on the beam. Game, set and match.
Country and western. To jump out of one’s skin.
As smart as paint. It’s my cup of tea.
Robin Crusoe and Friday / seats at a theatre divided by a passage/.
Fortune favours fools. To be in the dog house.
The green power. Green Berets.
Culture vulture. To get off one’s back.
To make headlines. On the nose.
With a bump. To have a short fuse.
To vote with one’s feet. Nuts and bolts.
Blackboard jungle. The sky is the limit.
Cash and carry. To nose out.
To sandwich in. Berlin wall.

A close mouth catches no flies. To speak BBB.

To sound like a computer. As dull as lead.
Last but not least. On the stroke of.

Seminar 7.

Phraseological units.

Students choose ten phraseological units from Koonin’s dictionary of phraseological units and a unilingual dictionary of idioms and analyze them in the written form. During the seminar they analyze their phrasological units chosen from dictionaries at the blackboard.

Seminar 8.

Borrowings.

Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they were borrowed:
Latin borrowings.
French borrowings.
Italian borrowings.
Scandinavian borrowings.
German borrowings.
Russian borrowings.
Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect: phonetic borrowings, semantic borrowings, translation loans, morphemeic borrowings, hybrids.
Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation: fully assimilated borrowings, partly assimilated borrowings, barbarisms.
Borrowings partly assimilated semantically, grammatically, phonetically and graphically.

Analyze the following borrowings:

school represent sky-blue degree rhythm immobility chandelier the Zoo vase mot /mou/ hybrid bouffant illuminate keenly communicative possessiveness to reproach command moustache gifted boutique skipper cache-pot well-scrubbed nouveau riche emphatic mysteriously dactyl Nicholas group to possess chenile psychological garage guarantee contempt trait/trei/ triumph stomach sympathy cynical Philipp schoolboy Christianity paralyzed system hotel cyclic diphtheria kerchief dark-skinned.

Seminar 9

Semaciology.

Word and notion.
Lexical meaning and notion.
Polysemy.
Homonyms.
Synonyms.
Antonyms.
Classifications of homonyms when applied to analysis.
Classifications of antonyms when applied to analysis.

Analyze the following lexical units applying the above mentioned classifications of homonyms and antonyms:

present - absent, present - to present like , to like - to dislike - dislike sympathy - antipathy progress - to progress, regress - to regress success - failure, successful- unsuccessful left - left/to leave/, right adj. - right n. inflexible - flexible unsafe - safe adj. - safe n. fair n. - fair adj. unfair, foul piece - peace dark-haired - fair-haired a row - a row /rou/ - /rau/ a fan - a fan superiority - inferiority different - similar, indifferent, alike, difference - similarity meaningful - meaningless after prep.- before -before adv., before conj. to gossip - a gossip shapeless - shapy air - to air - air fearless - fearful bright - dim, dull, sad to fasten - to unfasten something - nothing eldest - oldest -youngest to husband - husband obscure - to obscure unaccustomed - accustomed to exclude - to include to conceal -to reveal too - too- two somewhere - nowhere a drawer - a drawer with - without

Seminar 10.

Neology.
Neology «blowup» and the work of R.Berchfield.
Semantic neologisms, transnomination and proper neologisms.
Semantic groups of neologisms connected with computerization.
Social stratification and neologisms.
Semantic groups of neologisms referring to everyday life.
Phonological neologisms and borrowings as strong neologisms.
Morphological and syntactical neologisms.
Changes in pronunciation.

Analyze the following neologisms from the point of view of neology theory and also from the point of view of their morphemic structure and the way they were formed :

to clip-clip AIDS coup sound barrier to Vice-Preside boutique to re-familiarize tourmobile sevenish to de-dramatize non-formals to baby-sit

to scrimp and save fireside chat hide-away coin-in-the-slot cashless society memo
We shall overcome. to dish old wine in new bottles to-ing and fro-ing multinationals the Commons hyperacidity religiosity D-Day face-to-face/tuition/ femme-fatalish to the wingtips to river singer-songwriter beatnik communication gap laundered money cheeseburger
Don’t change horses. to put a freeze on micro-surgical
SA out-doorsy medicare
Cold War self-exile public- schooly brain-drainer movers and shakers Euroyuppie

Seminar 11.

Control work on the analysis of language units. Each student gets six language units of different types / simple words, derived words, compound words, phraseological units, combinations of the type «stone wall», borrowings, abbreviations, antonyms, homonyms, neologisms , abbreviations/ and is to analize them from all points of view which were studied during the seminars.

Seminar 12.

Lexicography.
Analysis of the control paper.
Historical development of British lexicography.
Historical development of American lexicography.
Classification of dictionaries.
Student reports on dictionaries they use in their work.

SOURCES

Adams V. Introduction into English Wordformation. Lnd.,

1983 .

Akhmanova O.S. Lexicology: Theory and Method. M. 1972

Arnold I.V. The English Word . M. 1986.

Burchfield R.W. The English Language. Lnd. ,1985

Canon G. Historical Changes and English Wordformation: New

Vocabulary items. N.Y., 1986.

Ginzburg R.S. et al. A Course in Modern English Lexicology.

M., 1979.

Jespersen ,Otto. Growth and Structure of the English

Language. Oxford, 1982.

Halliday M.A.K. Language as Social Semiotics. Social

Interpretation of Language and Meaning. Lnd., 1979.

Howard Ph. New words for Old. Lnd., 1980.

Labov W. The Social Stratification of English in New York

City. Washington, 1966.

Maurer D.W. , High F.C. New Words - Where do they come from and where do they go. American Speech., 1982.

Patridge E. Slang To-day and Yesterday. Lnd., 1979.

Potter S. Modern Linguistics. Lnd., 1957.

Quirk R. Style and Communication in the English Language.

Lnd., 1980.

Schlauch, Margaret. The English Language in Modern Times.

Warszava, 1965.

Sheard, John. The Words we Use. N.Y..,1954.

Амосова Н.Н. Этимологические основы словарного состава современного английского языка. М. 1956.

Aмосова Н. Н. Основы английской фразеологии Л. 1963.

Aпресян Ю.Д.Лексическая семантика. Синонимические средства языка. М.1974.

Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка.М.

1959.

Беляева Т.М., Потапова И.А. Английский язык за пределами

Англии. Л. 1971.

Беляева Т.М. Словообразовательная валентность глагольных основ в английском языке. М., 1979.

Виноградов В.В. Об основных типах фразеологических единиц в русском языке. Виноградов В. В. Лексикология и лексикография.

Избранные труды. М. 1977.

Волков С.C., Cенько Е.В. Неологизмы и внутренние стимулы языкового развития. Новые слова и словари новых слов. Л., 1963.

Жлуктенко Ю.А. и др. Английские неологизмы. Киев.,1983.

Заботкина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского языка.

М., 1989.

Иванов А.Н. Английская неология. Сб. науч. тр. МГПИИЯ

1984.Вып. 227.

Ивлева Г.Г. Tенденции развития слова и словарного состава. М.

1986.

Кубрякова Е.С. Роль словообразования в формировании языковой картины мира. М. 1988.

Кунин А.В. Фразеология современного английского языка. М.

1972.

Мешков О.Д. Словообразование современного английского языка.

М. 1976.

Cилис Я.Я. Лингвистическое и социальное в неологии британского варианта современного английского обращения.

Неологизмы в лексике, грамматике и фонетике. Рига , 1985.

Тимошенко Т.Р. Телескопия в словообразовательной системе современного английского языка. Киев.1976.

Швейцер А.Д. Cовременная социолингвистика.

Теория.Проблемы. Методы.М.1977.

Швейцер А.Д. Социальная дифференциация языка в США. М.

1983.

Dictionaries.

Bloomsbury Dictionary of New Words. M. 1996.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Oxford

1964.

Hornby The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.

Lnd. 1974.

The Longman Register of New Words. M. 1990.

Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. M. 1986.

Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English. Longman. 1981.

21st century Dictionary of Slang. N.Y. 1994.

Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English. N.Y.

1978.

Апресян Ю.Д. Новый большой англо-русский словарь.

M. 1993.

Апресян Ю.Д. Англо-русский синонимический словарь.

M. 1979.

Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь.

М. 1967.

Трофимова З.C. Dictionary of New Words and New Meanings.

Изд. «Павлин» ,1993.

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8