An Introduction to English Lexicology

Words, Meaning and Vocabulary

Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781350133389
• eBook ISBN: 9781350133396
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Linguistic Semantics

What are words? Where do words come from? How are they used? Answering these questions and more, this book guides you through the key concepts in the lexicology of modern English. Providing an overview which encompasses all aspects of English vocabulary, this book explains the sources of modern English words and shows how the vocabulary has developed over time. Thoroughly updated throughout to keep pace with recent developments in the field, this third edition features: - Enhanced chapters on vocabulary, dictionaries and investigative lexicology
- New sections on contemporary topics such as internet language, social media and youth culture
- Guides to new electronic resources and tools of analysis
- Exercises throughout each chapter, with an updated answer key
- A revised list of suggestions for further reading Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, and featuring exercises and a fully updated glossary of lexicological terms to support your learning, An Introduction to English Lexicology is the only book you need to understand the basics of English lexicology.

1

What is Lexicology?

Chapter Overview

1.1 Lexicology defined

Morphology

Semantics

Etymology

Lexicography

1.2 Lexicology as a level of language analysis

Lexicology and phonology

Lexicology and syntax

1.3 The structure of English vocabulary

The word and its associative field

Lexical fields

Word families

Word classes

1.4 Summary

This chapter covers:

•definition of the term ‘lexicology’

•lexicology as a level of language analysis

•the structure of English vocabulary.

1.1 Lexicology defined

At this early stage, a definition of lexicology is best considered as a working tool for a better understanding of subsequent chapters. In fact, we believe that this whole book is an answer, or at least a partial answer, to the fundamental question, ‘What exactly is lexicology?’ We shall not have completed our definition until we reach the end. Even then, we cannot claim to have said everything about lexicology.

For the purpose of an introductory textbook of this nature, lexicology may be defined as the study of lexis, understood as the stock of words in a given language, i.e. its vocabulary or lexicon (from Greek lexis, ‘word’, lexikos, ‘of/for words’). This working definition shows that the notion of ‘word’ is central in the study of lexicology. However, ‘word’ itself needs to be defined and discussed as a technical term. This is done in Chapter 3 (cf. Wray 2015). Since our main focus in this chapter is on the definition of lexicology, and in order to avoid a lengthy digression, we use ‘word’ somewhat loosely, in the usual traditional sense of a sequence of letters bounded by spaces. A comparison of the words ‘vocabulary’, ‘lexis’, and ‘lexicon’ would show that the three items may be considered more or less synonymous. However, it must be added that the first is more colloquial, the third more learned and technical, and the second may be situated half-way between the other two. A distinction must, nevertheless, be drawn between the terms ‘vocabulary’, ‘lexis’ and ‘lexicon’ on the one hand, and ‘dictionary’ on the other. While each of the first three may refer to the total word stock of the language, a dictionary is only a selective recording of that word stock at a given point in time.

Lexicology deals not only with simple words in all their aspects, but also with complex and compound words, the meaningful units of language. Since these units must be analysed in respect of both their form and their meaning, lexicology relies on information derived from morphology, the study of the forms of words and their components, and semantics, the study of their meanings. A third field of particular interest in lexicological studies is etymology, the study of the origins of words. However, lexicology must not be confused with lexicography, the writing or compilation of dictionaries, which is a special technique rather than a field of language study.

To avoid possible confusion and in order to introduce some of the technical terms we need in our discussion of lexicology, we shall examine the four related fields mentioned above: morphology, semantics, etymology and lexicography. Finally, we shall discuss lexicology as a field of language analysis.

Exercise 1/1

Examine the following definitions of ‘lexicology’. What do they agree on as the scope of lexicology? And where do they disagree?

1An area of language study concerned with the nature, meaning, history and use of words and word elements and often also with the critical description of lexicography. (McArthur (ed.) 1992)

2The study of the overall structure and history of the vocabulary of a language. (Collins English Dictionary 1998)

3A branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning and use of words. (Longman Dictionary of the English Language 1991)

4The study of the form, meaning, and behaviour of words. (New Oxford Dictionary of English 1998)

1.1.1 Morphology

Morphology is the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of words. They are ‘smallest’ or ‘minimal’ in the sense that they cannot be broken down further on the basis of meaning, as Katamba (2005: 29) puts it: ‘morphemes are the atoms with which words are built’. They are ‘meaningful’ because we can specify the kind of relationship they have with the non-linguistic world.

Consider the following items: cat, child, with, sleeping, armchairs, farmer. A close examination shows that cat, child and with cannot be analysed further into meaningful units. However, sleeping, armchairs and farmer can be analysed as ‘sleep + ing’, ‘arm + chair + s’ and ‘farm + er’. The items cat, child, with, sleep, -ing, arm, chair, -s, farm and -er are all morphemes. Some are simple words such as cat, child, with, sleep, arm, chair and farm, while others are only parts of words such as -ing, -s and -er. But both types meet our definition of morpheme. On the one hand, they are minimal, since they cannot be broken down into further meaningful units; on the other hand, they are meaningful, because we can establish a stable relationship between each item and the non-linguistic world of experience. For example, the references of cat, farm and chair can be explained by pointing or acting out the meaning as in ‘This is a chair’, ‘That is a farm’, ‘It is a domestic animal that goes “meow, meow” ’. The meaning of with may be given as ‘in company of’, ‘in antagonism to’; that of -s as ‘plural’; while that of -er may be expressed as follows: ‘-er combines with the preceding lexical item to designate things or persons with a function describable in terms of the meaning of the preceding morpheme’. For example, the meaning of -er in farmer and dreamer is describable in terms of those of farm and dream with which the morpheme -er is combined.

Morphemes that can occur alone as individual words are ‘free’ morphemes. Those that can occur only with another morpheme are ‘bound’ morphemes. Thus, the morphemes ‘cat’, ‘chair’ and ‘farm’ are free, while ‘-ing’, ‘-s’ and ‘-er’ are bound, indicated by the hyphen (-). Any concrete realization of a morpheme in a given utterance is called a ‘morph’. Hence, the forms cat, chair, farm, -ing, -s and -er are all morphs. Morphs should not be confused with syllables. The basic difference between the two is that while morphs are manifestations of morphemes and represent a specific meaning, syllables are parts of words which are isolated only on the basis of pronunciation.

An examination of a number of morphs may show that two or more morphs may vary slightly and still have the same meaning. For example, the indefinite article may be realized either as a or as an, depending on the sound (not the letter) at the beginning of the following word. Morphs which are different representations of the same morpheme are referred to as ‘allomorphs’ of that morpheme (from Greek allo, ‘other’, and morph, ‘form’). For example:

a context vs. an index

a battle vs. an apple

a union vs. an onion.

The last pair of words deserves some comment. Its members begin with u and o, which are classified as vowel letters. However, while union begins with the same sound as yes which is treated as a consonant, onion begins with the same sound as onwards, which is a vowel; hence ‘a union’ vs. ‘an onion’.

The use of ‘vs.’ (versus) highlights the point that where the allomorph an occurs, its counterpart a cannot occur and vice versa. They are therefore mutually exclusive and are said to be in complementary distribution. It should be pointed out that, as a descriptive term, ‘distribution’ refers to the total set of distinct linguistic contexts in which a given form occurs, sometimes under different morphological shapes. For example, the distribution of the indefinite article described above may be defined as: a before consonant sounds (e.g. a battle) and an before vowel sounds (e.g. an apple).

We now turn our attention to the relation between morphology on the one hand, and simple, complex and compound words on the other. Simple words such as door, knob, wild and animal are all free morphemes. They are therefore morphologically unanalysable. Complex (or derived) words such as spoonful, wildish, reanimate, mentally and farmer are formed from simpler words by the addition of affixes or some other kind of morphological modification. The limiting case for complex words is that of zero modification or conversion as in answer, call and question, which may be either nouns or verbs, or clean, dirty and dry, which may be either adjectives or verbs, without the addition of further sounds/letters. Compound words, or simply compounds, are formed by combining two or more words (free morphemes) with or without morphological modification, e.g. doorknob, cheeseburger, pound saver, wild-animal-tamer. It should be pointed out that the distinction between word compound (solid and hyphenated) and phrasal compound (open) is not very clear in English. This fact is reflected by the inconsistency with which spaces and hyphens are used with compounds in written English.

This brief discussion shows the importance of morphology in lexicology. In fact, the construction of words and parts of words, and the distinction between the different types of words are all based on morphological analysis. As will be seen later in Chapter 3, morphology is particularly relevant in the discussion of word formation.

1.1.2 Semantics

Semantics is generally defined as the study of meaning. Its aim is therefore to explain and describe meaning in natural languages. The term ‘meaning’ is used here in the ordinary, non-technical sense, without reference to any particular theoretical framework. Most linguists agree that meaning pervades the wh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Exercises
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• 1 What is Lexicology?
• 2 The Word
• 3 Word Formation
• 4 Where Do English Words Come From?
• 5 Meaning Relations
• 6 Words in Use
• 7 Investigating Vocabulary
• 8 Words in Dictionaries
• Key to Exercises
• References
• Glossary
• Index
• Copyright