LEXICAL SYSTEMS IN ENGLISH Vocabulary of

LEXICAL SYSTEMS IN ENGLISH

Vocabulary of any language can be described in terms of volume and character. Number of words in English is a disputable question. Some linguists believe that English has a million words.

Analyzing the vocabulary of English, we must bear in mind that the actual language people use is not exactly the language registered in the dictionaries. de-friend (v) - ? to delete a person as your friend from your Facebook site or your Twitter list digital nomad (n) - ? s. o. who uses technology, esp. a laptop and a wireless network, to work remotely from anywhere in the world BISLY (phrase) text-speak/abbreviation for ‘but I still love you’ Dumbphone (n) a mobile phone which is not a smartphone

There is, of course, a stable layer in the vocabulary which serves as a basis for enrichment of Modern English – basic (general) word-stock: names of things and phenomena of the surrounding nature – sun, moon, fire, rain, earth names of human beings and dwellings, parts of human body – man, mother, house, hand, head names of basic colours – red, green, black names of processes of life activity – live, die, go structural elements of the language – in, on, to, but, and

The words belonging to the general wordstock usually have the following features: belong to old native word-stock (mostly); known to all English speakers; stylistically neutral; lack connotations; their meanings are direct and general. But the borderline between general wordstock and the rest of the vocabulary is difficult to define

English Vocabulary as a System What is a system? A regularly interacting or interdependent organized group of items forming a unified whole. Can we speak about vocabulary as a system? Lexicology: System denotes a set of elements associated and functioning together according to certain laws. Systems can be open (can invite new members) and closed (stable, no new members are allowed) What kind of system is vocabulary? Open? or Closed?

Vocabulary of a living language is an adaptive system. E. g. , Cell-phones and computer technology: Apparently a computer went blue screen of death during the opening ceremonies at the Olympics a few days ago. He totally chexted on her. Please respond to my edress. Facebook fasting has become a popular Lent sacrifice. There's no signal in here - I'm going outside to get some bars. My Grandpa found this on the internet, he's a proud grey surfer!

All words can be split into groups on the basis of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analyzed in its linear relationships with neighbouring words in connected speech: the hat on her head - “head” - “part of the body”; the head of the department - “head” = “chief” The semantic characteristics of the word ‘head’ are observed, described and studied here on the basis of its typical context.

On the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationships with other words in the vocabulary system: in comparison with other words of similar meaning: work, n. - “occupation; employment; what a person does in order to earn money”; labour, n. - “a task; a piece of work, esp. one that is difficult”; in comparison with other words of opposite meaning: busy, adj. - “working hard; doing things; having plenty of work or duties; not idle”; idle, adj. - “doing no work; not employed; not active or in use; (of time) not spent in doing something”);

words of different stylistic characteristics: man, n. - “an adult male human being”; chap, n. - “man; boy; fellow (in a friendly greeting)”; guy, n. - “a person of queer appearance or dress”. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic studies of meaning are functional because the meaning of the lexical unit is studied first not through its relation to referent but through its function in relation to other units.

Principles of grouping words into classes/subgroups/sets/etc. I. On the morphological level words are divided into four groups according to their morphological structure. They are: 1. Root or simple words - their stem contains one free morpheme, e. g. dog, hand. 2. Derivatives contain no less than two morphemes of which at least one is bound, e. g. dogged, doggedly, handful. 3. Compound words consist of not less than two free morphemes, the presence of bound morphemes is possible but not necessary, e. g. dog-cheap 'very cheap'; dog-days 'hottest part of the year'. 4. Compound derivatives consist of not less than two free morphemes and one bound morpheme referring to the whole combination. The pattern is (stem+stem) +suffix, e. g. doglegged 'crooked or bent like a dog's hind leg'.

II. Another type of traditional lexicological grouping is known as word-families. For example: (common root-morpheme) dog, doggish, doglike, doggy, to dog, doggedly, doggedness, dog-wolf, dog-days, dog-biscuit, dog-cart, etc. ; hand, handy, handicraft, handbag, handball, handful, handmade, handsome, etc. Similar groupings according to a common suffix or prefix are also possible. Groups with such suffixes as -er, -ing, -ish, -less, -ness constitute infinite (open) sets, i. e. are almost unlimited, because new combinations are constantly created piggish, womanish, whitish, etc.

III. The next step is classifying words taking them within actual utterances. Here the first contrast to consider is the contrast between notional words and form or functional words. Notional words can stand alone, have meaning and form a complete utterance, name different objects of reality, the qualities of these objects and actions or the process in which they take part. In sentences they function syntactically as some primary or secondary members. They can also express the attitude of the speaker towards reality.

Form words, also called functional words, empty words or auxiliaries, are used only in combination with notional words or in reference to them. This group comprises auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and relative adverbs. Primarily they express grammatical relationships between words. This does not, however, imply that they have no lexical meaning of their own.

The borderline between notional and functional words is not always very clear. In some contexts they appear as notional words and in other contexts as form words. Compare the functions and meanings of the verb have used in the following sentences: Do they have a new car? Our guests have arrived. She had all her jewellery stolen. You’ve got to believe me! You should have seen the way Dad was dancing - I didn't know he had it in him!

IV. Lexico-grammatical grouping A lexico-grammatical group is a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, a common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possibly a characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico -grammatical meaning. These groups are subsets of the parts of speech, several lexico-grammatical groups constitute one part of speech.

English nouns are subdivided into such lexicogrammatical classes as personal names, animal names, collective names (for people/animals), abstract nouns, material nouns, proper names for people, toponymic proper names. Observing the semantic structure of words belonging to one group we find a great deal of semantic likeness within it. Compare the following verbs belonging to the same semantic group: walk, shuffle, rush, nose, spiral, rocket, tiptoe, limp, stroll, wander, stride

V. Thematic grouping Words may be classified according to the concepts underling their meaning. The closely knit sectors of vocabulary, each characterized by a common concept are termed “semantic fields”. The words are associated because things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality. E. g. , ‘pleasure’: joy, gaiety, enjoyment, etc. ; ‘colour’: blue, red , yellow, black, green, purple, etc. All the members of the field are semantically interdependent as each member helps to delimit and determine the meaning of its neighbours and is semantically delimited and determined by them.

VI. The ideographic grouping Another approach to the classification of vocabulary items into lexico-semantic groups is the study of hyponimic relations between words. By hyponymy we mean a semantic relationship of inclusion: vehicle includes car, bus, taxi, train, plane, etc. The more specific term is called the hyponym and the more general is called the hyperonym. A general problem with this principle of classification is that there often exist overlapping classifications: E. g. , people may be divided into adults, children, national groups, professional groups, social and economic groups.

VII. Terminological systems Terminology constitutes the greatest part of the vocabulary of every language. A term is any word or word-group used to name a notion characteristic of some special field of knowledge, industry or culture. An ideal term should be monosemantic and its meaning remains constant until some new discovery or invention changes the referent or the notion. The ways of the formation of terminological phrases are: 1) clipping, blending, ellipsis, abbreviation (television + text = teletext; ecological + architecture = ecotecture); 2) the use of combining forms from Latin and Greek (aerodrome, cyclotron, microfilm, telegraph, thermonuclear).

VIII. The opposition of emotionally coloured and emotionally neutral vocabulary As speech expresses the speaker’s attitude to what he is talking about, his emotional reaction, his relations with his audience, all the words may be divided into emotionally coloured and emotionally neutral, but the difference between the sets is not clear-cut as there are numerous boundary cases, because many words are neutral in their direct meaning and emotional under special conditions of context, acquiring an occasional emotional effect.

The emotional colouring of the word may be permanent or occasional. A word acquires its emotional colouring as a result of its history in emotional contexts reflecting emotional situations (a glorious idea, a lovely drink, a rotten business, etc. ). The best studied type of emotional words are interjections, which express emotions without naming them (Ah! Alas! Bother! Boy! Nonsense!). A word may have some morphological features signalling its emotional force. These may be either morphemes or patterns (daddy, dearie, blackie, oldie; little chap, old chap, poor thing).

A specific group of the emotional words is intensifiers which convey special intensity to what is said, indicate the special importance of the thing expressed (ever, even, all, so, what on earth). One more group which could be opposed to the neutral vocabulary is evaluatory words which when used in a sentence, pass a value judgment (Oh, you’re not a spy. Germans are spies, British are agents). As a rule emotional and emphatic words do not render emotions by themselves but impart these to the whole utterance. Only context permits one to judge whether the word serves as a mere intensifier or expresses emotion, and if so, to define the type of emotion.

IX. Interrelation between native and borrowed elements According to the origin all the words of the English language may be divided into native and borrowed. Borrowings can be subdivided according to the donor-language and the degree of assimilation. wall peach formula tête–à–tête chin-wag

X. Stylistic reference There are two stylistically marked layers of vocabulary in the language: literary conversational Both the layers are further subdivided into lexical groups

Literary words General common to all fields of knowledge + learned words +archaisms +obsolete words + historicisms Special used in one field of knowledge terminology of different spheres of science

Conversational words colloquialisms jargonisms literary familiar low colloquial slang dialectisms vulgarisms

XI. Neologisms newly coined words or meanings which appeared due to the development in different spheres of human activity belong both to literary and conversational groups literary: nominee, de-plan conversational: telephonee, yuppie _________________________ The stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary characterizes the speaker. It doesn’t exclude the existence of Standard English.

XII. Synonyms XIII. Antonyms XIV. Homonyms XV. Non-semantic grouping

СПАСИБО ЗА ВНИМАНИЕ!