Lexicology is the science that focuses on the vocabulary of a particular language. It has its own laws and categories. This science deals with various aspects of words, as well as their functions and development.

concept

Lexicology is a science that studies the vocabulary of a language and its features. The subject of this section of linguistics is the following:

• Functions of lexical units.
• The problem of the word as a basic constituent element of the language.
• Types and types of lexical units.
• The structure of the vocabulary of the language.

This is not a complete list of what lexicology studies. This science deals with the replenishment and expansion of the vocabulary, and also considers the connections and contradictions between lexical units.

Object of study

The word and its meaning is the basis for many sciences. Morphology deals with these issues, as well as various areas of word formation. However, if in these sciences words are a means of studying grammatical structures or studying various models for different word-formation options, then what lexicology studies is used directly to learn the specifics of the words themselves. Lexical units are considered not just as a set of letters and sounds, but are an integral system that has its own connections, functions, categories and concepts. This is the object of study of lexicology. She considers not individual words, but the entire vocabulary as something whole and inseparable.

This approach has its own characteristics. This allows us to categorize not only words, but also set phrases that have a certain analytical role.

word problem

The lexicology of the modern Russian language focuses on the object and subject of its study. Since the word is considered as a certain unit that has connections between its form and content, it is considered in three main aspects:

• Structural. The form of the word, its structure and constituent components are studied.
• Semantic. The meaning of lexical units is considered.
• Functional. The role of words in speech and in the general structure of the language is investigated.

If we talk about the first aspect, then lexicology is a science that establishes specific criteria for determining the difference and identity of individual words. To do this, lexical units are compared with phrases, and an analytical structure is developed that allows you to establish the invariants of the word.

As for the semantic aspect, this is a separate science - semasiology. It studies the relationship between a word and a particular object. This is important for lexicology. It studies the word and its meaning, as well as its individual categories and types, which allows us to distinguish such concepts as monosimy (uniqueness) and polysimy (polysemy). Lexicology also deals with the study of the causes that lead to the appearance or loss of a word of its meaning.

The functional aspect considers a lexical unit as an object that is associated with other similar elements and builds a whole language system. Here the role of the interaction of vocabulary and grammar is important, which, on the one hand, support, and on the other hand, limit each other.

The concept of vocabulary

Lexicology considers words as a system that consists of several subsystems. Lexical units form groups that are different in volume, form and content. This is part of what lexicology studies. Vocabulary is studied simultaneously in two aspects: as a group relationship between individual units and their correct arrangement in relation to each other. Thanks to this, vocabulary can be divided into separate categories. For example, homonyms, paronyms, synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, etc.

Additionally, almost any section of linguistics, including Russian or English lexicology, studies more voluminous groupings of words, which are called fields. Usually this is built on the basis of the core of the field, for example, a certain number of keywords, and the boundaries themselves, which are various paradigmatic, semantic, grammatical or other types of relationships with given lexical units.

Sections of lexicology

Like any other science, lexicology has its own system of disciplines that are responsible for certain aspects of its object and subject of study:

• Semasiology. Deals with the meanings of words and phrases.
• Onomasiology. Studying the procedure for naming objects and phenomena.
• Etymology. Explores the origin of words.
• Onomastics. Deals with proper names. This applies to both names of people and geographical names.
• Stylistics. Studying the meaning of words and expressions of a connotative nature.
• Lexicography. Engaged in ways of organizing and compiling dictionaries.
• Phraseology. Explores phraseological units and persistent expressions.

Sections of lexicology have their own categories, as well as the object and subject of study. In addition, some types of this science are distinguished. In particular, we are talking about general, particular, historical, comparative and applied lexicology. The first type is responsible for the general laws of vocabulary, including its structure, stages of development, functions, etc. Private lexicology deals with the study of a particular language. The historical type is responsible for the development of words in connection with the history of the names of objects and phenomena. Comparative lexicology examines words in order to identify kinship between different languages. The latter type is responsible for such processes as the culture of speech, translation features, linguistic pedagogy and lexicography.

Categories of lexical units

The vocabulary of any language is diverse and heterogeneous. Accordingly, there are categories that have their own distinctive features and characteristics. Russian lexicology foresees the following subspecies:

• By scope: commonly used words and lexical units that are used in special situations (science, poetry, vernacular, dialects, etc.).
• By emotional load: neutral and emotionally charged units.
• According to historical development: neologisms and archaisms.
• According to its origin and development: internationalisms, borrowings, etc.
• By functionality - active and passive lexical units, as well as occasionalisms.

Given the constant development of the language, the boundaries between words are fuzzy and they can move from one group to another.

Problems

Like any other science, lexicology deals with certain problems. Modern experts distinguish the following:

• The frequency of words in the text.
• The difference between lexical units in writing and in oral speech.
• The possibilities of words that allow you to create new names for objects and phenomena.
• Changing vocabulary values.

Science also studies word compatibility options at different levels: semantic and lexical.

Ways to replenish vocabulary

Lexicology deals with the study of variants of nominations. This is understood as various ways and methods of expanding the vocabulary. For this, both the internal resources of a particular language and the attraction of lexical units from other languages ​​can be used. There are the following ways to replenish the vocabulary:

• Word formation is the creation of new words.
• Construction of new meanings for already existing words: polysemy, transfer of meanings, etc.
• Formation of persistent phrases.
• Borrowing.

These methods are typical for any language, but in each case they have their own characteristics and distinctive features.

Methods

For its needs, lexicology uses general linguistic research methods. These include:

• Distribution. Responsible for defining the scope of a lexical unit, for the number of values, etc.
• Substitution. He studies the phenomena of synonymy and variation of words.
• component method. Responsible for the splitting of lexical units into separate components, and also deals with their general structure.
• Transformation. It is used in the process of word formation in order to determine the main component of the word.
• Used to determine the frequency of use of lexical units, as well as to calculate their semantic, paradigmatic and other types of relationships.

The information obtained using these methods is also used in other sciences, including psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, as well as a number of social disciplines.

Connection of lexicology with other branches of linguistics.

subject of lexicology.

subject of lexicology. The word as a unit of lexicology.

2. Connection of lexicology with other sections of linguistics.

3. The word as the basic unit of the Russian language.

The branch of language science that studies the lexical system is called lexicology(from the Greek lexikos - vocabulary and logos - teaching). The study of the lexical system as a form of organization of the interaction of words is engaged in descriptive, or synchronous(from Greek syn - together and chronos - time), and historical, or diachronic(from Greek dia - through and chronos - time), lexicology. The subject of descriptive lexicology is vocabulary in its current state. Historical lexicology considers vocabulary in its origin and development. Both of these aspects of the study of the lexical system are closely related, since for a correct understanding of the vocabulary of a modern language, information on the history of its formation is necessary, and the current state of the vocabulary is one of the important sources for studying its history.

Tasks of lexicology.

The subject of lexicology is the word, with which all other units of the language are somehow connected: phonemes, morphemes, phrases, sentences. For this reason, the word is studied not only in lexicology, but also in other sections of linguistics (in phonetics, word formation, morphology, syntax), but it is considered in these sections in different ways.

Phonetics explores the sound side of words and its meaning. Word formation studies the patterns of word creation. The object of morphology is grammatical meanings, grammatical forms and grammatical categories. In syntax, the word is considered from the point of view of its participation in the construction of phrases and sentences.

Lexicology studies the word as a linguistic element of the lexical system.

Hence, her tasks include:

a) clarification of the semantic structure of the word (polysemy - homonymy);

b) revealing the relationship of various semantic series of words (synonymy and antonymy);

c) determining the place of the word in the lexical system of the language in terms of functional and stylistic (stylistically neutral, bookish and colloquial vocabulary), spheres of use (general, dialect, special, colloquial and slang vocabulary), origin (native Russian, Old Slavonic and foreign vocabulary) , active and passive reserve (archaisms, historicisms and neologisms).

Lexicology is closely related to other linguistic disciplines: semasiology, etymology, dialectology, stylistics and lexicography.

Semasiology (Greek semasia - meaning and logos - teaching) studies the meanings of words, as well as the change in these meanings. In the first case, semasiology is included in descriptive lexicology, and in the second case, in historical lexicology.

Etymology(Greek etumo1ogia - truth, original meaning) deals with the study of the origin of words and their significant parts and, therefore, is a branch of historical lexicology.

Dialectology(Greek dialectos - dialect and 1ogos - teaching) analyzes local dialects, including their vocabulary. The data of dialectology are used by lexicology in elucidating the spheres of functioning of vocabulary.

Stylistics(French Greek stylas - wand for writing from the ancient Greeks) studies how to use language tools to accurately express thoughts and achieve communication goals in a certain area, under certain conditions. This section of linguistics is directly related to lexicology, since it studies all the means of expression available in the language, including vocabulary.

Lexicography(Greek lexilcon - dictionary and grapho - I write) is engaged in the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries that contain a description of vocabulary. Therefore, there is a connection between lexicology and lexicography.

What has been said about the connection of lexicology with other branches of the science of language will be illustrated with a concrete example.

Yes, in a word soar semasiology will define the following meanings:

a) to stay, to be: And here a swarm of birds and insects soars through the air (Derzh.);

b) live, dwell somewhere : Fluffy animals hover in the wilderness of dense forests (Kar.);

c) to be in a dreamy state, not noticing the surroundings: Soar in the clouds, in the empyrean, between heaven and earth.

Etymology will find out that this word came into Russian from the Old Slavonic language, where it sounded vitati, and associated with words dwell, - abode, vital -"hotel". The stylistics will indicate that the given word is obsolete in the first meaning, and stylistically colored (bookish) in the second; the characteristic of a given word is recorded in dictionaries: all meanings and stylistic marks are indicated in explanatory and phraseological dictionaries, the origin - in etymological dictionaries. Lexicology will consider all the above features of a given word: its meaning, stylistic functions, areas of use, origin. A comprehensive description of the word helps to determine the literary norms of its use.

Consequently, in lexicology, words are studied from the point of view of their semantic meaning, place in the general system of vocabulary, origin, use, scope in the process of communication and their stylistic coloring.

3. The word as the basic unit of the Russian language.

Like any other language, Russian as a means of communication is the language of words. From words that act separately or as components of phraseological units, they are formed using grammatical rules and sentence laws. Words in the language designate specific objects and abstract concepts, express human emotions, will, are called "general, abstract categories of existential relations", etc. Thus, the word acts as the main unit of the language.

Despite the undoubted reality of the word as a separate linguistic phenomenon, despite the bright signs inherent in it, it is difficult to define. This is due primarily to the variety of words from the structural, grammatical and semantic points of view (cf .: table, goodwill, write, black; sofa bed, five hundred; at, since, only, probably; scat! oh!; say, out, it's getting light etc.).

It is possible to give a correct definition of a word only if all the main differential features of the word are organically reflected, sufficient to distinguish it from other linguistic units.

The word differs from phonemes two-dimensionality , because it always acts as an organic unity of sound and meaning. From phrases (including from stable phrases, i.e. phraseological units), words must be differentiated accentologically : they are either unstressed or have only one main stress.

From morphemes (significant parts of the word), the word is delimited primarily by its lexico-grammatical relatedness , i.e. belonging to a particular part of speech. From prepositional-case combinations, words are primarily distinguished by their impenetrability.

One of the main properties of words existing in the language is their reproducibility , which consists in the fact that they are not created in the process of communication, but are retrieved from memory or any speech context in the form of a single structural-semantic whole.

1) reproducibility is also characteristic of morphemes and phraseological units and, moreover, even for sentences, as long as they coincide in their composition with a word or phraseological unit,

2) in the process of speech, words may appear that are not reproducible, but created morphemic combinations.

The word is characteristic phonetic arrangement (and also, of course, graphic, if the given language has, in addition to the oral form, a written one). A word is always a definite sound, consisting of at least one phoneme.

There are very few single-phonemic words in Russian, except for the names of phonemes existing in it and six letters (a, u, o, u, uh, s), this includes: unions a, u, particles a, u pretext y, interjections a, u, o, u, uh, a also prepositions o, in, to, c (in certain cases, they can act as two-phoneme about, in, to, with). They can also act as one-phonemic particles b, particle well, union well, particle l, in its main form used as two-phonemic. All other words are one or another sound complexes.

The only case of the absence of phonetic formalization in the Russian language is observed in the designation of one of the forms of the copula, in other forms acting as materially expressed (cf .: Father is a teacher; Father was a teacher; Father will be a teacher. In this case, the separability of the materially unexpressed (it is called the zero) ligament as a significant unit of the language, the reality of its existence as a linguistic fact is realized against the background of materially expressed formations that are homogeneous in their function and use.

The phonetic formalization characteristic of a word is expressed in the fact that any lexical unit (if it is not a completely unlearned foreign word or a neologism created without taking into account orthoepic norms) always acts as a sound structural unity that corresponds to the phonological norms of a given language system. A characteristic feature of the phonetic design of the Russian word is non-double-strike , since it is this property that makes it possible to clearly distinguish adjacent phenomena of vocabulary and phraseology. The word, in contrast to the phraseological turnover, always acts either as unstressed, or as having one main accent. If we have a unit (even if it is not semantically and grammatically divided and single) that has two main stresses, then this is obviously not a word, but a more complex formation: a phraseological phrase or a free combination of words.

No less important is another property of the word - its semantic valency . There is not a single word in the language that has no meaning. Every word is not only a certain sound, but also this or that meaning. This is precisely what the word differs from the phoneme - a sound that can distinguish the sound shell of words and morphemes, but does not have a meaning.

The property of a word that is absent from a morpheme, which is its distinguishing feature, is lexico-grammatical relatedness . Morphemes, existing as a further indivisible meaningful whole in a word, do not have lexical and grammatical relatedness. They act as significant parts, devoid not only of the property of any morphological form, but also of any kind of attachment to a particular lexical and grammatical category. As parts of a word, morphemes are completely incapable of syntactic use and, being used in a sentence, they immediately turn into words, acquiring bright and undoubted morphological features of a noun. Service words are closest to morphemes; their meanings are very "formal", they have no grammatical formality. However, official words (including prepositions) appear before us as undoubted words.

Indirectly and reflected (but very effectively) in delimiting function words from morphemes (especially just prepositions), the property helps the researcher impenetrability words, which is one of the most striking features of a word, in contrast to prepositional combinations, free combinations of words and individual categories of phraseological units that are semantically equivalent to a word. After all, if the word as a morphemic whole is impenetrable, then the meaningful units, between which free verbal “insertions” are possible, are words, and only words, but by no means morphemes. And vice versa, meaningful units, between which free verbal insertions are impossible, are not separate words, representing either parts of a word, that is, morphemes, or parts of a phraseological phrase.

The property of impenetrability is characteristic of absolutely all words: it is impossible to insert words (and even more so combinations of words) inside words in Russian.

To clarify the essence of a word as a specific linguistic unit, no less important than solving the problem of the word's separateness is also solving the question of its identity. It is important to establish not only what a word is in relation to other units of the language, but also where we have one and the same word, and where different words. Here, first of all, a clear line should be drawn between such concepts as: 1) words and word forms and 2) word forms and word variants.

Under the forms of a word, it is most expedient to understand such varieties of it that differ only in grammatical features and are related as dependent, secondary to the same, acting as the main, source. All other varieties of the word are better (and, I think, more accurately) characterized as different versions of the word.

Naturally, only such formations are varieties of a word, the basis of which necessarily consists of the same morphemes. It is impossible to attribute to varieties of the same word such formations as palatalize - palatalize, seminar - seminary, idiomatic - idiomatic, fox - fox, laughter - laughter, sunflower - sunflower, purification - cleaning, girlish - girlish, weaken - weaken, unbearable - unbearable, sorry - sorry etc. All such formations are, in relation to each other, single-root synonyms, i.e., although related, but different words.

In all cases, if the word has several forms, one of them acts as the main, initial, and all the rest - as dependent on it. Such basic, initial forms are the forms of the nominative case in names, the infinitive in the verb, etc. Their “general” character in relation to other forms correlative with them is manifested in the fact that they act, firstly, as nominative forms, representing the name of some phenomenon of reality, and secondly, as generating forms, on the basis of which, with rare exceptions, the production of new lexical units is carried out using the morphological method of word formation.

In addition, the “general” nature of the main, initial form of the word (and this is especially important for understanding the essence of the word and formulating its definition) also affects the fact that in the Russian language there is not a single word whose main, initial form would be analytical, m, i.e. would consist of two. It is this circumstance that makes it possible to clearly define the accentological differences between a word and a phrase and phraseological phrase, since in its original form the word never has two main stresses.

Taking into account the “general” nature of the original, main form in a number of other forms of the word makes it easy to solve, in particular, the problem of such formations in the Russian language as I will write, the best etc., clearly demonstrating (as well as words like sofa bed) the failure of the criterion of wholeness for Russian words in all their structural and grammatical diversity. Indeed, in such cases, we pepper words that do not consist of structurally grammatically unformed morphemes, but of two separately formed words.

What has been said above about the word as a linguistic unit allows us to give a working definition of the word in the following formulation: word - this is a linguistic unit that has (if it is not unstressed) in its original form one main stress and has meaning, lexical and grammatical relatedness and impenetrability.

Object and subject of lexicology

Units of the lexico-semantic system

Specificity of the lexico-semantic system

Main problems of lexicology

Sections of lexicology

Literature

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1. Object and subject of lexicology

Lexicology(gr. lexis'word', lexikos'vocabulary', logos‘teaching, science’) is a section of linguistics that studies vocabulary language (vocabulary) in his state of the art and historical development.

Sections of linguistics that study different tiers of the language system actually have two objects:

unit appropriate level, its nature and properties,

unit system, the relationship between these units.

Objects of lexicology- This

word as a lexical unit (LE),

vocabulary(vocabulary) as a collection of words, organized, structured in a certain way.

The word is an object of different linguistic disciplines. Each of them considers the word from a certain point of view, i.e. with a common object has its own thing:

studied in phonetics sound side the words,

in morphemic - structure the words,

word formation - ways of education words,

in morphology - grammatical forms and grammatical meanings the words,

in syntax - connection methods words and forms of words into phrases and sentences [SRYA, p. 165].

word like grammatical unit is a system of all its forms with their grammatical meanings; word like lexical a unit, or a dictionary unit, is a formally expressed system of all its lexical meanings [Russian Grammar, p. 453].

In lexicology, the word is considered

in the aspect of its subject-conceptual content

and as a unit of the vocabulary of a language.

Word wing , for example, is of interest here

but as title:

the organ of flight in birds, insects, and some mammals;

the carrier plane of an aircraft or other moving apparatus;

rotating blades of a windmill wheel;

tires over the wheel of a carriage, car, etc.;

side extension, outbuilding;

the extreme (right or left) part of the combat formation;

extreme (right or left) grouping of some organization.

b) how unit of the lexical system, which is in a certain relationship with other lexical units, for example, as part of Class names of body parts of a bird along with words tail, beak etc.

opposition grammatical forms of the word(word form) in the same meaning ( wing, wing, wing...) is an insignificant for lexicology. This is the subject of grammar.

On the contrary, the study of the similarity and difference between the semantic variants of the same word in the entire system of their forms ( wing, wing, wing...‘organ of flying’; wing, wing, wing...‘carrying plane’, etc.) is one of the most important tasks of lexicology [SRYA, p. 165].

However, when studying a word in lexicology, it is impossible to completely ignore grammar, since vocabulary and grammar are closely related.

1. Units of the lexico-semantic system

Word a sound or set of sounds that has meaning and employee name objects and phenomena of reality [SRYASH, p. 165].

It is fixed in the definition iconic nature words and his function.

The word, unlike the phoneme, is sign:

It also has a material side. sound or spelling(phonographic shell),

and the perfect side meaning.

Main function the words - nominative(lat. nominatio ‘naming, denomination’). Most words called objects, their attributes, quantity, actions, processes and are full-fledged, independent.

Words name not only specific objects, but also concepts about these objects that arise in the minds of the speakers.

With a word correlate all language units:

phonemes and morphemes form the structure of a word

phrases and suggestions are made up of words.

This gives reason to some scholars to say that the word is central unit of language.

Since the word is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, the term word polysemantic and indefinite: they denote

and words like vocabulary units(linguistic units);

and words like units of speech, text(words in specific meanings and specific grammatical forms).

For example, in a sentence Man is man's friend

three words in specific grammatical forms

and two words as dictionary units: Human and friend[Kodukhov, p. 184].

The word is called unambiguous words, and individual meanings ambiguous words.

To designate these different objects in lexicology, more precise terms are used.

The most general term is lexical unit(LE)

Lexical unit is a unit of the lexical level of a language that has bilateral nature, grammatical arrangement and performing nominative function.

Term lexical unit is an generic in relation to terms lexeme and lexico-semantic variant:

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lexeme lexico-semantic

lexeme(gr. lé xis ‘word, expression’) is a unit of the lexical level of the language, which is a collection all forms and meanings of one word[≈ LES, p. 257; ERYA, p. 207].

Those. lexeme is bilateral unit 1 :

lexeme = –––––––––––––––––––––––

plan of expression

Term lexeme usually used only in relation to words significant parts of speech.

Lexico-semantic variant(LSV) is one of the lexical meanings of a lexeme, expressed by a phonographic shell.

Otherwise: LSV– a lexeme in one of its meanings. Those. LSV is also bilateral unit. LSV of one lexeme

differ in their lexical meanings (LZ)

and coincide in form (sound and graphic expression).

For example, sleeve –

piece of clothing that covers the arm short sleeves);

offshoot of the main riverbed ( right arm of the Volga);

hose for supplying liquids, bulk or viscous substances, gases ( firehose).

All these values ​​are related semantic derivatives(native speakers are aware of the connection between these meanings), so word identity is not violated.

lexeme is a system of interconnected LSV:

lexeme = LSV 1 + LSV 2 + LSV 3

If the word definitely, it is represented one LSV:

stomp‘noise, sounds from kicks while walking’.

Term "lexical item" also used in relation to lexeme, and in relation to LSV if there is no need to differentiate them.

LE, lexeme and LSV are linguistic units, because represent set of meanings and forms.

AT speeches these abstract units are implemented in specific units, because selected every time one meaning and one the form:

Dress with shortsleeves .

Concrete implementation lexemes or LSV in speech (text) is called:

lex(a) (the term is not very common),

word form- a word in a certain grammatical form (the term came from grammar),

word usage is a relatively new term.

Lexicology (from the Greek lexikos - related to the word and logos - teaching) is a branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary of the language, its vocabulary.

The subject of lexicology is the word. And its object is the definition of the word as the basic unit of the language.

The main tasks of lexicology are:

Clarification of the connection between the meaning of the word and the concept, the allocation of different types of meanings of words;

Characteristics of the lexico-semantic system, i.e. identification of the internal organization of language units and analysis of their relationships (the semantic structure of the word, the specifics of distinctive semantic features, the patterns of its relations with other words, etc.);

Establishment of various types of systemic relations that exist within various groups of vocabulary, determination of those objective (including syntactic) indicators that unite words (in certain meanings).

Lexicology studies the stylistic differentiation of the vocabulary, separate thematic and lexico-semantic groupings of words, their relationship with each other and the ratio of units within these groupings. From the point of view of stylistic differentiation, words, firstly, can belong to certain functional types of speech. Secondly, there are a significant number of words in the language that give speech a “high” or “lowered” character.

In addition, in lit. the language includes words that retain dialectal coloring, and in artistic literature (ch. arr. for the purpose of speech characterization of characters) slang words and expressions are also used.

Exploring the vocabulary of a language in its systemic connections, the lexicologist takes into account that, being the designations of objects and phenomena of extralinguistic reality, words naturally reflect the connections that exist between objects and phenomena of reality itself. At the same time, words are units of the language and between them there are actually linguistic connections: they are combined into certain lexical-semantic groups, in each language in their own way segmenting certain segments of reality (for example, in Russian - the names of hills: mountain, hill, hillock, mound, hill, etc., verbs of motion: go, ride, fly, swim, crawl, etc. - do not find full correspondence in other languages).

One of the main tasks of lexicology is to clarify those semantic oppositions that exist between different words, incl. synonymous and antonymous; it is the opposition of the meanings of different words that makes it possible to single out the essential semantic features that determine the given meaning of the word (for example, the common semantic element for the words mountain and hill is “hill”, which allows them to be compared; the essential differential feature for them is the sign of size).

In lexicology, stable combinations of words are also studied, which are dissected names of individual objects and phenomena of reality and are the equivalents of a word. These combinations refer to phraseology, which is included in lexicology as one of its sections (some researchers, however, consider it an independent section of the science of language).

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The term "lexicology" is composed of two Greek elements: lexis (lexis) and logos (logos). Both of these meant "word" in ancient Greek. Thus, lexicology is a word about a word, or a science about words. The vocabulary of a language is a collection of all words and their equivalent phrases (phraseological units).

Sections of lexicology

1. Onomasiology - studies the vocabulary of the language, its nominative means, types of vocabulary units of the language, methods of nomination.

2. Semasiology - studies the meaning of vocabulary units of a language, types of lexical meanings, semantic structure of a lexeme.

3. Phraseology - studies phraseological units.

4. Onomastics - the science of proper names. Here we can distinguish the largest subsections: anthroponymy, which studies proper names, and toponymy, which studies geographical objects.

5. Etymology - studies the origin of individual words.

6. Lexicography - deals with the compilation and study of dictionaries.

7. The word is at the center of the study of lexicology.

lexeme

Having become acquainted with the types of words presented in the language, one can introduce another concept presented in lexicology, namely, the concept of a lexical word, or lexeme. A lexeme is a significant word that points to objects and denotes concepts about them. A lexeme is able to act as a member of a sentence and form sentences, it can be simple (lexeme - a word) and compound (lexeme - a compound name, for example: railway, rest house) In this understanding, service words and word forms are not included in the concept of "lexeme".

How do the terms lexeme and word relate?

In some cases, they denote the same fact of language. So a person is both a word and a lexeme; in, would. From are words, but not lexemes. In the sentence "Man is friend to man" there are three words, but two lexemes. Therefore, the term lexeme diverges from the term word. The latter names both the function word and the form of the word. Word forms that differ only in grammatical meaning are not considered separate lexemes (kot - kota - kotu - kotom). They form a paradigm, that is, a system of word forms of one lexeme.

The lexical meaning of a word is the content of the word, reflecting in the mind and fixing in it the idea of ​​an object, a property of a process, a phenomenon, and so on. This is the correlation established by our thinking between the sound complex and the object or phenomenon of reality, which is indicated by this complex of sounds.

The carrier of lexical meaning is the basis of the word. The meaning of the word reflects the general and at the same time essential features of the subject, learned as a result of people's social practice. Lexical meanings can be specific and abstract, general (common) and singular (own).

Word problems in language

Shcherba wrote in one of his last articles: "Really, what is a word? I think that it will be different in different languages. It follows from this that the concept of a word does not exist at all."

Smirnitsky, who in his article "On the Question of the Word", writes that "the word acts not only as the basic unit of the vocabulary, but also as the central nodal unit of the language in general" illuminates this issue differently. When presenting the material on words, we will adhere to this point of view.

The Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary (M., 1990) gives the following definition of the concept of a word:

The word is the main structural and semantic unit of the language, which serves to name objects and their properties, phenomena, relations of reality, which has a set of semantic, phonetic and grammatical features specific to a given language.

The most important features of the word

The word, like any other unit of language, according to Smirnitsky, has two important features:

1) It has not only an external (sound) side, but also an externally expressed meaning (semantic or emotional content).

Considering the question of the two-sidedness of a word, one should dwell on the very nature of this connection between the sound of a word and its meaning.

The connection between the sound and meaning of a word is, in principle, conditional, arbitrary, or unmotivated. So, for example, there is no inherently binding connection between the meaning of table and the sound of Tisch. As you know, different sound complexes are associated with the meaning of table in different languages: in English. table, in Russian. Table, in it. Tisch. The principle of convention applies to simple, indecomposable units; completely, actually to morphemes.

As for more complex formations, in addition to the principle of convention (since simple units are included in complex formations), the principle of motivation comes first. The concept of motivation is related to the term "internal form of the word", which is understood as the motivation of the lexical meaning of the word by its word-formation with the semantic structure. The internal form of the word reveals some sign of the object on the basis of which the name originated. So, for example, the redstart bird once struck a person with its unusually bright, as if burning, tail. This sign that struck a person was the basis for the name of this bird. Of course, the sign that underlies the name is not always so bright and spectacular. It is usually much calmer: a candlestick is what is under the candle, and a thimble is what is put on the finger - a finger, a snowdrop, a flower that appears in the spring, when there is still snow on the fields.

2) The word appears not as a work created in the process of speech, but as something that already exists and is only reproduced in speech.

By the way, morphemes also satisfy the above requirements, and therefore can be considered units of the language with good reason. It should also be noted that proverbs, sayings, aphorisms, and generally various sayings, reproduced again and again as whole units, also act, according to Smirnitsky, as units of the language, since they already exist in the language and are only reproduced in speech. But then the sentence is not, according to Smirnitsky, a unit of language.

It is necessary to dwell on the issue of the separability of a word in the flow of speech. In certain cases, certain phonetic moments serve to highlight a word, to distinguish it from neighboring words. So, for example, the absence of stress on a full-valued unit that has a substantive meaning in Germanic languages ​​is usually an indicator that we are dealing with only a part of the word, for example. English Railway, blackboard, German. Eisenbahn, Schwarzbrot, where the absence of stress on -way, -board, -bahn, -brot shows that these units in these cases do not represent separate words, but are only components of words. Such phonetic moments, capable of expressing the difference between a word and a part of a word, should be considered only as some additional, auxiliary means of highlighting a word. Why? The fact is that with such a selection, the word is considered as if it were only a sound segment. Meanwhile, the word, as a unit of language, is a formation that has both a sound side and a semantic side. The main signs of separability, completeness of the word should be sought based on the understanding of the word as the main unit of the vocabulary of the language and, at the same time, such a unit that is able to change grammatically and grammatically combine into sentences, into a coherent meaningful speech with other units of the same order.

The changeability of a word presupposes a certain form of its formation: since the same word changes, insofar as it stands out something basic, actually dictionary, lexical, which remains the same with various changes in the word, and, on the other hand, something additional, variable, belonging together with that, not to a given specific word, but to a known class or category of words, abstracted from specific words - grammatical, associated with the use of a word in various works of speech. Thus, the basic, lexical meaning of the word turns out to be supplemented, complicated by those or other grammatical meanings that are materially expressed in external, sound differences between individual varieties - grammatical forms of the word: this gives the word a certain formality.

Words turn out to be grammatically, both morphologically and syntactically designed, in a certain way adapted to their joint functioning in coherent meaningful speech. This formalization of the word gives it a certain completeness, which makes it quite easy to distinguish it from speech.

The internal integrity of the word (whole-formation) of the word is revealed in comparison with the structure of the phrase. Unlike words as whole-formed formations, phrases can be defined as separate-formed formations. This can be illustrated by the following examples. If we compare the language formation das Schwarzbrot and the language formation das schwarze Brot, which includes the same root elements as the first formation, then it is easy to see that they, denoting the same object of objective reality and not significantly differing in their meaning, are fundamentally different. in their relation to the grammatical structure, in their form. This difference lies in the fact that in the first language formation - the word - both components are formed once, while in the second language formation - the phrase - there is an independent grammatical design for each component. In other words, the formation Schwarzbrot is integrally formed, and the formation das schwarze Brot is separately formed.

The wholeness of the word in itself expresses a certain semantic integrity: it emphasizes that a given object or phenomenon is thought of as something one, a special whole, even if the complexity of its structure is noted or its individual features are distinguished. Thus, when we say das Schwarzbrot, we focus on the object denoted by this word, although we mean its individual aspects: a) bread, a food product, and b) the quality of this product in terms of color. On the contrary, if we say das schwarze Brot, separate aspects of the designated phenomenon come to the fore, and already through the perception of certain aspects of this object or phenomenon, the object itself or the phenomenon as a whole is realized.

Semantic structure of the word- the semantic structure of the main unit of vocabulary (see Word). S. s. with. manifests itself in its polysemy (see) as the ability to name (designate) various objects (phenomena, properties, qualities, relationships, actions and states) with the help of internally related meanings. The semantic structure of an unambiguous word is reduced to its seme composition (see Seme) .

The simplest unit (element) of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word is its lexico-semantic variant (LSV), that is, with a lexical meaning (see), associated with other lexical meanings by certain relationships, the main of which are hierarchical: the expression of the subordination of dependent lexical meaning from the south to the main. In S. with. with. lexico-semantic variants are related to each other due to the common internal form (see Internal form of the word), their mutual motivation, derivation from each other.

Therefore, in dictionaries, each preceding LSV determines the interpretation of the subsequent one, for example. circle ^ "a part of the pchoskosg, bounded by a circle, as well as the circle itself" ~ ^- circle ± "an object in the shape of a circle" (saving. rubber circle), [circle-) "a closed area, within the outlined boundaries, a cut and a difference occur something" (circle of responsibilities, interests, issues)], [circle "a group of people united by common interests, took off" (circle of acquaintances, friends; in their own circle)], [circle $ "a social set of people primarily engaged in intellectual, creative work "(general circles of the public, literary, journalistic circles; about diplomatic circles: in the circle of scientists, specialists)], etc. Here, the hierarchically main LSV is a circle, in the content of which the internal form is most manifested; with this LSV, all other LSVs of the word circle are metaphorically (according to the similarity of form). At<ггом представление о круге присутствует в толковании значений всех ЛСВ слова и внутренне связывает их в единое целое. Основанием для выделения главного и частных значений (или иначе: главного и частных ЛСВ) служит различный характер взаимодействия слова в таких значениях с контекстом, т. е. фрагментом текста, необходимым и достаточным для определения того или иного значения слова. Главное значение в наименьшей степени обусловлено контекстом. Слово в главном (первом в словарях) значении является семантически наиболее простым по своему содержанию (ср. вода\ "прозрачная бесцветная жидкость") и обладает в силу этого самой широкой н свободной сочетаемостью с другими лексическими единицами. Все прочие значения слова (его ЛСВ) выступают как частные. В частных значениях по сравнению с главным слово в значительно большей степени обусловлено контекстом, присоединяет к себе его элементы и является в силу этого семантически более сложным (напр., вода2 "минеральный, газированный, фруктовый напиток", т. е. вода+содержащая минеральные соли; насыщенная газом; приготовленная из фруктов), при атом характеризуется ограниченной, избирательной сочетаемостью: минеральная, сельтерская, газированная, фруктовая вода.

The main meaning is called the primary semantic function of the word, private meanings - its secondary semantic functions.

Along with the usual dictionary meanings (main, private) in S. s. with. the general meaning is singled out as its invariant (from Latin invarians - unchanging), opposed to variant meanings: this is the coinciding part of the content of all meanings (LSV) of the word, something constant, unchanging in them. It stands out like a common factor in algebra: ab + ac + ad = = a(b + c + d), is an extremely generalized and semantically simple content and is a linguistic abstraction useful for the semantic analysis of language units. The ratio of the meanings of a word to its general meaning [i.e. i.e. to the general content of all its variants] makes it possible to establish their semantic hierarchy according to the degree of proximity to it: the central, dominant meanings turn out to be semantically the simplest, the peripheral ones are more complex and therefore further separated from the general (invariant) meaning of the word than the first ones. In S. with. with. certain values ​​(LSV) can die off. For example, the meaning of "beautiful" in the common Slavic adjective red (cf. Red Square) was historically the original, the main one in the word formed from the same stem as the word beauty. In the meaning of color, the word red began to be used later, in the era of the separate existence of the East Slavs. languages. This value became the main thing in S. with. s, leading to its partial restructuring. However, S. s. with. is constantly enriched with new meanings, since the word is a unit of an “open” lexical system, for example. meanings "a person who swims in open water in winter" in the word walrus (cf. section of walruses), "successful attacking player in football, hockey" in the word scorer (cf. top scorer of the season), etc.

All words are divided into word-building motivated (derivatives) and unmotivated (non-derivatives).). Word-building motivated are such words, the meaning and sound of which are determined in the modern language by other words of the same root (motivating, or producing). Motivated words are perceived as formed from motivating words: table - table 'small table', white - turn white 'become white, whiter'. The meaning and sound of derivational unmotivated words (table, white) are not conditioned in the modern language by other words with the same root; they are not recognized as being formed from other words.

A motivated word is associated with another single-root word or with several single-root words by relations of word-formation motivation. Motivation is such a relationship between two words with the same root, in which the meaning of one of them is either determined through the meaning of the other (house - house 'little house', strength - strongman 'man of great physical strength'), or identical to the meaning of the other in all its components, except for the grammatical meaning of a part of speech (walking - walking, daring - daring, bold - boldly), or completely identical to the meaning of another with a difference in the stylistic coloring of these words (knee - open knee).

Words with the same root, devoid of the named properties (house and house), are not in a relationship of motivation with each other.

One of the two words with the same root, connected by relations of word-formation motivation, is motivating, and the other is motivated. The motivation of a word is determined by four rules that apply in the following cases:

The compared single-root words have different lexical meanings, and in their stems, in addition to the root, a different number of sound segments is singled out (the stem of one of them may be equal to the root). In this case, a word is motivated, the stem of which is longer by some sound segment, which is recognized as a word-forming affixal morph (see § 16): forest - forest-ok, stand - stand.

The compared single-root words have different lexical meanings, and the same number of sound segments is singled out in their stems. In this case, the motivated word is semantically more complex, the meaning of which is determined through another word compared with it: chemistry - chemist ‘specialist in chemistry’, artist - artist ‘woman artist’.

The meanings of the compared single-root words are identical in all their components, except for the grammatical meaning of the part of speech. In this case: a) in the pairs “verb - noun denoting the same action” (draw - drawing, go out - exit, creak - creak) and “adjective - noun denoting the same sign” (bold - courage, graceful - grace , blue - blue), regardless of the length of the stems of the compared words, the noun is motivated; b) in the pair "adjective - adverb" a word is motivated, the stem of which is longer by some segment - a word-forming affixal morph (see paragraph 1): cf. today - today-sh-th and dare-th - dare-o, where -o is part of the stem (suffix).

Note. An exception to the rule formulated in paragraph 3a are: 1) pairs of words consisting of a noun that does not have a suffix with the meaning of action, and a verb with the suffix -nicha-, -stova-, or -ova-/-irova-/- izirova-/-izova-: in such pairs, the verb is motivated, because in the modern language, with the help of these suffixes, verbs from nouns with the meaning of action are easily formed, and nouns with the meaning of action are not formed from such verbs without the help of a suffix: focus - conjurer, blasphemy - blaspheme, salute - salute, repair - repair, terror - terrorize; 2) pairs consisting of a noun on -stv (o) and an adjective, in which after -stv- follows a suffix: courage - courageous, ignorance - ignorant.

One of the words in the relationship of motivation is stylistically neutral, and the other has some stylistic coloring. In this case, regardless of the length of the stems of the compared words, the stylistically colored word is motivated: ship - shipbuilder (colloquial), individual - individual (colloquial).

A motivated word differs from a motivating word by certain derivational means. As word-building means for motivation, affixal morphs (most often) act, as well as cutting off part of the stem, a fixed order of components, and a single stress on one of the components in additions and unions (for more details, see § 31).