Introduction to lexicology

Generally speaking, the history of studying words was said to have started with the
history of written language. So, for example, first dictionaries were compiled in
ancient times even before Christ. The first dictionary was known as Treasury of fine
words which consisted of several books. Lexicology is a linguistic filed which studies
lexis. It studies the stock of lexemes. Within lexis, lexicology studies syntagmatic
and paradigmatic relations between lexis in a language. There are several fields
which are closely related to lexicology, such as: SEMANTICS, since lexicology is
concerned with the meaning of lexemes as well as with the meaningful relationships
between them (LEXIOSEMANTICS); and more recently there is another
lexicologically based field study known as LEXICAL PRAGMATICS which studies
the pragmatic context of word usage in which they are specified more precisely. It
seems that outside pragmatic conditions of word usage, some words are
semantically underspecified.
There are four fields of lexicological study that are closely related to the general
lexicology. These are: ETYMOLOGY, TERMINOLOGY, LEXICOGRAPHY and
PHRASEOLOGY.
ETYMOLOGY
(etymon - the root) Etymology studies the origin of words as well as their history. In
terms of word origin, in comparative linguistics there are endeavours to establish
the principles of so-called Proto-Indo-European language. This language is not
actually spoken language, but a reconstruction of a common origin of IndoEuropean language since there seems to be a close link between many IndoEuropean languages, judging by some words used in them.(e.g. the linguists believe
that the root of words mleko, moloko is MELK). The origin of words is generally hard
to trace. Probably the most obvious process in which one can trace both the origin
of a word is borrowing. Also, it may be quite easy to say from which language the
word was borrowed, but it is hard to say when it was dropped. Probably the most
frequent cases of borrowing are related to Latin and Greek. Regarding the history of
words, a word may have different meaning from its stem. For example, the word
NICE stems from the Latin word NESCIUS which means ignorant, fool. Sometimes
the form of the borrowed word changes considerably (e.g. VENTUS is a Latin word
for WIND).
The English language as we know it today, developed out of the Germanic dialects
which were brought to Britain in the 5 th century A.D. by the invaders from the
Northern Europe. The Germanic invaders are actually the Anglo-Saxon root of the
English nation. The language in Britain at that time was Celtic, which is in a way
related to the language spoken in Ireland today, and Brittany, which is spoken in
France. Usually, words from Latin and Greek were borne into English to name new
concepts, ideas and inventions such as trading, literature, politics, religion, art. Latin

words in English are numerous, especially due to the influence of French. Greek
words are fewer and they are now used as prefixes usually (e.g. ARISTOS- best
(aristocracy); CHRONOS- time (chronology)). The aspect in which etymology differs
from general lexicology is the approach to the study of words which is DIACHRONIC.
General lexicology studies lexemes dorm SYNCHRONIC point of view.

TERMINOLOGY
Terminology studies lexemes which are established in terminological systems of
specific fields of human interest, such as science, sports, fashion, economy. It
studies lexemes also from SYNCHRONIC point of view but it studies lexemes of a
specialized meaning, unlike general lexicology which studies the general vocabulary
of a language.
From the linguistic point of view, terminology studies terms as lexemes. From the
philosophical point of view, it studies logical rules which govern a subject field and
the naming of concepts within the field. In terminology, term is defined as a
conventional symbol which represents a concept defined in a subject field. The
lexemes and the terms in the general vocabulary differ considerably, especially in
their frequency of usage. The lexemes are not interchangeable and that is why
terms have their own system- terminological system.
There are several features which terms have:

Terms are integrated into the subject field

Terms are agreed upon by the experts of the field (they are not created at
random but produced by convention)

Terms do not have metaphorical meaning ( they are not ambiguous; their
meaning is processed, it doesnt produce any associations

Terms are frequently interanationalized

Terms are institutionalized ( accepted by the language community)

Terms do not have synonyms (however, there are cases when there are
synonymous terms but they stem from different languages (e.g. abdominal
and ceriac pain)

LEXICOGRAPHY
Lexicography is sometimes termed as practical lexicology. It has developed its
theoretical foundations on its own. Lexicography is concerned with compilation of

dictionaries. Some principles of lexicography are lexicological in nature, such as

those which are concerned with the definition of words, their grammar or syntactic
properties. Some of them are related to book production.
The criteria for compiling a dictionary shoud be based on accuracy and consistency.
Accuracy should be followed in the defining of a word, in its transcription, in
morhological data. Contemporary lexicographical research has the objective of
compiling or relying upon machine-readable corpora. The data on the usage of
words and the sociolinguistic features of words is based on real life discourse, on
naturally-occurring language. The most important unit of a dictionary is ENTRY. The
main lexeme in an entry is the head word or LEMMA. The definition of a lemma is
given by using the so-called CORE VOCABULARY, relatively easy to understand.
Definitions of lexems in dictionaries should not be circular.
The properties of dictionaries are the following:

They can be monolingual or bilingual depending on what languages they

cover

They can be general or specific( phrasal verbs, idioms)

They may differ in size- they can be standard or concise

They can differ in medium they use- they can be published (appear in print)
or electronic (web-based)

PHRASEOLOGY
Phraseology is the study of general vocabulary but it is specifically concerned with
so-called FIXED EXPRESSIONS, such as:

IDIOMS ( e.g. speak and span; to smell a rat)

PROVERBS (e.g. Watched pot never boils)

STOCK PHRASES (e.g. Vicious circle)

CATCH PHRASES (e.g. "Lovely jubbly" )

SIMILES (e.g. As bysy as a bee; As sober as a judge )

It is also concerned with RHETORICAL EXPRESSIONS, such as:

SOCIAL CLICHES (e.g.How do you do? )

STEREOTYPES (e.g. Its not what you think.

CONNECTIVES (e.g. Finally; firstly; once upon a time)

Phraseology studies phrasal lexemes. These are idioms, phrasal verbs and phrasal
nouns. A phrasal lexeme is a lexeme as any other , which means that although it is
comprised of more than one element , it is viewed as a whole, especially because a
phrasal lexeme has semantic unity. The prototypical features of phrasal lexemes are
the following:

Their elements cannot be substituted for some other elements and they can
rarely be modified

They are not transparent, they are idiomatized (their meaning is not the sum
meaning of their constituents)

Their meaning can sometimes be guessed from common experience (e.g. to

have somebody eating from your hand )

Some elements of phrasal lexemes do not appear in language freely and

their usage is restricted to a particular phrasal lexeme (e.g. to and fro )

They usually have one-word synonym (e.g. a far cry from something =
different)

Phrasal lexemes which are idioms, phrasal verbs and nouns, differ from catch
phrases, proverbs, sayings since the former are lexical units and the latter are
clauses.
Phrasal lexemes can stem from particular context of a situation, from quotations
(e.g. To be or not to be) and from collective idea or experience of something.