Zhdanova L. A.

Lexicology (from the Greek lexikós ‘relating to the word’ and logos ‘word, teaching’) is a branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary (vocabulary composition) of a language and the word as a unit of vocabulary. One of the main tasks of lexicology is the study of the meanings of words and phraseological units, the study of polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, antonymy and other relationships between the meanings of words. The scope of lexicology also includes changes in the vocabulary of a language, reflection in vocabulary of the social, territorial, and professional characteristics of people who speak the language (they are usually called native speakers). Within the framework of lexicology, layers of words are studied, distinguished on different grounds: by origin (original and borrowed vocabulary), by historical perspective (obsolete words and neologisms), by sphere of use (national, special, vernacular, etc.), by stylistic coloring(interstyle, historically colored vocabulary).

Lexicology as the science of the word, its meaning and the vocabulary of the language

Vocabulary is the totality of words of a language, its vocabulary (lexical) composition. Sometimes this term is used in a narrower sense - in relation to individual layers of vocabulary (outdated vocabulary, socio-political vocabulary, Pushkin's vocabulary, etc.). The basic unit of vocabulary is the word.

The lexicon is directly addressed to reality, therefore it is very mobile and greatly changes its composition under the influence of external factors. The emergence of new realities (objects and phenomena) and the disappearance of old ones lead to the appearance or departure of corresponding words and a change in their meanings. Lexical units do not suddenly disappear. They can remain in the language for a long time as obsolete or obsolete words (historicisms, archaisms). New words (neologisms), having become commonly used and fixed in the language, lose their property of novelty. The vocabulary of a national language always interacts with the vocabulary of other languages ​​- this is how borrowings appear. Changes in the lexical composition occur constantly, so it is fundamentally impossible to calculate the exact number of all words in a language.

Vocabulary reflects social, professional, and age differences within the language community. In accordance with this, various plasters are distinguished. Various social and professional associations of people, along with commonly used ones, use vocabulary of limited use in communication. For example, in the speech of students one can often hear words related to student jargon; people of the same profession use special vocabulary specific to this profession - terms and professionalisms. In the speech of a person who owns literary language, features of one of the Russian dialects may appear (self-dialects, or dialects, is studied by the science of dialectology). Such inclusions qualify as dialectisms. Each language has groups of words with different stylistic characteristics. Stylistically neutral words can be used in any style of speech and form the basis of the dictionary. Against their background, stylistically colored words stand out - they can belong to a “high” or “low” style, they can be limited to certain types of speech, conditions of speech communication (scientific, official business, book vocabulary, etc.).

The subject of our study is the vocabulary of the modern Russian literary language. As noted in the “Preface,” the chronological boundaries of the concept “modern” are defined ambiguously. In a broad sense, the language from Pushkin to the present day is considered modern; in a narrow sense, its lower limit is pushed back to the middle of the 20th century.

The definition of “literary” also requires clarification. Literary language should not be confused with the language of literature. The concept of “Russian literary language” is contrasted with the concept of “national (national) Russian language”. The national (national) vocabulary includes all the vocabulary layers listed above (including dialects, vernacular, jargon). The basis of a literary language is literary vocabulary and phraseology, outside of which remain colloquialisms, jargons, and dialect words. Literary language is distinguished by its normalization and codification, that is, the written legalization of this norm, which is recorded in normative dictionaries and reference books. The peculiarity of literary language in general and its vocabulary in particular is that it is not fixed to any limited (territorially, socially, professionally) group of people or communication situation. Therefore, the literary language is not just one of the components of the national language, but the highest form of its existence.

In the native speaker's dictionary there is a distinction between active and passive lexicon. Active vocabulary refers to words that we know and use. Passive - words that we know, but do not use in our speech.

With all the diversity and multiplicity of composition, permeability, mobility, internal heterogeneity of the lexical level of the language, it represents a well-organized system. The concept of “systematic vocabulary” includes two interrelated aspects. Firstly, vocabulary is part of the general system of language and is correlated with phonetics, morphemics, word formation, morphology, and syntax. Secondly, consistency is inherent in vocabulary from the point of view of its internal organization. Words are combined into different groups depending on their meaning. Thus, word combinations based on semantic similarities and differences can be identified - antonymic pairs, synonymous series. A complex microsystem is represented by a polysemantic word. Based on the general semantic component, words are combined into groups: for example, the words lake, river, stream, canal, pond, etc. form a group of words with general meaning'water'.

Thus, the meanings of words form a system within one word (polysemy), within the vocabulary as a whole (synonymy, antonymy), within the entire language system (connections of vocabulary with other levels of language). The specificity of the lexical level of language is the orientation of vocabulary to reality ( sociality), the permeability of the system formed by words, its mobility, and the associated impossibility of accurately calculating lexical units.

Bibliography

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Question 1

Lexicology as a science about the vocabulary of the modern Russian language. Sections of lexicology

Lexicology from Greek. leksis, leksicos word, expression; logos teaching. This science examines the vocabulary (lexical) composition of a language in different aspects. Lexicology examines the vocabulary of a language (lexicon) from the point of view of what a word is, how and what it expresses, and how it changes. Phraseology is adjacent to lexicology, which is often included in lexicology as a special section.

Lexicology is divided into general, specific, historical and comparative. The first, called general lexicology in English, is a section of general linguistics that studies the vocabulary of any language, that which relates to lexical universals. General lexicology deals with the general laws of the structure of the lexical system, issues of the functioning and development of the vocabulary of the world's languages.

Private lexicology studies the vocabulary of a particular language. Special lexicology deals with the study of issues related to the vocabulary of one language, in our case English. Thus, general lexicology can consider, for example, the principles of synonymous or antonymic relations in a language, while specific lexicology will deal with the peculiarities of English synonyms or antonyms.

Both general and specific problems of vocabulary can be analyzed in various aspects. First of all, any phenomenon can be approached from a synchronic or diachronic point of view. The synchronic approach assumes that the characteristics of a word are considered within a certain period or one historical stage of their development. This study of vocabulary is also called descriptive lexicology. Diachronic, or historical, lexicology (historical lexicology) studies the historical development of the meanings and structure of words.

Comparative or contrastive lexicology deals with the comparison of lexical phenomena of one language with facts of another or other languages. The purpose of such studies is to trace the ways of intersection or divergence of lexical phenomena characteristic of the languages ​​selected for comparison.

Historical lexicology traces changes in the meanings (semantics) of a single word or an entire group of words, and also examines changes in the names of objects of reality (see below about etymology). Comparative lexicology reveals similarities and differences in the division of objective reality by lexical means different languages. Both individual words and groups of words can be matched.

Main tasks lexicology are:

*)definition of a word as a meaningful unit vocabulary;

*)characteristics of the lexical-semantic system, that is, identification of the internal organization of linguistic units and analysis of their connections (semantic structure of the word, specificity of distinctive semantic features, patterns of its relations with other words, etc.).

The subject of lexicology, as follows from the very name of this science, is the word.

Sections of lexicology:

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

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

Phraseology - studies phraseological units.

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

Etymology - studies the origin of individual words.

Lexicography deals with the issues of compiling and studying dictionaries. It is also often called applied lexicology.

The concept of the term “modern Russian literary language”.

Traditionally, the Russian language has been modern since the time of A.S. Pushkin. It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of the Russian national language and the literary Russian language. The national language is the language of the Russian people; it covers all spheres of people’s speech activity. In contrast, literary language is a narrower concept. Literary language is the highest form of existence of language, an exemplary language. This is a strictly standardized form of the popular national language. Literary language is understood as a language processed by wordsmiths, scientists, and public figures.

Question 2

Wordbasic unit of language. Signs of a word. Definition of the word. Types of words. Functions of the word

The word is the basic structural-semantic unit of language, which serves to name objects and their properties, phenomena, relations of reality, and has a set of semantic, phonetic and grammatical features specific to each language. Characteristic signs words - integrity, separability and free reproducibility in speech.

Given the complexity of the multifaceted structure words, modern researchers, when characterizing it, use multidimensional analysis and point to the sum of a variety of linguistic features:

• phonetic (or phonemic) design and the presence of one main stress;
• lexical-semantic significance words, its separation and impermeability (impossibility of additional inserts inside words without changing its value);
• idiomaticity (otherwise unpredictability, unmotivated naming or incomplete motivation);
• attribution to one or another part of speech.

In modern lexicology of the Russian language, the short definition proposed by D. N. Shmelev seems quite motivated: word This is a unit of naming, characterized by completeness (phonetic and grammatical) and idiomaticity.

There are several types of words. According to the method of nomination, four types of words are distinguished: independent, auxiliary, pronominal, interjections.

Words are distinguished phonetically: single-stressed, unstressed, multi-stressed, complex.

Words are distinguished according to morphological characteristics: changeable, unchangeable, simple, derivative, complex.

By motivation: unmotivated and motivated.

According to semantic and grammatical criteria, words are grouped into parts of speech.

From the point of view of structural integrity, a distinction is made between integral and divisible words.

Semantically, words differ between single-valued and polysemous, absolute and relative, requiring an object and transitive verbs. In a sentence, a word enters into subtle semantic relationships with other words and elements of the sentence (intonation, word order, syntactic functions).

FUNCTIONS OF THE WORD

communicative function

nominative function

aesthetic function

language function

communication function

message function

impact function

IMPACT FUNCTION. Its implementation is a voluntary function, i.e. expression of the will of the speaker; the function is expressive, i.e. messages to expressiveness; the function is emotive, i.e. expression of feelings, emotions.

FUNCTION IS COMMUNICATIVE. The purpose of the word is to serve as a means of communication and message;

NOMINATIVE FUNCTION. The purpose of a word is to serve as the name of an object;

COMMUNICATION FUNCTION. The main function of language, one of the aspects of the communicative function, consists in the mutual exchange of statements by members of the language community.

MESSAGE FUNCTION. The other side of the communicative function, which consists in conveying some logical content;

FUNCTION AESTHETIC. The purpose of the word is to serve as a means of artistic expression;

LANGUAGE FUNCTION. Using the potential properties of language means in speech for various purposes.

Question 3

Lexical meaning of the word. Structure of lexical meaning

Lexical meaning the correlation of the sound shell of a word with the corresponding objects or phenomena of objective reality. Lexical meaning does not include the entire set of features inherent in any object, phenomenon, action, etc., but only the most significant ones that help to distinguish one object from another. Lexical meaning reveals the characteristics by which general properties for a number of objects, actions, phenomena, and also establishes differences that highlight a given object, action, phenomenon. For example, the lexical meaning of the word giraffe is defined as follows: “an African artiodactyl ruminant with a very long neck and long legs", that is, the characteristics that distinguish a giraffe from other animals are listed.

Question 4

Types of lexical meanings

A comparison of various words and their meanings allows us to highlight several types of lexical meanings words in Russian.

By nomination method straight lines and figurative meanings words

*)Direct(or basic, main) meaning of a word is a meaning that directly correlates with the phenomena of objective reality. For example, words table, black, boil have the following basic meanings respectively:

1. “A piece of furniture in the form of a wide horizontal board on high supports or legs.”

2. "The color of soot, coal."

3. “Burgle, bubble, evaporate from strong heat” (about liquids).

These values ​​are stable, although

>Abstracts on the Russian language

Lexicology

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary or vocabulary of a language. The word “lexicology” is of ancient Greek origin and is translated as “the science of words.” One of the main tasks of this science is to study the meaning of a word or phraseological unit, as well as to study the relationships between the meanings of words, for example, polysemy, homonymy, synonymy. In its research, lexicology relies on the social, territorial and professional characteristics of native speakers.

The vocabulary of a native speaker can be active or passive.

-­ Active vocabulary- these are words that we know well and often use.

-­ Passive vocabulary- these are words that we know, but almost never use.

Lexicology is usually divided into two: general and specific. While general lexicology studies the vocabulary of any language, private lexicology is studying one specific language. Some scientists also distinguish between historical and comparative lexicology. Purpose historical lexicology is to study the history of words, the formation and development of vocabulary, and the goal comparative lexicology is to identify lexical differences between two or more languages. Thus, lexicology considers not only the meanings of words, but also the system of their relationships, formation and development, as well as functional and stylistic differences.

Lexicology, as the science of language, has the following sections:

1. Onomasiology - studies the word as a name and its place in the lexical system of the language.
2. Phraseology – studies stable speech patterns and expressions.
3. Onomastics – studies proper names, their formation and development.
4. Lexicography – studies the semantic structure of words and issues of compiling dictionaries.
5. Semasiology – studies the meaning of linguistic units.
6. Etymology – studies the origin of words.
7. Stylistics – studies the connotation of words and phrases.

The object of study of lexicology, accordingly, is the word as a linguistic unit. The subject of lexicology is the consideration of a word in relation to its concept, the study of the structure of the vocabulary of a language and the ways of its replenishment, the functioning lexical units, as well as the relationship of vocabulary with extra-linguistic reality. The vocabulary of a language reflects not only the social aspects within the language, but also professional and age differences.

Lexicology is a branch of the science of language that studies vocabulary in its current state and historical development.

The object of study in lexicology is primarily words. Words, as is known, are also studied in morphology and word formation. But if in morphology and word formation words turn out to be a means for studying grammatical structure and word-formation models and rules, then in lexicology words are studied from the point of view of 1) their semantic meaning, 2) place in common system vocabulary, 3) origin, 4) usage, 5) scope of application in the process of communication and 6) their expressive and stylistic nature.

The relationships between words can be very unique.

The word as the main significant unit of the Russian language.

Like other languages, Russian as a means of communication is a language of words. “From words that act separately or as components of phraseological units, sentences are formed using grammatical rules and laws, and then the text as a structural and communicative whole.” 1

Words in language designate specific objects and abstract concepts, express human emotions, call “general, abstract categories of existential relations,” 2 etc. Thus, the word acts as the main significant unit of language.

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

Shansky believes that it is possible to give a correct definition of a word only if it organically reflects absolutely all the basic differential features of the word, sufficient to distinguish it from other linguistic units.

One of the main properties of words existing in a language is

their reproducibility. Reproducibility - words are created in the process of communication, and are extracted from memory or any speech context in the form of a single structural-semantic whole.

Shansky identified several reasons why reproducibility cannot be considered sufficient to distinguish words from other linguistic units: “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 in turn, 2) in the process of speech, words may arise that are not reproducible, but created morphemic combinations” 3

A word is characterized by a phonetic form (and also, naturally, a graphic form if the language has, in addition to an oral form, a written form).

The phonetic design characteristic of a word is expressed

is that any lexical unit always acts as a “sound structural unity corresponding to the phonological norms of a given language system” 4

No less important is another property of a word - its semantic valence 5. There is not a single word in the language that has no meaning. Every word has not only a certain sound, but also a particular meaning. This is precisely what distinguishes a word from a phoneme.

A distinctive feature of a word is its lexico-grammatical relationship. Morphemes, existing as a further indivisible meaningful whole in a word, do not have a lexico-grammatical relationship. They act as significant parts, deprived not only of any morphological design, but also of any attachment to a specific lexical-grammatical category. “As parts of a word, morphemes are completely incapable of syntactic use and, when used in a sentence, they immediately turn into words, acquiring bright and undoubted morphological features of a noun. Function words are closest to morphemes; their meanings are very “formal”; they have no grammatical structure. However, function words (including prepositions) appear before us as

undoubted words." 6

Indirectly and reflectedly (but very effectively) in distinguishing function words (especially prepositions) from morphemes, the property of word impenetrability helps, which is one of the most striking features of a word, in contrast to prepositional-case combinations, free combinations of words and individual categories of phraseological units, semantically equivalent to a word. After all, if the word as a morphemic whole is impenetrable, then the significant units between which free verbal “insertions” are possible are words and only words, but in no case morphemes. And vice versa, significant units, between which free verbal insertions are impossible, are not separate words, representing either parts of a word, i.e., morphemes, or parts of a phraseological phrase. The property of impenetrability is characteristic of absolutely all words: it is impossible to insert words (and especially combinations of words) inside words in the Russian language 7 .

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.

By forms of a word we should understand such varieties of it that differ from each other only in grammatical features and are related as dependent, secondary to the same one, which acts as the main, initial one.

The main, initial forms are the nominative case forms in names, the infinitive in the verb, etc.

Word variants can be considered formations that have an identical morphemic composition and the differences between which are so insignificant that they do not violate the unity of the lexical unit as a whole. They differ from word forms in that they are opposed and related to one another as single-row ones (cf.: galosh - galosh, far - far, key - key, audience (room) and audience (listeners), etc.).