Approaches in which language may be viewed

LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS.

Lexicology (from Gr lexis 'word' and logos 'learning') is the part of linguistics deal­ing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of language. The termvocabulary is used to denote the system formed by the sum total of ill the words andword equivalents that the language possesses. The termword denotes ±e basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. Aword therefore is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit.

The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known asgeneral lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and proper­ties common to all languages are generally referred to aslanguage universals. Special lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language. Every special lexicology is based on the principles of gen­eral lexicology, and the latter forms a part ofgeneral linguistics.

A branch of study calledcontrastive lexicology provides a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be compared and described.

The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as of its single elements, forms the object of historical lexicology oretymology. This branch of linguistics discusses the origin of vari­ous words, their change and development, and investigates the linguistic and extra-linguis- tic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. In the past historical treatment was always combined with thecomparative method. Historical lexicology has been criticised for itsatomistic approach, i.e. for treating every word as an individual and isolated unit. Buthistorical study of words is not necessarily atomistic. Historical lexicology cannot survey the evolution of a vocabulary as an adaptive system, showing its change and devel­opment in the course of time.

Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific structure as a char­acteristic inherent in the system. The descriptive lexicology of the English language deals with the English word in its morphological and semantical structures, investigating the in­terdependence between these two aspects. These structures are identified and distinguished by contrasting the nature and arrangement of their elements.

Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and semantic relations: syn­onymy, antonymy, hyponymy, semantic fields, etc.

approaches in which language may be viewed

Special lexicology employs synchronic (q.v.) and diachronic (q.v.) approaches:
- special descriptive lexicology (synchronic lexicology) – deals with the vocabulary and vocabulary units of a particular language at a certain time
- special historical lexicology (diachronic lexicology) – deals with the changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time.

Universals

Although a considerable amount of languages around the world seem to have nothing in common with each other on the surface, many linguists propose that all languages share certain universal principles. These principles are a set of rules referred to as a Universal Grammar. It is true that the formation of sentences in Hungarian seems to have very little, if anything in common with the formation of sentences in Farsi (Modern Persian). It is also true Chinese verbs are not conjugated whereas Italian verbs have six conjugations. However, the fact that these four languages all adhere to some type of sentence structure formation and use verbs shows that at a basic level, they all share certain characteristics.

General Universal Principles

There are many linguistic features which the languages of the world seem to share. Some are more basic, such as the notion of ‘sentence’ or ‘ verb,’ some are more complex, such as Wh- movement. And not all of these characteristics are observable to the same extent. The rules which all languages have in common, with either very few, or no exceptions are called absolute universals. Consider the following statements.

· All languages are equipped with the grammatical structures needed to give orders, negate a thought, and ask a question.

· All languages use verbs which reflect the past, present, or future.

· All languages possess a finite set of phonemes (sounds) including vowels and consonants which are strung together to form words.

· All languages share the basic categories of words, such as nouns, verbs, description words, relative clauses, and a method for counting.

· All languages use pronouns.

· All languages include any blend of or subcategory of the basis five colors: red, blue, yellow, black and white. The colors which are included in every language are red, white, and black.

Linguistic features which are shared by many but not all languages are referred to relative universals or universal tendencies. They include phonological features. For example, most languages have nasal stops, however several do not. Syllables are generally constructed with some type of combination of vowels and consonants with the vowel being in the nucleus; however some languages can have syllables which do not. Most languages have a category for adjectives however Blackfoot (an American Indian language) uses a stative verb “to be…” to describe nouns.

Another type of universals is implicational. This means that if the presence of X in a language implies the presence of Y. For instance, according to Greenberg, languages which have gender categories in the noun, will also have gender categories in the pronoun. And if the language has gender categories in general, it will also have number categories. 1 All languages that have [a] as a vowel (all do) will also have [u].

These universal principles help linguists to not only understand the nature of all languages as well as specific languages, but also shed light on the nature of how humans learn and perform language.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 934