ITS SUBJECT MATTER AND OBJECTIVES

Lexicology (from Greek lexis ?word? and logos ?learning?) is a branch of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary (lexicon, word stock) of the language, its basic task being a study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use. The term vocabulary, or lexicon is used to denote the system formed by the sum total of all the words that the language possesses. Word is one of the basic units of the language and a constituent part of vocabulary. Besides word Lexicology deals with other units of the language related to word: idioms, or phraseological units, and also morphemes - the parts of words which express meaning, such as prefixes and suffixes.

Lexicology has its own aims and methods of investigation. It studies all the aspects of the vocabulary of the language ? the meaning of the words, the interrelation of meaning, the sound form and the object named, how objects get their names, how words are formed, how they have developed over time, how they are currently used, how they relate in meaning to each other, how they are handled in dictionaries and used in speech. Thus lexicology approaches the word as its basic units from various aspects: semantic, structural, cognitive, nominative, pragmatic and others. The lexicon is investigated as a system, the elements of which (words, idioms, morphemes) come into various relations such as similarities, differences, oppositions, inclusion, cross-section, on the basis of which they are grouped into certain classes.

Distinction is made between general and special lexicology. General lexicology is a part of general linguistics. It investigates lexical properties of vocabulary units common to all languages which are generally referred to as language universals. For example, to universals belong such phenomena as synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, etc. which are found in many languages but in each particular language there are unique relations between the elements that make up synonyms, antonyms, homonyms. Special lexicology devotes its attention to the description of characteristic features of vocabulary of a particular language (English, Russian, etc.). General and special lexicologies are interrelated and interconditioned. Special lexicologies are based on the principles worked out in the domain of general lexicology, and those principles depend on the data provided by special lexicologies.

Contrastive (comparative)lexicology studies the common properties and differences between lexical units of two or more languages. It is advisable to teachers and students of foreign languages to make use of the data provided by contrastivelexicology comparing the lexical peculiarities of one?s native tongue and the target language (e.g. Russian and English).

There are two principal approaches in linguistic science to the study of language material, namely the synchronic approach (Greek syn- ?together, with?, chronos ?time?) and the diachronic one(Greek dia- ?through?). This idea was put forward by the eminent Swiss linguist F.de Saussure. The synchronic approach is concerned with the language, its phonetic, grammatical, lexical and other systems as they exist at a given period of time (past or present). The diachronic approach deals with the changes and the evolution of language units and systems in the course of time.

A happy example illustrating the difference between these approaches and their interrelation are the words to beg and beggar [Ginzburg 1979: 8]. Synchronically the word beggar is perceived as derived from to beg by analogy with such cases as to sing ??> singer, to teach ??> teacher, etc. But using the diachronic approach we discover that the word beggar was borrowed from Old French beghard,and to beg originated from beggar by back-formation (see ch.4. 5). A similar example is the Russian word ??????,which synchronically is considered a suffixal derivative of ????. But the diachronic approach proves that the word ?????? was borrowed from Holland zonnedeck, and ???? was coined later by back-formation.

It is special descriptive lexicology that deals with the vocabulary of a particular language at a certain time. A course in modern English lexicology is therefore a course in special descriptive lexicology, its object of study being the English vocabulary as it exists at the present time. Special historical lexicology deals with the evolution of the vocabulary units of a language as time goes by. English historical lexicology is concerned therefore with the origin of English vocabulary units, their change and evolution, it also investigates the factors ? linguistic and extralinguistic, which influence their structure, meaning and usage.

It is important to note that these two approaches should not be contrasted, they are interconnected and interdependent: every linguistic structure and system actually exists in a state of constant change. The synchronic state of the language is the result of its evolutionary changes.

Thus the subject matter of the given course is lexicology of modern English, or special descriptive lexicology. One of the branches of lexicology ? etymology is based on the data provided by historical lexicology.

Lexicology is linked with the other linguistic sciences: phonology, grammar, history of the English language, linguostylistics, sociolinguistics. All these branches of linguistics approach words from different aspects. Lexicology deals with morphemes, words and phrases laying emphasis on their meaning, structure, origin, evolution, systematic relations. Phonology investigates the sound form (the outer form) of the word. Grammar is concerned with various means of expressing grammatical relations between words. Linguostylistics studies stylistic properties of words which can be stylistically neutral or marked belonging to slang, jargon, colloquialisms or poetic, archaic, etc. words.

Lexicology is also linked with sociolinguistics, i.e. the branch of linguistics investigating the social nature of language, the influence of social life and public relations on the structure of the language. Language reacts to changes in social life. New developments in social life, science, technology, etc. lead to appearance of new words and phrases (neologisms): e-mail, Eurocrat, taikunaut, DVD, etc. In such cases we deal with extra-linguistic (versus linguistic) causes of vocabulary changes.