Main Problems of Lexicology Essay

Lexicology is the study of expressions-their menanigs and relationships. * English vocabulary is one of the most extensive amongst the worlds lang.contains an huge number of words of forerign origin. * lexicology has to study the etymology of word,e.g.their origin, their development and function * And English is lang.which had changed a lot in a short period of time * So, lexicology has to deal with every(prenominal) the changes in grammar and the vocabulary.WHY ARE WORDS BORROWED FROM 1 LANGUAGE INTO ANOTHER 2Borrowing is a consequence of cultural contact between cardinal language communities. Borrowing of words can go in both directions between the two languages in contact, but often there is an asymmetry, such that more words go from one side to the other. In this case the source language community has some advantage of power, prestige and/or wealth that makes the objects and ideas it brings desired and useful to the borrowing language community. For example, the Germanic tri bes in the inaugural few centuries A.D. adopted numerous loanwords from Latin as they adopted advanced products via trade with the Romans. Few Germanic words, on the other hand, passed into Latin.The actual motion of borrowing is complex and involves many usage events (i.e. instances of use of the new word).Generally, some speakers of the borrowing language dwell the source language too, or at least enough of it to utilize the relevant word. They (often consciously) adopt the new word when speaking the borrowing language, because it most exactly fits the idea they be trying to express. If they are bilingualist in the source language, which is often the case, they might pronounce the words the same or similar to the fashion they are pronounced in the source language. For example, English speakers adopted the word garage from French, at depression with a pronunciation nearer to the French pronunciation than is now usually found. Pre bringably the very first speakers who used the word in English knew at least some French and heard the word used by French speakers, in a French-speaking context.PHONETIC ADJUSTMENT OF BORROWED WORDS 3Purely phonetic change involves no reshuffling of the contrasts of a phonological sy basis. All phonological systems are complex affairs with many small adjustments in phonetics depending on phonetic environment, position in the word, and so on. For the most part, phonetic changes are examples of allophonic differentiation or assimilation, that is, sounds in specific environments acquire new phonetic features or perhaps lose phonetic features they originally had.Many phonetic changes provide the raw ingredients for afterwards phonemic innovations. In Proto-Italic, for example, intervocalic */s/ became *z. This was a phonetic change, a mild and superficial complication in the phonological system only, but when this *z merged with */r/, the effect on the phonological system was greater. trans remainsation LOANS 4By translation-l oans (calques) we indicate borrowings of a special kind. They are not taken into the vocabulary of other language more or less in the same phonemic compliance in which they down been functioning in their own language, but undergo the outgrowth of translation. It is quite obvious that it is only confused words (i. e. words of two or more stems) which can be subjected to such an operation, each stem being translated separately masterpiece (from German Meisterstck), wonder child (from German Wunderkind), first dancer (from Italian prima-ballerina).ANTONYMS ACCORDING TO WORD DERIVATIONAL STRUCTURE 5Derivational antonyms.The regular type of derivational antonyms contains banish prefixes dis-, il- /im-/in-/ir and un-. otherwise negative prefixes occur in this function only occasionally. Modern English prefers to form an antonym with the prefix un- the suffix less is old and not productive anymore. In the oppositions like entrustful hopeless, useful useless the suffix less is con trasting to the suffix -ful, not to the stem (otherwise the antonyms would be hope hopeless). E.g. selfish unselfish, not selfish selfishless.Derivational antonyms may be characterised as contradictory. A pair of derivational antonyms forms a binary opposition (complementary root antonyms). E.g. logical illogical, appear disappear. Not only words, but rectify expressions as well, can be grouped into antonymic pairs. E.g. by accident on purpose.BROADENING AND NARROWING 6Broadening of marrow. This occurs when a word with a specific or limited meaning is widened. The broadening process is technically called globalization. An example of generalization is the word business, which originally meant the state of being busy, careworn, or anxious, and was broadened to encompass all kinds of work or occupations. Another example of the broadening of meaning is pipe. Its earliest recorded meaning was a musical wind instrument. Nowadays it can denote any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e . g. water pipes). This meaning developed through transference based on the similarity of shape (pipe as a musical instrument is also a hollow oblong cylindrical object) which at long last led to a considerable broadening of the range of meaning. Narrowing of meaning.This happens when a word with a general meaning is by degrees applied to something much more specific. The word litter, for example, meant originally ( in front 1300) a bed, then stepwise narrowed down to bedding, then to animals on a bedding of straw, and finally to things scattered about, odds and ends. . . . Other examples of specialization are deer, which originally had the general meaning animal, girl, which meant originally a young person, and meat, whose original meaning was food. We say that narrowing takes place when a word comes to refer to only part of the original meaning. The narrative of the word hound in English neatly illustrates this process. The word was originally pronounced hund in English, and it was the generic wine word for any kind of dog at all. This original meaning is retained, for example, in German, where the word Hund solely means dog. 7.Phraseological units are a kind of ready-made blocks which fit into the structure of a sentence perform a certain syntactical function, more or less as words do. EXP We never get the value of water till the well is dry. You can take the horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. Those who become in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.The first distinctive feature that strikes one is the obvious structural dissimilarity. If one compares proverbs and phraseological units in the semantic aspect, the difference seems to become obvious. Proverbs could be best compared with minute fables for, like the latter, they sum up the collective experience of the community. They moralize (Hell is paved with good intentions), give advice (Dont judge a tree by its bark, give warning (If you sing before breakfast, you will cry before nigh t), admonish (Liars should have good memories) No phraseological unit ever does any of these things. They do not stem for whole statements as proverbs do but for a single concept. Their function in speech is stringently nominative (i. e. they denote an object, an act, etc.). The function of proverbs in speech, though, is communicative (i. e. they impart certain information).