Lexicology is a science that focuses on the vocabulary of a particular language. It has its own laws and categories. What does lexicology study? This science deals with various aspects of words, as well as their functions and development.
The concept
Lexicology is a science that studies the vocabulary of a language and its features. The subject of this section of linguistics is the following:
- The functions of lexical units.
- The problem of the word as the basic component of the language.
- Types and types of lexical units.
- The structure of the vocabulary of the language.
This is not a complete list of what lexicology is studying. This science deals with the replenishment and expansion of the vocabulary, and also considers the relationships and contradictions between lexical units.
Object of study
The word and its meaning is the basis for many sciences. Morphology, as well as various areas of word formation, deal with these issues. However, if in these sciences words are a means of studying grammatical structures or studying various models for different variants of word formation, then what lexicology is studying is used directly to know the specifics of the words themselves. Lexical units are considered not just as a combination of letters and sounds, but are a holistic system that has its own connections, functions, categories and concepts. This is the object of study of lexicology. She considers not separate words, but all vocabulary as something whole and inseparable.
This approach has its own characteristics. This makes it possible to classify not only words as lexical units , but also stable phrases that have a certain analytical role.
Word problem
The lexicology of the modern Russian language focuses on the object and subject of its study. Since the word is considered as some unit that has connections between its form and content, it is considered in three main aspects:
- Structural. We study the form of a word, its structure and its constituent components.
- Semantic. The meaning of lexical units is considered.
- Functional. The role of words in speech and in the general structure of the language is investigated.
If we talk about the first aspect, then lexicology is a science that sets specific criteria for determining the differences and identities of individual words. To do this, lexical units are compared with phrases, and an analytical structure is developed that allows you to establish the invariants of the word.
As for the semantic aspect, a separate science deals with this - semasiology. She studies the relationship between a word and a specific object. This is important for lexicology. She studies the word and its meaning, as well as its individual categories and types, which makes it possible to single out concepts such as monosimy (uniqueness) and polysymy (polysemy). Lexicology also studies the causes that lead to the appearance or loss of a word of its meaning.
The functional aspect considers the lexical unit as an object that communicates with other similar elements and builds an entire system of language. Here, the role of the interaction of vocabulary and grammar is important, which, on the one hand, support, and on the other, limit each other.
The concept of vocabulary
Lexicology considers words as a system that consists of several subsystems. Lexical units form groups that are different in volume, form and content. This is part of what lexicology is studying. Vocabulary is studied simultaneously in two aspects: as a group relationship between individual units and their correct location in relation to each other. Thanks to this, vocabulary can be divided into separate categories. For example, homonyms, paronyms, synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, etc.
In addition, almost any section of linguistics, including Russian or English lexicology, studies more voluminous groupings of words called fields. Usually this is based on the core of the field, for example, a certain number of keywords, and the boundaries themselves, which are a variety of paradigmatic, semantic, grammatical or other types of relationships with these lexical units.
Lexicology sections
Like any other science, lexicology has its own system of disciplines that are responsible for certain aspects of its object and subject of study:
- Semasiology. Deals with the meanings of words and phrases.
- Onomasciology. He studies the procedure for naming objects and phenomena.
- Etymology. Explores the origin of words.
- Onomastics. Engaged in proper names. This applies to both people's names and geographical names.
- The style. Learns the meaning of words and phrases of a connotative nature.
- Lexicography. He is engaged in ways of organizing and compiling dictionaries.
- Phraseology. Explores phraseological units and persistent expressions.
Sections of lexicology have their own categories, as well as the object and subject of study. In addition, there are some types of this science. In particular, we are talking about general, private, historical, comparative and applied lexicology. The first type is responsible for the general laws of vocabulary, including its structure, stages of development, functions, etc. Private lexicology is engaged in the study of a particular language. The historical type is responsible for the development of words in connection with the history of the names of objects and phenomena. Comparative lexicology examines words in order to identify the relationship between different languages. The latter type is responsible for such processes as speech culture, translation features, linguistic pedagogy and lexicography.
Categories of lexical units
The vocabulary of any language is diverse and heterogeneous. Accordingly, they distinguish categories that have their own distinctive features and characteristics. Russian lexicology anticipates the following subspecies:
- By scope: commonly used words and lexical units that are used in special situations (science, poetry, vernacular, dialects, etc.).
- By emotional stress: neutral and emotionally colored units.
- According to historical development: neologisms and archaisms.
- By its origin and development: internationalism, borrowing, etc.
- By functionality - active and passive lexical units, as well as occasionalisms.
Given the constant development of the language, the boundaries between the words are fuzzy, and they can move from one group to another.
Problems
Like any other science, lexicology deals with the solution of certain problems. Modern experts distinguish the following:
- The frequency of words in the text.
- The difference between lexical units in writing and spoken language.
- Opportunities of words that allow you to create new names for objects and phenomena.
- Change the meaning of vocabulary.
Science is also exploring options for combining words at different levels: semantic and lexical.
Vocabulary replenishment methods
Lexicology is exploring options for nominations. By this we understand the various ways and methods of expanding the vocabulary. For this, both the internal resources of a particular language and the use of lexical units from other languages can be used. There are the following ways to replenish the vocabulary:
- Word formation - the creation of new words.
- Construction of new meanings for existing words: polysemy, transfer of meanings, etc.
- The formation of persistent phrases.
- Borrowing.
These methods are characteristic of any language, but in each case they have their own characteristics and distinctive features.
Methods
For its needs, lexicology uses general linguistic research methods. These include:
- Distribution. Responsible for determining the scope of the lexical unit, for the number of values, etc.
- Substitution. It studies the phenomena of synonymy and variation of words.
- Component method. He is responsible for the splitting of lexical units into separate components, and also deals with their general structure.
- Transformation. Used in the process of word formation in order to determine the main component of the word.
- The statistical method. Used to determine the frequency of use of lexical units, as well as to calculate their semantic, paradigmatic and other types of relationships.
Information obtained using these methods is also used in other sciences, including psycholinguistics, neuro-linguistics, as well as a number of social disciplines.