One sign of immaturity [in a science] is the endless flow of terminology. D.

Bolinger

CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY Main issues: Lexicology: words, words, words Language units Lexicology as a system Relationships with other linguistic sciences Learning objectives By the end of this chapter you will be able to: define the field of lexicology and use the subject-related terminology distinguish between lexicology and other related linguistic sciences speak about various branches of lexicology as well as its basic instruments, lexemes and lexical formations

Words, words, words The vocabulary of any natural language joins together all the words of a language and associates to each word all the information required by the rules of grammar. 1.1. Words play a tremendous role in human existence in that they are the basic representation of the world on an abstract level, i.e., that of the human mind. They are the vital instrument which enables humans to name real things and abstractions, to express themselves, to make their life better in a monolingual and multilingual society. As such, they may be used or interpreted either discretely or in the most diverse combinations or associations based on a wide range of criteria. Besides their being used in everyday communication, words are the raw material for different kinds of scientific analyses and interpretations circumscribed to social sciences and humanities. In a wider perspective, the sum total of words in a language as well as their ability to express concepts, objects, feelings, attitudes which may be very simple and linear or perhaps, very complex, intricate or sophisticated, the vocabulary not only reflects its speakers level of education and instruction but also the level of progress of human knowledge at a certain time interval or through the centuries. 1.2. Both vocabulary and lexicon are terms used to denote the system formed by the sum total of words a language possesses. The former, vocabulary, is of Latin origin and it displays the following basic meanings (Webster Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language 1996: 2129): 1: a list or collection of words or of words and phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained or defined: LEXICON.

CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY 2 a: a sum or stock of words employed by a language, group, individual, or work or in a field of knowledge; b: a list or collection of terms or codes available for use (as in an indexing system). 3: a supply of expressive techniques or devices. The latter, lexicon, is borrowed from Greek and it also has three meanings: 1: a book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language and their definitions: DICTIONARY 2 a: the vocabulary of a language, of an individual speaker or of a group of speakers or of a subject b: the total stock of morphemes in a language 3: repertoire, inventory 2.1. Saussure speaks about the existence of a network of associative fields covering the entire vocabulary and its structuring by means of a series of possible associations among lexical items. The network of associative fields later evolved into the semantic field theory1 while the series of possible associations among lexical items further evolved into the study word relationships, such as synonymy, antonymy, meronymy, homonymy, hyponymy2, etc. 2.2. All these aspects make the object of a science whose name, lexicology, first appeared in the 1820s, although concerns in and studies of words had already existed before these decades. Lexicology (<Gr. lexis + Gr. logos = the study of words) may be defined simply as the study of words (Grzega and Schner 2007: 7), or the language science which focuses on vocabulary. Richards, Platt, Platt (1993: 212) provide a formal definition, describing lexicology to be that branch of linguistics which studies the vocabulary items of a language, including their meanings and relations, and changes in their form and meaning through time. 2.3. To find a definition for word applicable in several languages is a rather difficult endeavour. Some linguists agree that word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning to a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment (Levitchi 1970: 13). Some other have a different opinion when they state that whatever a word is, it is not the same thing in all languages: it may not be possible to provide, for this sense of word, a definition which is valid in all languages except word is what native speakers think a word is (Matthews, 1972:75). Language units. Basics By and large, lexicology works with words, its basic unit is the lexeme, which is interpreted in terms of free or bound morphemes. At the same time, lexicology works with concepts, relationships, meanings, language changes which have taken place along the centuries as well as context-dependent language changes. Thus, at their first and second levels, the two terms are synonyms and broadly used, they are interchangeable as lexical alternatives to name a special type of book, i.e., the dictionary or to refer to the lexical knowledge of individuals or groups of speakers. These smallest units with their own meaning are called morphemes. For
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS example swell, swelled, swollen, swelling, swells can be further separated into [swell] + [-ed], [-en], [-ing] and [-s] and these endings are frequent with many other words. Nevertheless, while swell appears as a word, the rest of the endings will never occur discretely and this is the reason why swell is a free/independent morpheme and the rest of the examples are bound/dependent morphemes (they will always have to be attached to words). Some of these morphemes may be free, some, always dependent and even some of them both dependent and independent.
Exercises 1. Separate each of the following words into their smallest meaningful segments: sorry, globalization, uncertainty, understatement, knowledgeably, afar, embeddedness, solidify, foolishness, stardom, warmth, disambiguate 2. Fill in the table with the morphemes you have found in the above examples: Free morpheme Bound morpheme Both free and bound morpheme

Based on the above examples, provide your own ten examples of words which have similar bound morphemes in their structure. 3. Each of the sentences below contains an error made a non-native speaker of English. Find theses errors and correct them: Mary is a carefully girl. I prefer statistics to logics. With their propensity for logic, theorists are logistically unbeatable. Archaeology attracts those interesting in relics. We are very boring with this course. People who in economy are economics. 4. What can you say about these errors? How would you account for them? 4. Read the text below and then answer the question following it: One day Johnny told his teacher I am ready. I have did my assignment. When the teacher heard him, corrected him saying, repeat after me, please I have done my assignment. And Johnny repeated it. One other day, when the teacher asked Do you know this book?, Johnny answered in a hurry Yes, I have saw it before. And the teacher asked him to repeat again I have seen it before. And so did Johnny. When the classes finished, the teacher asked Johnny to stay and write I have seen one hundred times. When Johnny finished, he wrote a note to his teacher Teacher, I have wrote I have seen one hundred times and now I have went home! Are the errors in this joke similar to those in the preceding exercise? What do they differ in?
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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY The English lexicon is so vast and varied that it is impossible to classify it into neat categories (Crystal 1985: 170). The basic working unit in lexicology is the lexeme, but in traditional grammar it may still be analyzed into smaller units which have a grammatical function and a meaning of their own. Lexeme or word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning to a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. Lexical formation is a syntagm used to denote diverse word combinations which have a meaning of their own, which is the case with compounds, idiomatic structures or even phrasal verbs. A word which is quite common in lexicology is base, which was introduced by Quirk et al (1972, 1985) who distinguish between base and stem as basic terms in dealing with the constituents in the word building processes. Base is a generic term used with reference to any lexical unit which accepts affixes, while stem represents that form of a word stripped of all affixes which are recognizable as such in English. For example, man, person, apply are accepted as stems, while a complex word like depolarization superficially looks like a simple linear string of items (Quirk, 1985: 1518) depolarization ar affix

de affix

pol(e) base

iz(e) affix

ation affix

Lyons (1985:145) divides lexemes into (1) word-lexemes which, structurally consist of one word and (2) phrasal lexemes, whose forms are phrases in the traditional sense of the term, e.g. put up with, red herring, pig in a poke. Less pretentious approaches call lexemes one word units and phrasal lexemes multi-word units. What Lyons leaves aside is the internal structure of words, which even if in one unit, they may have a rather complex structure: both home and unforgettable are one word units, but while home cannot be separated into free + dependent morphemes, unforgettable shows the following structure [un-] + [for-] + [get]+ [-able]. Phrasal lexemes, also known as word combinations, idiomatic expressions, set phrases or phrasemes have become the object of study for phraseology, wherein individual scholars apply different terms to the same category (or the same term to different categories) (Cowie 2001: 16). Phrasal lexemes include several categories of lexical associations out of which this selection includes idioms, collocations a.s.o (Melciuk in Cowie 2001: 30). Other linguists include under phrasal lexemes both clichs and proverbs (Savin 2010: 62). Nevertheless, words associations may preserve the same form, or they may change it depending on the text grammatical requirements: A set phrase is an association of words which never changes its form: (a) She used to work from dawn to dusk. (b) Paul is always in a bad mood.
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS An idiom is, in its narrow meaning, an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on (informally) = to observe carefully, or to keep an eye on. A collocation is a word or phrase which is often used with another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives. In the phrase 'a hard frost', 'hard' is a collocation of 'frost' and 'strong' would not sound natural. In its narrow meaning, collocation refers to: [C] the combination of words formed when two or more words are often used together in a way that sounds correct The phrase 'a hard frost' is a collocation. In its broad meaning, collocation refers to [U] the regular use of some words and phrases with others, especially in a way which is difficult to guess Defining clichs to be fragments of language apparently dying, yet unable to die, the linguist considers that a best label for them would be lexical zombies (Crystal, 1996). Clichs are dying not from underuse, as with the gradual disappearance of old-fashioned words, but from overuse, that is why some, such phrases as at this moment in time, and every Tom, Dick and Harry have been used so frequently that they have lost their power to inform; they have now become trite. A clich is a trite or overused expression or idea. It is actually a fragment of language apparently dying, yet unable to die (Crystal 186) or a phrase which has become so hackneyed that scrupulous speakers and writers shrink from it because they feel that its use is an insult to the intelligence of their auditor or audience, reader or public (Partridge 1969: 73). There also exists a category of clich supporters who admit these constructions to fill an awkward gap in conversation, and thus, they act as lexical life-jackets. They may be used speech situations of the most different kinds. Crystal (1985: 186) enumerates - the passing remarks as people recognize each other in the street but with no time to stop - the self-conscious politeness of strangers on a train - forced interactions in mundane events (parties, conferences, etc) - the desperate platitudes which follow unhappy events (vigils, funerals) Clichs emerge when expressions outlive their usefulness as conveyors of information. Some linguists say No to clich usage since they characterize speakers to be lazy thinkers, unimaginative minds unable to yield their own wording patterns. At the same time, if they use learned clichs they wish to impress or to show off. Pilch (1993) considers metaphors together with their conventional interpretations, to be clichs, such as The Iron Lady (adapted from Partridge 1978: xii), Achilles heel, Argus-eyed, etc. Out of the large number of idiomatic
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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY structures which have become clichs, very few will be mentioned herein: to add insult to injury, a blessing in disguise, (as) dead as a doornail, from times immemorial. At all periods in the history of a language a new word may suddenly appear as if from nowhere, or a new word may be deliberately created by one man who tells the world exactly what he is doing (Potter, 1990). Longer chunks of language with a meaning of their own, proverbs represent not only a repository of culture and tradition, or a symbol of national wisdom, but also the object of study of paremiology. In a comparative approach to English and Romanian proverbs, they may appear to be similar in content or in structure or in both or they may be language-specific both in form and in content.
Exercises Fill in the columns of the table, choosing form the following: in the wink of an eye, rough sea, from cover to cover, to feel free, to come prepared, utter fury, complete astonishment, to give somebody the evil eye, to hold ones horses, to give a cold shoulder, to put all ones ducks in a row, to fall flat, the majority of, armed to the teeth, as a matter of fact, rough winter, to back the wrong horse, as a matter of form, to be in the same boat with, to get back to the nittygritty, a wide range of, silver moon, public eye, in a hearts beat Idiom Collocation Romanian translation

2. Distinguish the clichs in the excerpt below and give their Romanian equivalents: When the grocer who was as fit as a fiddle, had taken stock of the situation he saw the writing on the wall, but he decided to turn over a new leaf and put his house in order by taking a long shot at eliminating his rival in the street who was also an old hand at making the best of a bad job. 3. Match the explanation in column B to the learned clichs in column A A 1. Ad infinitum, ad libitum 2. Cela va sans dire 3. Aqua pura (Latin) 4. Con amore 5. Civis Romanus sum 6. to cross the Rubicon 7. Ad nauseam 8. Comme il faut 9. cum grano salis 10. cui bono? 11. Deo volente (D.v.) B I am a Roman citizen pure water infinitely, never-endingly according to the etiquette this goes without saying with love, zeal, delight, pleasure sickeningly to take an irrevocable step for whose advantage to accept with reservations to take with a grain of salt If God so wishes

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) (k) (l)
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS

Lexicology as a system The general interrelationship and interdependence of phenomena in nature and the society are analyzed and interpreted through the notion of system. Consequently, system denotes not merely the sum total of the English words to collect and explain them is the task of lexicography. Lexicology studies recurrent patterns of semantic relationships, and of any formal, phonological, morphological or contextual means by which they may be rendered. It aims at systematization. Linguistic relationships between words may be of two kinds: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. The syntagmatic relationships are based on the linear character of speech, i.e. on the influence of the context. Context is the minimum stretch of speech necessary and sufficient to determine which of the possible meanings of a polysemantic word is meant. In some cases the microcontext i.e., a sentence or a syntagm is not sufficient and the speaker requires a broader stretch of words to grasp the message. Paradigmatic linguistic relationships determining the system of the vocabulary are based on the interdependence of words within the vocabulary (classes, subclasses, and groups of words). Comparing words within the same word family, one can notice the difference in the arrangement of morphemes: house-dog and dog-house. In fact, any change in one word will cause changes in one or several other words. Good illustrations for this statement are the represented by the influence of loans upon native words. Thus, in O.E. harvest originally meant both the gathering of grain and the season of reaping. Beginning with the end of the 14th century, after the Latin word autumnus was accepted in English, the second meaning of the native word was lost and it was replaced by the Latin word. Theoretical and practical importance of lexicology The theoretical value becomes obvious if we realize that it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of language, i.e., the vocabulary. It came into being to meet the needs of many different branches of applied linguistics, out of which it is worthwhile naming lexicography, second language acquisition, teaching foreign languages, the creation and development of the terminological data-bases. Lexicology provides for the systematic description of the present-day vocabulary, of the various tones in the usage of words, emphasizing the means which suggest the expressiveness of words as well as their stylistic value. Types/branches of lexicology Traditional lexicology, according to Chitoran (1973:97), deals with three types of lexical relationships, semantic, morph-semantic and syntagmatic. The semantic ties are based on the word signification and they result in synonymic and antonymic series of words. The morpho-semantic ties characterize the lexical items derived from a common basic element and they result in what will be called word associations or word families, illustrated by derivationally related words friend, friendly, unfriendliness, friendship, etc. The synatgmatic ties are further subdivided by the Romanian linguist into a) free syntagmatic ties,
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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY obtaining among lexical items such as sit and any of the following: chair, table, down, etc. in such utterances as sit on a chair, sit at the table, sit down, etc. (1973:98) and b) stereotype syntagmatic ties of the type established among lexical items which are part of set idioms and phrases. It is difficult enough to draw a clear-cut distinction between the two aspects of lexicology as they complement each other in that the description of the contemporary lexical system is based on the data supplied by historical studies, while the diachronic approach looks upon the contemporary lexical system as a starting point. While general lexicology considers the general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, special lexicology deals with description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a language in focus. Every special lexicology is based on principles of general lexicology, which in turn, is part of general linguistics. The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as its single elements makes the object of interest of historical/diachronic lexicology, which discusses the origin of various words and the change, development and investigates the linguistic and extralinguistic factors modifying their structure, meaning and usage. Descriptive/synchronic lexicology considers the vocabulary of a given language within the limits of a time interval in its evolution. It is difficult enough to draw a clear-cut distinction between the two aspects of lexicology as they complement each other in that the description of the contemporary lexical system is based on the data supplied by historical studies, while the diachronic approach looks upon the contemporary lexical system as a starting point. In point of methodology, lexicology consists of three subdivisions: Morphophonemics - studies the significant differences of pronunciation of a single morpheme, or in other words, the relationships between morphology and phonology. It involves the investigation of the phonological variations within morphemes usually marking different grammatical functions. That would be simply illustrated with distinctions as what follows:
nation /nein/ national /nnl/ half /ha:f/ halves /ha:vz/

Lexical semantics/semasiology studies the meaning of the words, their significance and the dynamics of the meanings; semantic relations between words: synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, antonymy, and eponymy. The techniques used in the analysis of meaning are the contextualization of meaning and the problem of linguistic ambiguity. Etymology pertains to lexical history. It studies the biography of words, that is, it records the history of a word from its contemporary existence down to its origins. That is to say that it investigates the origins of lexemes, the affinities they may have or may have had with to each other, and how they have changed their meaning and form to reach their present position. Etymology joins together morphophonemics and semasiology, as along the centuries words may have undergone significant changes either in their form or meanings, or in both. The branch of linguistics dealing with causal relationships between the way language works and develops, on the one hand and the facts of social life
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS on the other hand is known as sociolinguistics.

Exercises 1. Select the correct answer to the questions below: Lexicology studies a) the vocabulary of a language b) linguistic relationships between words c) a) + b) Linguistic relationships between words may be a) systemic b) syntagmatic c) syntagmatic and paradigmatic Syntagmatic relationships describe a) relationships between subject and predicate b) relationships between main and subordinate clauses c) relationships to be established at sentence (or syntagm) level Within lexicology paradigmatic relationships characterize a) the language as a whole b) the system of the vocabulary c) the grammatical system of a language 2. Fill in the table below so as to provide a representation of branches of lexicology: Lexicology displays several branches, when seen in terms of perspective methodology

Relationships with other linguistic sciences Due to its status of a branch of linguistics, lexicology is interrelated with some other branches of linguistics, namely phonetics and phonology, grammar (morphology, syntax and semantics), stylistics and lexicography. Lexicology, Phonetics and Phonology Its connection with phonetics is more than obvious: on an acoustic level words are made up of phonemes and these participate in the signification of words. The form-meaning unit is conditioned by a number of phonological features: the importance of the phonemic sequence and arrangement may be
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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY revealed by a transposition of parts of words. Discrimination between words may also be made by means of stress, particularly in the case of those words which may play several roles at the sentence level, depending on the position they hold within the mentioned space. Consider the example of the word progress which behaves as a verb and as a noun, and where the difference in pronunciation is felt due to the word stress. My client will progress with her work. /prugres/ No progress has been recorded so far. /prugres/ Phonology provides information concerning the stress of the words, the behaviour of the words (in terms of grammar), the process of phonetic adaptation of neologisms, the phonetic oppositions which play a considerable role in the differentiation of sound groups. Phonological consequences of word formation include: -stress variation with consequent differences in vowel pronunciation photograph /futgra:f/ -photographic /futgrfik/ -photography /ftogrfi/ - photographer /ftogrfr/ - vowel alteration while the stress is constant: - nation /nein/ - national /nenl/ - as a rule, affixes are unstressed, but: a) a few suffixes assume primary stress b) prefixes have secondary stress if: i) they are disyllabic (inter) ii) the base begins with an unstressed syllable iii) they are new uses of old items Lexicology and Stylistics Stylistics studies many items treated in lexicology. These are items of meaning, synonymy, differentiation of vocabulary according to the functional styles or registers, and some other issues. Hidden connotations involved by just few sounds which are frequently part of many words (see suffixes) will remain less suggestive to those speakers of English less familiar with lexicology. Lexicology and Grammar. There can be no discussion of one without the other: even isolated words, as they are presented into a dictionary entry, bear a definite relationship with the grammatical system of a language, for they belong to some part of speech and conform to some characteristics peculiar to the word class they may be assigned to. Words seldom occur in isolation. They are arranged into certain patterns conveying relationship messages between the things for which they stand; therefore alongside with the lexical meaning each word also circumscribes a certain percentage of grammatical meaning. The close ties between lexicology and grammar are obvious in the study of conversion, viewed as a productive word-building process. Grammar, by means of its two component chapters, morphology and syntax, makes use of lexemes; consequently, they become its instruments. Lexemes fall into several grammatical categories, which are traditionally
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS labeled as parts of speech. These parts of speech are defined both lexically and grammatically since the lexical and grammatical meanings are closely interrelated. The enrichment of the vocabulary by means of conversion or change of the grammatical category also points to the connection existing between lexicology and grammar. Lexicology and Lexicography Closely related to lexicology, in that it makes use of the discoveries of lexicologists, lexicography is that branch of applied linguistics which deals with the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. Lexicography is that branch of linguistics which explains and defines the meanings of the words as well as their classifications and enlisting in glossaries, dictionaries, lexicons or encyclopedias. In spite of its apparent subordination to lexicology, lexicography is, in fact, some centuries older than the former, and even if without any basic theory, various lists of words, based on different criteria were produced many centuries before the birth of lexicology. Lexicology and Terminology Terminology is a field of growing interest among the other language sciences, first of all, as a consequence of the need of experts working with specialist knowledge which involves technical words for their professional communication purposes. By technical words we mean those particular words belonging to a well-defined field of activity. Practice shows that many of the common words reveal new meanings when they appear in professional texts or contexts. This new branch or relative of lexicology, terminology, is highly useful in the case of non-technically trained professional translators who have to perform technical translations, it is important in education and training; it is helpful in creating data bases, translation memories or even glossaries, lexicons or specialist dictionaries either for personal or for professional communities use. Word formation is that branch of the sciences of language which studies the patterns on which a language forms new lexical units, i.e., words. Word formation is a traditional label, but it does not generally cover all the possible ways creating everything that can be called a word. There has not been common acceptance as far as terminology with word formation is concerned. Thus, for a first example, back formation, back fusion and back derivation have been used to denote the same word building mechanism, elision and contraction mainly describe the same letter-losing process, and the way abbreviation has been given several interpretations, which are quite different from one another. In short, there are as many word building processes and as many meanings assigned to the terms used to denote the lexical processes as sources of documentation. Formation is a process word and an object word; it refers to the making of certain composite structures and to the structures themselves. (Pei, 1968: 163)
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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY Interest in word formation may have gone hand in hand with interesting language, in general and this is obvious from the commentaries which have been scattered throughout the centuries since Panini, who provided a detailed description of Sanskrit word formation and which come up to the present day. Many of the questions which have not found an answer yet, and which had been asked in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries show the little advance since Paninis work. An explanation could rely on the fact that linguistics received a boost only in the early years of the 20th century. Saussures distinction between diachrony and synchrony has exercise a profound effect upon linguistic studies since 1916 and effectively precluded the study of word formation where synchrony and diachrony are most fruitfully considered together (Adams 1973:5). This is the case of Jespersen (1942), who merged the synchronic and diachronic views in his approach to word formation, some linguists considered this domain either diachronically (Koziol 1937) or synchronically (Bloomfield 1935). Much has been written on word formation, and through different perspectives: A phonological point of view: Halle, 1973, Lighter, 1975 Syntactic point of view: Jackendoff, 1975, Roeper and Siegel, 1978; A semantic point of view: Leech, 1975, Lyons, 1977 Nevertheless, the year 1960 witnessed the publication of a monumental work in the specialist literature, i.e., Marchands The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation, an encyclopedic work which has not been surpassed by any other even half a century after its first edition. A remarkable contribution to the field came out almost twenty years later, with Laurie Bauers English Word-Formation (Cambridge University Press, 1983). The need for exchanging ideas in a globalized society has had an impact on the development of lexicology and especially of lexicography since communicators demand more and more complex and well-documented dictionaries to express themselves or for translational purposes. While lexicographers will have to make use of accurate instruments to describe words properly, it is the lexicologists task provide them. CONCLUSIONS Lexicology is a science about words, their internal organization, their constituent parts and their relationships. Remarkable among the other linguistic sciences for both its theoretical background and its practical implications in facilitating the language acquisition process, lexicology may be of great help to learners of foreign languages for its main object is to make general statements with a view to describing part of words, simple words and complex combinations of words. Lexicology is to be understood in close connection with phonetics, etymology, grammar and semantics since all these domains of language interpretation basically rely on words be they considered separately or as part of smaller or larger contexts.
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LEXICOLOGY. OBJECT AND RELATIONSHIPS FURTHER READING (follow the superscripts on page 1) 1. for details on possible networks of associative fields, see the semantic field theory:
http://www.eurolang.mq.edu.au/staff/documents/bertpeeters/SemanticField_Terminolo gy.pdf 2. for details on word relationships, access one of the following sites: http://www.aclweb.org/anthology-new/P/P09/P09-1049.pdf http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/MarosanLajos/LTlexsemantics.pdf http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lexical-relations-hyponymy-and-homonymy.html

FINAL EXERCISES 1. Use a good dictionary and extract information describing the following words: vocabulary, thesaurus, glossary and terminology (as well as all their related terms) 2. Give four examples of lexicographic works which describe the English, the Romanian or the French vocabularies. 1. 2. . 3. . 4. . 5. .

3. Indentify the free morphemes in the following words:

Soluble, talkative, swollen, riches, goes, widen, finds, boys, spoken, martyrdom, snowy, birdie,

4. Can you give four examples of one-phoneme bound morphemes?

6. Can you give four examples of one-syllabled free morphemes?

7. Can you give examples of different morphemes with a similar pronunciation?

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CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY 8. The pairs of words trial and triangle, unilateral and unique, multiple and

multiracial have a similar group of phonemes in their structure; what is odd about them? Could you find other examples to illustrate the same oddity?

9. Read the following pair of words and comment on their special feature. Give
your own example to reveal the same feature. face - facetious

10. Distinguish the clichs from the set phrases in the examples below and give the
Romanian versions for the last five examples: from cover to cover, to add insult to injury, shoulder to shoulder, high and dry, to have an ace up ones sleeve, in the nick of time, to be armed to the teeth, a wolf in sheeps clothing, in the distance, at full speed, wise after the event. 11. Group the clichs below into informal and learned and match them to their explanation: (a) to cut the Gordian knot 1. to laugh to oneself/be inwardly amused (b) to come a day after the fair 2. if God so wishes /will (c) Deo volente 3. to come after the event happened (d) to die in harness 4. to be well informed (e) dolce far niente 5. the principal share or portion (f) fall between two stools 6. the very pleasant state of idleness (g) to know the ropes 7. to die working (h) to laugh in ones sleeve 8. to fail because hesitation between alternatives (i) the lions share 9. to solve by force/evasion a very difficult problem 10. to lay ones cards on the table 12. Group the proverbs below so as to fill in the table: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. A stitch in time saves nine. Better safe than sorry. The early bird catches the worm. The proof of the cook is in the pudding. You scratch my back Ill scratch your back. The apple doesnt fall far from the tree. Look for the shillings and the pounds will look after themselves. If you wish good advice consult an old man. The other mans pasture always looks the greenest. Like father, like son. The wolf may lose his teeth, but never his nature. Wise men learn by other mens harms; fools by their own. English-Romanian similar meaning proverbs Language-specific proverbs

English-Romanian similar syntactic pattern proverbs

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