- •General problems of lexicology. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics
- •Word as the basic unit of language
- •The semantic triangle
- •Lexical meaning and the semantic structure of English words
- •Semantic change: its types and causes
- •Linguistic causes of change
- •Extra-linguistic causes of change
- •Morphological structure of English words
- •Derivational and functional affixes
- •Allomorphs
- •Compound words in modern English
- •Classification of compounds
- •Derivational compounds
- •Reduplications in English
- •The historical development of English compounds
- •New wordforming patterns in composition
- •VII. Shortening in Modern English word-building
- •VIII. Conversion in Modern English word-building
- •Substantivation
- •Set expressions in modern English
- •Classification of set expressions
- •The origin of set expressions in modern English
- •English proverbs, sayings, familiar quotations*, clichés
- •Homonymy
- •The origin of homonyms in English
- •Synonyms
- •Sources of synonymy
- •Antonyms
- •Vocabulary as an adaptive system
- •Neologisms
- •Loss of words
- •Division of the vocabulary into groupings
- •Thematic groups
- •Terminological systems
- •Opposition of emotionally colored and emotionally neutral vocabularies
- •The origin of the modern English vocabulary. Native words versus loan words
- •Borrowings
- •Assimilation of loan words. The degree of assimilation
- •Etymological doublets
- •International words
- •Regional varieties of the English vocabulary. Standard English and dialects
- •American English
- •Canadian, Australian, Indian and other variants
- •Lexicography
- •Some of the basic problems of modern lexicography
Some of the basic problems of modern lexicography
I. The first problem is that of selection of elements which would make the bulk of the dictionary. Here we have to decide whether and how far to admit the historic words, scientific terminology, neologisms, nonce words (окказионализмы), slang, dialectal lexicon, Americanisms, etc.
II. The problem of whether a selected unit has a right for separate entry or should be included under a common headword. E.g. whether the nouns produced by conversion should be included under the verb entries.
III. The problem of whether set expressions denoting one phenomenon should be mentioned in a single entry or their elements should be separated.
IV. Some words have developed such polysemy that it has become difficult to define whether it has separate though interrelated meanings or shades of one and the same meaning.
Mind you, I don’t mind minding the children if the children mind me. = Understand, I don’t object taking care of the children if the children obey me.
V. The difference in the number of entries may depend on a different approach to the regularly formed derivatives like those with suffixes –er, -ing, -less, -ty and prefixes re-, ron-, anti-, etc.
VI. The arrangement of a single entry which is its structure. Here we have to decide whether we should provide words with labels (like obs. for “obsolete”), whether to give examples of their usage in speech, whether to give their grammatical forms, whether to provide information on their etymology, etc.
VII. The problem of whether to mark the words with stylistic labels, like colloquial, technical, archaic, rhetorical, slang, vulgar, obscene, etc. And whether to give information on their expressive colouring, e.g. diminutive, ironical, emphatic, etc.
VIII. The last but not least is the problem of definition, which may be given either through explanation of the unit, or a group of synonyms. Sometimes definitions are difficult to understand as they deal with terminology and data which is only supposed for specialists, but is rather opaque in its meaning.