Lexicology Questions & Answers PDF

—Answer the questions: 1. What is lexicology? What does the term "lexicology" stand for? What are the main problems of lexicology? Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of words, their meanings, their development, and their relationships to each other within a language....

—Answer the questions: 1. What is lexicology? What does the term "lexicology" stand for? What are the main problems of lexicology? Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of words, their meanings, their development, and their relationships to each other within a language. The term "lexicology" comes from the Greek word "lexis," meaning "word" or "speech," and "logos," meaning "study" or "discourse." The main problems of lexicology Give an example of a word with a complex internal structure Explain the difference between inflectional and derivational affixes How does the concept of a 'word' vary across different languages? The definition of the word: Determining what constitutes a word in a given language. Meaning and semantics: Understanding how words carry meaning, including issues related to polysemy (multiple meanings of a word) and synonymy (similar meanings of different words). Word formation: Investigating the processes by which new words are created, such as through derivation, compounding, or borrowing. Etymology: Studying the origins and historical development of words. Lexical relations: Analyzing how words relate to each other, such as through synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, and hypernyms. Lexical semantics: The study of the meaning of words and their nuances in different contexts. 2. Speak about the problem of the definition of the word as a linguistic phenomenon. The definition of the "word" is problematic because its boundaries are not always clear-cut. In linguistics, a word is typically seen as a unit of meaning that can stand alone, but this definition becomes blurry in cases like: Compound words (e.g., "toothpaste" or "airplane") where multiple words form a single concept. Clitics: Elements that function like words but cannot stand alone (e.g., "n't" in "isn't"). Inflectional forms: Variations of a base word, like "run," "ran," or "running," which may raise questions about what constitutes a "word" versus a form or variant of it. Phonological and syntactic units: Sometimes, phonologically distinct forms might not function as discrete "words" (e.g., contractions like "can't"). Therefore, defining a word involves considering various factors like its syntactic role, meaning, form, and usage in a language. 3. What are the structural aspects of a word? The structural aspects of a word typically include: Phonological structure: The sound pattern of the word (e.g., pronunciation). Morphological structure: The internal composition of a word, including its morphemes (the smallest units of meaning). This includes: Root: The core part of the word carrying the primary meaning (e.g., "happy" in "unhappiness"). Affixes: Prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or circumfixes that modify the meaning of the root (e.g., "un-" in "unhappiness"). Inflectional endings: These indicate grammatical properties like tense, number, or case. Syntactic structure: The role of the word in a sentence and how it combines with other words (e.g., as a noun, verb, adjective, etc.). 4. What is the external structure of the word irresistible? What is the internal structure of this word? External structure: The external structure of a word refers to its complete form in a given language. The word irresistible consists of the following: The root: resist. The prefix: ir- (negation prefix). The suffix: -ible (which turns verbs into adjectives, meaning "capable of being"). Thus, the external structure of irresistible is composed of these three elements combined in a specific sequence. Internal structure: The internal structure refers to the morphemes that make up the word: ir- (a bound morpheme) negates the meaning of the root word. resist (the root morpheme), which carries the primary meaning of "withstand" or "oppose." -ible (a bound morpheme), which turns the root verb into an adjective meaning "capable of being resisted." 5. Speak about the formal unity of a word. Why is it not quite correct to say that a word is indivisible? The formal unity of a word refers to the fact that a word is typically seen as a single, coherent unit of language that functions independently in speech or writing. It is usually considered indivisible because it is treated as a unit in syntax and meaning. However, it is not entirely correct to say a word is indivisible because: Morphologically: A word can be broken down into smaller meaningful units, called morphemes. These may include the root, prefixes, suffixes, and inflectional endings. Phonologically: A word may be composed of several syllables or sounds that can be separated, as in the case of compound words (e.g., "notebook"). Syntactically: Some words, such as contractions (e.g., "don't"), can be split into their component parts ("do" + "not"). Thus, although a word often appears as a single unit, it is actually composed of smaller parts that contribute to its meaning and form. The idea of a word being indivisible overlooks the internal complexity of words.