Lexicology and Lexicography PDF

**Lexicology and Lexicography** **Lexicology** is the study of the lexicon, or the vocabulary of a language, encompassing its history, use, and structure. It deals with both **words** and elements that are either smaller (like morphemes) or larger (like phrases).\ Lexicology overlaps with **lexicog...

**Lexicology and Lexicography** **Lexicology** is the study of the lexicon, or the vocabulary of a language, encompassing its history, use, and structure. It deals with both **words** and elements that are either smaller (like morphemes) or larger (like phrases).\ Lexicology overlaps with **lexicography**, the art of dictionary making. While lexicology is theoretical, **lexicography** is practical---applying lexicology to create dictionaries. However, not all aspects of lexicology are relevant to lexicography. - **Important Phrase**: **Lexicology studies the lexicon**, not just words. **Example**:\ The **pun** in the title \"Entering Meaning\" illustrates how lexicology delves into the meanings of words, while lexicography **enters** words into dictionaries. The word \"enter\" has two meanings: 1. **To go in** (as in \"enter a room\"). 2. **To record** (as in \"enter a word in a dictionary\"). **Ambiguity and Wordplay** **Ambiguity** is central to lexicology. Lexical ambiguity occurs when a word has more than one meaning, and syntactic ambiguity arises from a sentence structure that allows for multiple interpretations. **Example**: - **\"Time flies like an arrow\" vs. \"Fruit flies like a banana\"**\ This example illustrates both **lexical** and **syntactic ambiguity**. The first part uses the word \"flies\" as a verb, while the second uses it as a noun, and the structure of the sentence plays with both interpretations. **Meaning and Sense** The terms **meaning** and **sense** can be synonymous, but some linguists distinguish between them. - **Sense** refers to the core, cognitive meaning of a word. - **Meaning** can also include **connotative** and **stylistic** aspects. **Example**: - The term **cognitive meaning** only collocates with **meaning**, not **sense**. You wouldn't say **cognitive sense**. **Important Phrase**: **Meaning vs. Sense** -- Sense is the core meaning, while meaning can encompass other dimensions. **Road Map of Lexicology** The document presents an overview of what lexicology covers: - The status of **words** and other lexical items. - **Homonymy**, **polysemy**, and **regular polysemy**. - **Word classes** (syntactic categories). - **Phrasal verbs**, **compounds**, and **idioms**. **Example**: The word \"complete\" as a verb and an adjective belongs to the same **word family** but is different in syntactic function. **Word and Lexical Units** A **word** is an ambiguous term in linguistics, with various meanings. A word can be a **lexeme** (an abstract unit of meaning) or a **word form** (specific grammatical realizations of a lexeme). **Key Example**:\ The lexeme **EYE** can have different word forms: - Singular: **eye** - Plural: **eyes**\ Yet, idiomatic expressions like **in someone's eyes** require the plural form. **Important Phrase**: **Lexeme** is an abstract unit representing a set of word forms, while **word form** refers to specific grammatical manifestations. **Type and Token Distinction** - **Type** refers to a unique word form. - **Token** refers to the number of times a word form appears in a text. **Example**:\ In the sentence:\ \"He waited and waited, but nothing happened,\"\ the word **\"waited\"** is counted as two **tokens** but only one **type**. **Important Phrase**: **Types** are unique, while **tokens** refer to repetitions in a text. **Collocations and Multiword Expressions (MWEs)** **Multiword expressions (MWEs)** are a significant part of lexicology. These include idioms, compounds, and phrases, all of which may or may not have transparent meanings. - **Idioms** are often **opaque**, meaning their meaning cannot be derived from the individual words that comprise them. **Example**: - **Kick the bucket** (idiom) means \"to die,\" and understanding the individual words **kick** and **bucket** doesn\'t help deduce the overall meaning. **Fixedness in MWEs** Some MWEs are **fixed** (cannot be altered easily), while others are **semi-fixed** and allow for some flexibility. - **Phrasemes** are expressions that have a set structure and do not allow much variation. **Example**: - **By heart** is a fixed phrase, whereas \"give someone a ring\" could be altered to \"give someone a call.\" **Word Family and Paradigm** Words can belong to a **word family** when they are formally and semantically related. - **Derivation** creates different lexemes within the same family, while **inflection** creates different word forms of the same lexeme. **Example**:\ The verb **tell** and its forms **told** (past), **telling** (present participle) create different word forms under the same lexeme **TELL**. - In different contexts, **told** serves as either the **past tense** (She told me) or a **past participle** (She has told me). **Important Phrase**: **Word family** includes derivationally related lexemes, while **paradigms** include word forms created through inflection. **Syncretism** **Syncretism** occurs when different grammatical categories share the same word form. **Example**:\ The form **invited** is used for: - **Past tense**: She invited me. - **Perfect participle**: She has invited me. - **Passive participle**: I was invited. This **syncretism** is due to the fact that English doesn't provide distinct forms for each category. **Lexical Ambiguity and Homonymy** Words can have multiple meanings (**polysemy**) or be entirely different lexemes with the same form (**homonymy**). - **Homonyms** are distinct lexemes that happen to share the same form. **Example**: - **Bear** (the animal) and **bear** (to carry a burden) are homonyms. **Lexeme, Lemma, and Citation Forms** - **Lexeme** is the abstract form that represents all grammatical variants. - **Lemma** or **citation form** is the headword in a dictionary entry. - **Word forms** are specific grammatical realizations of a lexeme. **Example**:\ In a dictionary, the entry for **go** represents the lexeme **GO**, which includes forms like **go**, **went**, **gone**. **Important Phrase**: **Lemmas** are dictionary headwords, while **word forms** are actual grammatical variants. **Are Lexicons Finite?** Traditionally, lexicons are considered **finite**, but in practice, languages are constantly evolving with new words being coined regularly. - **Coinages** are new words that are regularly added to the lexicon. **Example**:\ Words like **armhole**, **counterprograms**, or **boulderlike** represent new coinages that appear over time. **Zipf's Law and Word Frequency** The frequency of words in a corpus follows **Zipf\'s Law**: the most frequent word appears twice as often as the second most frequent word, three times as often as the third, and so on. **Example**:\ In the **British National Corpus** (BNC), the word **the** is the most frequent word, accounting for **6%** of the total tokens. - The top 10 most frequent words in English include: **the**, **of**, **and**, **to**, **a**, **in**, **is**, **for**, **it**, **was**. **Type-Token Ratio (TTR)** **TTR** measures the **richness** of a text by comparing the number of unique types to the total number of tokens. - Higher TTR indicates a richer vocabulary, while lower TTR suggests more repetition. **Example**:\ A text with 110 tokens and 60 unique types has a **TTR** of **54%**. **Wordhood and Bound Morphemes** Words are defined by their **positional mobility** and **internal stability**. Some elements that resemble words are actually **bound morphemes**, which cannot stand alone. **Example**: - **un-** in **unhappy** is a bound morpheme because it cannot occur independently as a word. **Important Phrase**: **Bound morphemes** are not free forms and need to be attached to a base. **Dependent Words and Semiwords** Some words are **dependent**---they cannot occur on their own but can combine with other words.\ **Semiwords** are elements that are between affixes and independent words. They are more independent than affixes but still not fully independent. **Example**: - **-like** in **beer-like** is a **semiword** because it cannot stand alone but functions like a word in compounds.