OUT of us all
That make rhymes,
Will you choose
Sometimes
As the winds use
A crack in the wall
Or a drain,
Their joy or their pain
To whistle through
Choose me,
Your English words?
I know you:
You are light as dreams,
Tough as oak,
Precious as gold,
As poppies and corn,
Or an old cloak;
Sweet as our birds
to the ear,
As the hurnet rose
In the heat
Of Midsummer:
Strange as the races
Of dead and unborn:
Strange and sweet
Equally,
And familiar,
To the eye,
As the dearest faces
That a man knows,
And as lost homes are:
But though older far
Than oldest yew,
As our hills are, old,
Worn new
Again and again:
Young as our streams
After rain:
And as dear
As the earth which you prove
That we love.
Make me content
With some sweetness
From Wales,
Whose nightingales
Have from Wiltshire and Kent
And Herefordshire,
And the villages there,
From the names, and the things
No less.
Let me sometimes dance
With you,
Or climb,
Or stand perchance
In ecstasy,
Fixed and free
In a rhyme,
As poets do.
Edward Thomas
Lecture 1. SOME MAJOR NOTIONS OF LEXICOLOGY.
THE MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORD
Vocabulary is the Everest of a language.
There is no larger task than to look for order
among the hundreds of thousands of words
which comprise the lexicon.
David Crystal
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics studying vocabulary (word stock, lexis) of the language. It deals with different aspects of the word and accordingly several branches are distinguished in lexicology: morphology (word formation, word building), semasiology (semantics), etymology (study of the origin and the history of the word), phraseology, lexicography (dictionaries).
Lexicology is closely connected with other linguistic sciences: grammar, phonetics, stylistics, history of the language.
Distinction is made between general and special linguistics.
Vocabulary may be viewed in two different ways: historical (diachronic) and descriptive (synchronic). These two approaches should not be contrasted, they are interconnected because every language unit exists in a state of constant development and the synchronic state of a language system is a result of a long process of its historical development.
Units of the vocabulary are words (morphemes) and certain word groups (phraseological units). Language is a structure. Every utterance can be segmented into smaller units they make up the levels of the language.
The unit
Phonology: the phoneme.
Morphology: the morpheme.
Lexicology: the word.
Syntax: the sentence.
Words are made up of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest significant part of the word. We distinguish root morphemes and affixational morphemes.
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Root morphemes carry the lexical meaning of the word, make its semantic centre; affixational morphemes fall into inflexions (indicating the grammatical form of the word, e.g. number, tense, etc.) and derivational morphemes. Inflexions are dealt with in grammar, whereas derivational morphemes are discussed in lexicology, so that here we deal with derivational affixes. Derivational affixes may be treated from the point of view of word-building, that is in what way they derive new words or the word is derived; and from the point of view of word-structure, that is what role they play in the structure of the word, as a structural unit.
Words
A. carry meaning in addition to a phonological form
B. are stored in a speakers mental dictionary = lexicon.
C. are known as lexemes.
D. are the smallest free form in a language that is, the smallest unit where you can leave a space between it and the next thing when youre writing something down.
E. are made up of morphemes = smallest unit which carries information
a. owls = owl + s (1 word, 2 morphemes). owl = owl, s = more than 1, plural
b. complex word = 2 or more morphemes. Ex: owls
c. simple word = 1 morpheme. Ex: owl
d. free morpheme: can stand on its own. Ex: owl
e. bound morpheme: cant stand on its own. Ex: s.
f. morph = sound form of morpheme (as opposed to the sound + meaning). So, /si/ is the morph for both the word that means ocean and the word that means look.
g. Note: What is free and what is bound varies from language to language. Ex: Just because the plural marker is a bound morpheme in English doesnt mean that its a bound morpheme in another language.
F. Allomorphy = same meaning, but different phonological form (morph)
a. a vs. an = one or some. Ex: A fox and an owl walk into a bar
b. /s/ vs. /z/ vs. /´z/ = plural. Ex: /pets/, /aulz/, /foksiz/
Word Structure
A. Root = core of word which carries the major component of meaning. Always belongs to a lexical category N oun, V erb, A djective, P reposition. Example: owl, fly, sly, above.
B. Affix = bound morpheme which adds additional meaning to the word. Can be added to root or root + other affixes. Ex: -en, -ed, -s, -er, -ation, -ian, -ize, un-, re-.
C. Words are made up of roots and one or more affixes.
Infiixes. An infix goes inside of another morpheme rather than on its front or backside. English does not have many infixes. English speakers have tried to develop infixes, although they appear to be mostly for rhetorical effect. The three most famous are - bloody-, -fucking-, and -iz-. The adjective form of bloody dates back to 1000, but its use as an intensifier seems to have picked up in England from 1660 onward. Some authorities claim it is a low-class marker, but it is still open for public consumption. The adjective form of fucking dates back to 1528, so if you are young and believe your generation invented this term, you are wrong by almost 500 years. Its use as purely an intensifier began in the middle of the 1800s. Both of these intensifier forms can be used to split up multisyllabic words such as these:
Absolutely Abso-bloody-lutely Abso-fucking-lutely
