Лексико-стилистические особенности английского языка

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ 
РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ 
Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное 
учреждение высшего образования 
«ЮЖНЫЙ ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ» 
 
 
 
Институт филологии, журналистики и межкультурной коммуникации 
 
 
 
 
 
Е. Ю. Пишкова  
 
 
 
 
ЛЕКСИКО-СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ 
АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА 
 
 
Учебное пособие 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ростов-на-Дону – Таганрог  
Издательство Южного федерального университета 
2024 
 
 

УДК 811.111'373(075.8) 
ББК  81.432.1-4 я 73 
  П36 
 
Печатается по разрешению кафедры перевода и информационных технологий  
в лингвистике Института филологии, журналистики и межкультурной коммуникации 
Южного Федерального университета (протокол № 5 от 28 мая 2024 г.) 
 
Рецензенты: 
доктор филол. наук, проф. кафедры перевода и ИТЛ ИФЖиМКК  
Южного федерального университета М. В. Ласкова; 
канд. филол. наук, доцент кафедры английского языка и методики  
его преподавания Волгоградского государственного социально-педагогического 
университета И. А. Мурзинова 
 
 
 
           Пишкова, Е. Ю. 
П36         Лексико-стилистические особенности английского языка : учебное пособие / 
Е. Ю. Пишкова ; Южный федеральный университет. – Ростов-на-Дону ; Таганрог : 
Издательство Южного федерального университета, 2024. – 119 с. 
ISBN 978-5-9275-4664-0 
 
Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов образовательной программы бакалавриата «Педагогическое образование (с двумя профилями подготовки): Физическая культура и иностранный язык (английский)» Академии физической культуры 
и спорта ЮФУ по дисциплине «Лексико-стилистические особенности английского 
языка». Цель пособия – помочь студентам глубже усвоить теоретический материал, 
ознакомить их с особенностями лексического строя английского языка, а также основных функциональных стилей, стилистических приемов, тропов и фигур речи. 
Предлагаемые систематизированные задания и упражнения призваны обеспечить сознательный подход к практическому овладению лексикой, предотвратить некоторые 
типичные ошибки в речи и способствуют развитию языковой догадки и выбора языковых средств для передачи мысли и эмоции в разных коммуникативных ситуациях. 
УДК 811.111'373(075.8) 
ББК 81.432.1-4 я 73 
ISBN 978-5-9275-4664-0 
© Южный федеральный университет, 2024 
© Пишкова Е. Ю., 2024 
© Оформление. Макет. Издательство 
Южного федерального университета, 2024

 
СОДЕРЖАНИЕ 
 
Пояснительная записка .................................................................................... 
4 
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 
5 
 
MODULE 1. LEXICOLOGY .......................................................................... 
6 
A word and its meaning ...................................................................................... 
6 
Word-building................................................................................................... 
22 
Semantic changes 
.............................................................................................. 
53 
Word groups ..................................................................................................... 
56 
Phraseology ...................................................................................................... 
72 
Etymology ........................................................................................................ 
81 
Lexicography .................................................................................................... 
90 
 
MODULE 2. STYLISTICS ............................................................................ 
95 
Functional styles ............................................................................................... 
95 
Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices .............................................. 
102 
Figures of speech ............................................................................................ 
103 
Stylistic devices based on polysemantic effect ............................................... 
104 
Stylistic devices intensifying a certain feature of an object ............................ 
109 
 
Библиографический список ......................................................................... 
117 
 
 
3 

 
ПОЯСНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ЗАПИСКА 
 
Данное учебное пособие рассматривает основные положения теории 
и практики лексикологии и стилистики английского языка. Теоретический 
материал и практические задания направлены на формирование и оптимизацию умений и навыков в области использования языковых средств для достижения коммуникативных целей в конкретной ситуации общения на английском языке. 
Пособие ориентировано на студентов направления Педагогическое образование (с двумя профилями подготовки): Физическая культура и иностранный язык (английский), а также направлений Филология и Лингвистика 
с целью развития и оптимизации ранее приобретенных иноязычных коммуникативных компетенций. 
Первый модуль «Лексикология» знакомит студентов с основными особенностями лексического строя английского языка; раскрывает суть значения и смысловой структуры слова, лежащие в основе семасиологии; представляет специфику словообразования, фразеологии, этимологии и лексикографии.  
Второй модуль «Стилистика» призван сформировать у студентов представление о функциональных стилях английского языка, познакомить с выразительными средствами языка и стилистическими приемами, научить соотносить изученные положения стилистики с конкретными языковыми явлениями, анализировать лексические и лингвостилистические особенности 
текстов различных функциональных стилей.  
Теоретическая часть пособия изложена максимально простым и понятным языком с целью не перегружать курс излишним теоретизированием. 
В пособии присутствует большое количество примеров, иллюстрирующих 
теоретическое изложение материала. Пособие направлено на формирование 
и развитие умений самостоятельно работать с научной литературой, анализировать и обобщать полученную информацию и использовать полученные 
знания на практике для успешной профессиональной деятельности.
4 

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
The present study guide (workbook) on lexical and stylistic peculiarities of the 
English language contains theory and exercises of the main aspects of the English 
vocabulary, its characteristics and subdivisions and stylistics as a branch of linguistics that studies various functional styles of speech as well as various expressive means and devices. The study guide is intended for the students whose specialty is Philology, Linguistics and teaching English and thus fully meets the requirements of the curriculum. The manual includes two modules: Lexicology and 
Stylistics.  
The first module deals with Lexicology as a branch of Linguistics. It comprises theoretical materials and a whole range of exercises on each individual 
branch of Lexicology, in particular, peculiarities of word-building; word groups 
as the vocabulary resources (homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, paronyms, euphemisms, etc.); semantic characteristics and changes of a word (denotational and 
connotational meanings of a word, polysemy, metaphor, metonymy, etc.); English 
phraseological units; etymological aspects of the English word stock and changes 
that the English vocabulary has undergone in its historical development; the art 
of compiling dictionaries, i.e. lexicography.  
The second module is aimed at the stylistic peculiarities of the English language. Students are disposed to various functional styles and communication 
registers based on a specific function of interaction and a definite effect. They 
are to cover expressive means and stylistic devices which make our speech impressive, emotional and bright and thus help us exert a specific pragmatic effect 
on recipients.  
Each theoretical section is followed by a variety of assignments which help 
students to get a better idea of linguistic terms and definitions and thus fully cover 
the material.
5 

 
MODULE 1.  
LEXICOLOGY 
 
The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin (from «lexis» - «word» and «logos» - 
«science»). Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with the vocabulary 
and characteristic features of words and word-groups (Ginzburg 1979:7).  
Lexicology can be general and special. General lexicology is the lexicology 
of any language and a part of General Linguistics. It aims to establish language 
universals – linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages. Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (English, German, Russian, etc.). 
There are two approaches to studying lexicology: historical (diachronic) and 
descriptive (synchronic) (Елисеева 2003:5). Historical lexicology studies the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words and word-groups, their semantic 
relations and the development of their sound form and meaning. In this case it is 
referred to as historical lexicology. Descriptive lexicology studies the vocabulary 
of a particular language at a definite stage of its development.  
Lexicology is subdivided into a number of autonomous but interdependent 
disciplines: 
• semantics, which studies the meaning of words;  
• etymology, which studies the origin, the original meaning and form of words; 
• phraseology, which deals with phraseological units;  
• lexicography, which describes the vocabulary and each lexical unit in the 
form of dictionaries;  
• word-formation, which deals with the patterns used in coining new words. 
 
A WORD AND ITS MEANING 
 
The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from 
the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language which can 
stand alone as a complete utterance. The term «word-group» denotes a group 
of words which exists in the language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function (Ginzburg 1979:13).  
6 

A WORD AND ITS MEANING 
 
A word is characterized by its external and internal structures. By the external structure of a word, we mean its morphological structure. For example, in the 
word uncomfortable the following three morphemes can be distinguished: the 
prefix un-, the root comfort, and the adjective-forming suffix -able. All these morphemes constitute the external structure of the word uncomfortable. 
The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is commonly referred to as 
the word’s semantic structure. This is the word’s main aspect and the most important characteristic. Meaning is a component of a word through which a concept 
is communicated giving the words the ability to denote real objects, actions, qualities and abstract notions (Антрушина 2005:8). Words can serve the purposes 
of human communication solely due to their meanings. The area of lexicology 
specializing in the study of meaning of the word is called semantics. 
The word meaning is not homogeneous. It is made up of various components, 
the most important of which are denotational and connotational meanings (Ginzburg 1979:29). The denotational meaning is a direct explicit meaning that signifies the object and gives its concept (e.g. a house is a building in which people 
live). The connotational meaning is an indirect implicit meaning in addition to its 
denotational meaning (e.g. a hovel denotes a small house, but it is also a miserable dwelling place which is dirty and unpleasant to live in (хибара, лачуга)). 
Thus, connotation is what a word conveys about the speaker`s attitude to an object, their approval or disapproval. 
Denotative and connotative components make up the semantic structure 
of a word. The semantic structure is closely connected with polysemy. Polysemy 
is the ability of a word to possess several meanings (or lexico-semantic variants) 
(Бабич 2016:39). The word «board», for example, according to the dictionary 
data has the following semantic structure: 
1. A flat thin piece of wood or plastic: He saw this ad on the board. 
2. On a train, ship or plane: There were over 300 passengers and 12 crew 
on board the jumbo. 
3. A group of people who control the company: All major decisions are taken 
by the board of directors. 
4. Food provided when you stay somewhere: We stayed at a hotel that provided full board  
5. A square piece of wood or stiff cardboard for playing games: I put the 
pieces on the chess board. 
7 

 
MODULE 1. LEXICOLOGY 
Exercises 
Task 1. Define the meaning of the word according to the context and translate: 
To stick 
To fly 
Two pages have stuck together.  
Workers are sticking out for higher wages.  
Stick to the point.  
The needle stuck in my thumb.  
The door sticks. 
This idea stuck in my head. 
I nicknamed him “Egghead”, a name which 
stuck. 
The key stuck in the lock.  
We can`t stick it anymore.  
Twins often stick together.  
Stick around, you may come in handy.  
A fly in the ointment. 
She flies high.   
Time flies so fast!  
The dog flew at the stranger.  
The mug flew into pieces.  
The door flew open.  
The wine flew to her head.  
Your proposal flies in the face of all 
common sense. 
He wouldn`t hurt a fly! 
She flew into a rage.  
She sent a vase flying at him.  
The devil flies away with you!  
To keep 
To lose 
Prices keep up. 
Keep the change.  
He keeps a shop and a bar.  
Private property. Keep out. 
Keep your hands off!  
She keeps house in their family.  
I hope you’re keeping well.  
Traffic in Britain keeps to the left.  
Will this meat keep till tomorrow?  
He came back to Russia for keeps. 
The watch loses two minutes a day. 
This job lost interest for her.  
I’ve lost my tongue. 
He has nearly lost his hearing.  
He stood lost in wonder.  
They lost their way in the wood.  
She lost her temper for no reason.  
He lost the source of income.  
I don’t want to lose the chance.  
Our team lost the game. 
To pass 
To mind 
It`s your turn. – I pass. 
Let me pass, will you? 
He has just passed 16. 
The sentence hasn`t been passed yet. 
Parliament passed the bill.  
A smile passed over his lips.  
It passes my understanding.  
He’s hardly passed his exam.  
Will you pass me the mustard, please?  
I thought I was going to pass out.  
Mind the traffic rules.  
Mind your language.  
Are you sure you don’t mind?  
Could you mind my cat while 
 I’m away?  
Who is minding the baby?  
Mind the broken glass.  
Mind your own business.  
Never mind!  
I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee.  
8 

A WORD AND ITS MEANING 
 
To move 
To pay 
Tears will not move him. 
Get a move on, you two. 
I’m so tired, I can’t move. 
He learnt all the chess moves when 
he was four. 
It’s your turn to move. 
They are moving next week. 
She is constantly on the move. 
He moved out without a trace. 
Sorry, could you move up one seat? 
Everybody pays tribute to his talent. 
Pay attention to your gestures. 
The shares pay 5 per cent. 
He will pay you cash. 
You’ll be paid on delivery. 
You’ll have to pay in advance. 
The work hasn`t been paid for yet. 
They are going to pay us a visit 
in March. 
We can’t pay through the nose. 
To run 
To touch 
The story touched me. 
They touched glasses. 
My cooking can’t touch yours. 
Don’t touch her sore point. 
The lecturer touched upon the issue 
of global crisis. 
He acts as if he is touched in the 
head. 
Touch wood! 
I promised to keep in touch. 
I ran my eyes over the newspaper column. 
The ship ran aground. 
I have a bad cold, my nose is running. 
Silk stockings often run. 
Her father ran into debt. 
The car has run out of petrol. 
He ran the Parliament last year. 
My dad runs a small bakery. 
Buses run every 10 minutes here. 
I ran into a friend of mine the other day. 
To drop 
To get 
One could hear a pin drop. 
He dropped dead. 
Where shall I drop you? 
Let’s drop the subject! 
Drop me a line when you get there. 
Will you, please, drop a word for me? 
She is ready to drop. 
The wind is dropping. 
Her voice dropped. 
He got chicken pox. 
We got there about 7 p.m. 
Let`s get down to business. 
It was getting dark outside. 
They just can`t get along together. 
He got used to getting up early. 
I don`t know what you are getting at. 
She managed to get him to do it. 
I dream of getting away from it all. 
9 

 
MODULE 1. LEXICOLOGY 
Task 2. Specify the meanings of the words in the following sentences.  
1. a) No sooner had I lain on the bed, when I fell fast asleep. 
b) The demand for this line of product is likely to fall by some 20 %.  
2. a) You don`t want to spend the rest of your miserable life behind the bars, do you? 
b) She was sitting in the bar sipping her drink and observing the other customers.  
3. a) Suddenly she heard the key turning in the lock. 
b) He jabbed viciously at the keys of the old typewriter. 
c) Unemployment was a key issue during the last election campaign. 
4. a) He stood with his mouth opened 
b) When they reached the mouth of the cave, it grew dark. 
5. a) He offered to give me a hand with the project. 
b) The minute hand pointed to twelve.  
6. a) He was head over heels in love.  
b) The heads of state discussed the issues of mutual interest. 
c) She stood up and headed towards the exit. 
 
Task 3. Define the denotative and connotative meanings of the following 
groups of words. Is their connotation positive or negative? 
1. slim, gaunt, thin, skinny, slender, lanky 
2. aggressive, dynamic, domineering, pushy, forceful, assertive 
3. smart, shrewd, egghead, intelligent, bright, clever, brilliant, cunning, brainy 
 
Task 4. Define the meanings of the polysemantic words in the following wordcombinations: 
root, n.: the root of the tree, the root of the matter, the root of the tooth, square 
root, edible roots, the root of all evil, cube root, to go back to roots,  
kick, v.: to kick the ball, to kick the bucket, to kick the dog, to kick off one's 
slippers, to kick smb. downstairs  
smart, adj.: a smart car, a smart lawyer, smart clothes, a smart answer, a smart 
house, a smart employee, a smart blow, a smart punishment, smart wine, at a smart 
pace, smart bomb, smart materials 
perform, v.: to perform one's duty, to perform a task, to perform an operation, 
to perform on stage, to perform a dance, to perform a play, to perform a contract, 
perform on the piano. 
stubborn, adj.: a stubborn cough, stubborn depression, a stubborn child, 
a stubborn look, stubborn resistance, a stubborn horse, a stubborn fighting. 
10