Лексикология

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ 
РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ 
 
РОСТОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЙ 
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ (РИНХ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Т.В. Евсюкова, Е.А. Чередникова 
 
 
ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИЯ 
 
 
 
Учебное пособие 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ростов-на-Дону 
Издательско-полиграфический комплекс РГЭУ (РИНХ) 
2021 

УДК 81(075) 
ББК 81 
Е 26 
 
 Евсюкова, Т.В. 
Е 26   Лексикология : учебное пособие / Т.В. Евсюкова, 
Е.А. Чередникова. – Ростов-на-Дону : Издательско-полиграфический комплекс Рост. гос. экон. ун-та (РИНХ), 
2021. – 112 с.  
ISBN 978-5-7972-2902-5 
 
В учебном пособии предлагается последовательное рассмотрение 
основных вопросов лексикологии на материале современного английского 
языка: функционально-семиотической трактовки знаковой природы слова, 
структуры значения английского слова, семантической классификации 
слов, фразеологии, морфологической структуры слова, а также вопросов 
словообразования. В пособии также рассматриваются вопросы этимологии 
словарного состава, варианты и диалекты английского языка, уделяется 
внимание английской лексикографии.  Каждая глава завершается списком 
вопросов для обсуждения и анализа, а также упражнениями для 
закрепления изучаемых тем. 
Предназначено для работы обучающихся очной и заочной форм 
обучения направления «Лингвистика» профиля «Перевод и переводоведение». 
УДК 81(075) 
ББК 81 
 
Рецензенты: 
заведующий кафедрой языкознания и иностранных языков  
РФ ФГБОУ ВО «РГУП» д.филол.н., доцент Саркисьянц В.Р.;  
заведующий кафедрой иностранных языков для экономических специальностей 
ФГБОУ ВО «Ростовский государственный экономический университет (РИНХ)» 
к.филол.н., доцент Казанская Е.В. 
 
 
Утверждено в качестве учебного пособия  
учебно-методическим советом РГЭУ (РИНХ). 
 
 
ISBN 978-5-7972-2902-5 
 Ростовский государственный 
экономический университет (РИНХ), 2021 
 Евсюкова Т.В., Чередникова Е.А., 2021 

CONTENTS 
 
INTRODUCTION 
4
CHAPTER 1. THE OBJECT OF LEXICOLOGY.  
LINKS OF LEXICOLOGY WITH OTHER 
BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS 
5
CHAPTER 2. THE THEORY OF THE WORD 
19
CHAPTER 3. MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH 
WORDS. MORPHEMES. FREE AND BOUND 
FORMS. AFFIXATION. MORPHOLOGICAL 
CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS 
32
CHAPTER 4. WORD-FORMATION 
45
CHAPTER 5. SEMASIOLOGY. WORD MEANING  
AND MOTIVATION. DEVELOPMENT  
OF NEW MEANINGS 
56
CHAPTER 6. POLYSEMY. ANTONYMY. SYNONYMY. 
HOMONYMY 
68
CHAPTER 7. PHRASEOLOGY. THE CLASSIFICATIONAL 
SYSTEM OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS 
77
CHAPTER 8. LEXICOGRAPHY 
87
CHAPTER 9. REGIONAL VARIETIES OF THE ENGLISH 
LANGUAGE 
94
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
109
 
 
 
 

INTRODUCTION 
 
The given textbook is intended for students of the bachelor‟s 
degree program 45.03.02 “Linguistics” (specializing in translation and 
translation studies) in order to master the discipline “Lexicology” as 
the main or additional textbook for classroom and independent work. 
The textbook is aimed at familiarizing undergraduate students 
with the peculiarities of the vocabulary of the English language, with 
the processes and laws that characterize the development of the 
meanings of words in the foreign language under study.  
The manual has both a theoretical and practical orientation and 
can be used when taking a theoretical course in lexicology. Its purpose 
is to introduce students to the main features of the lexical structure of 
the English language, to help them consciously approach the practical 
mastery of vocabulary.  
The manual consists of nine chapters that consistently reveal the 
essence of lexicological phenomena characteristic of the foreign 
language under study. The first part of each chapter describes the main 
theoretical provisions of the relevant topic related to lexicology of the 
English language. The second part contains questions for discussion 
and tasks. 
The textbook is intended for full-time and part-time students of 
the Faculty of Linguistics and Journalism. 
 

CHAPTER 1. THE OBJECT OF LEXICOLOGY. 
LINKS OF LEXICOLOGY WITH OTHER 
BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS 
 
1. The object of lexicology.  
Lexicology (from Gr lexis „word‟ and logos „learning‟) is the 
part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the 
properties of words as the main units of language. The term 
vocabulary is used to denote the system formed by the sum total of all 
the words and word equivalents that the language possesses. The term 
word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the 
association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds 
capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word therefore is 
simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. 
Thus, in the word boy the group of sounds [bOI] is associated 
with the meaning „a male child up to the age of 17 or 18‟ (also with 
some other meanings, but this is the most frequent) and with a definite 
grammatical employment, i.e. it is a noun and thus has a plural form –
 boys, it is a personal noun and has the Genitive form boy‟s (e. g. the 
boy‟s mother), it may be used in certain syntactic functions. 
The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the 
specific features of any particular language, is known as general 
lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all 
languages are generally referred to as language universals. Special 
lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic 
peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language. This book 
constitutes an introduction into the study of the present-day English 
word and vocabulary. It is therefore a book on special lexicology. 
It goes without saying that every special lexicology is based on 
the principles of general lexicology, and the latter forms a part of 
general linguistics. Much material that holds good for any language is 
therefore also included, especially with reference to principles, 
concepts and terms. The illustrative examples are everywhere drawn 
from the English language as spoken in Great Britain. 
A great deal has been written in recent years to provide a 
theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can 

be compared and described. This relatively new branch of study is 
called contrastive lexicology. Most obviously, we shall be particularly 
concerned with comparing English and Russian words. 
The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as of its single 
elements, forms the object of historical lexicology or etymology. This 
branch of linguistics discusses the origin of various words, their 
change and development, and investigates the linguistic and extralinguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. In the 
past historical treatment was always combined with the comparative 
method. Historical lexicology has been criticised for its atomistic 
approach, i.e. for treating every word as an individual and isolated 
unit. This drawback is, however, not intrinsic to the science itself. 
Historical study of words is not necessarily atomistic. In the light of 
recent investigations it becomes clear that there is no reason why 
historical lexicology cannot survey the evolution of a vocabulary as an 
adaptive system, showing its change and development in the course of 
time. 
Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given 
language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions 
of words and their specific structure as a characteristic inherent in the 
system. The descriptive lexicology of the English language deals with 
the English word in its morphological and semantical structures, 
investigating the interdependence between these two aspects. These 
structures are identified and distinguished by contrasting the nature 
and arrangement of their elements. 
It 
will, 
for 
instance, 
contrast 
the 
word boy with 
its 
derivatives: boyhood, boyish, boyishly, etc. It will describe its 
semantic structure comprising alongside with its most frequent 
meaning, such variants as „a son of any age‟, „a male servant‟, and 
observe its syntactic functioning and combining possibilities. This 
word, for instance, can be also used vocatively in such combinations 
as old boy, my dear boy, and attributively, meaning „male‟, as in boyfriend. 
Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and 
semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, semantic fields, 
etc. 
Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics – the 
study of meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar. 

The distinction between the two basically different ways in 
which language may be viewed, the historical or diachronic 
(Gr dia „through‟ 
and chronos „time‟) 
and 
the 
descriptive 
or 
synchronic (Gr syn „together‟, „with‟), is a methodological distinction, 
a difference of approach, artificially separating for the purpose of 
study what in real language is inseparable, because actually every 
linguistic structure and system exists in a state of constant 
development. The distinction between a synchronic and a diachronic 
approach is due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–
1913). Indebted as we are to him for this important dichotomy, we 
cannot accept either his axiom that synchronic linguistics is concerned 
with systems and diachronic linguistics with single units or the 
rigorous separation between the two. Subsequent investigations have 
shown the possibility and the necessity of introducing the historical 
point of view into systematic studies of languages. 
Language is the reality of thought, and thought develops together 
with the development of society, therefore language and its 
vocabulary must be studied in the light of social history. Every new 
phenomenon in human society and in human activity in general, 
which is of any importance for communication, finds a reflection in 
vocabulary. A word, through its meaning rendering some notion, is a 
generalised reflection of reality; it is therefore impossible to 
understand its development if one is ignorant of the changes in social, 
political or everyday life, production or science, manners or culture it 
serves to reflect. These extra-linguistic forces influencing the 
development of words are considered in historical lexicology. The 
point may be illustrated by the following example: 
Post comes into English through French and Italian from Latin. 
Low Latin posta – posita fern. p.p. of Latin ponere, posit, v. „place‟. 
In the beginning of the 16th century it meant „one of a number of men 
stationed with horses along roads at intervals, their duty being to ride 
forward with the King‟s “packet” or other letters, from stage to stage‟. 
This meaning is now obsolete, because this type of communication is 
obsolete. The word, however, has become international and denotes 
the present-day system of carrying and delivering letters and parcels. 
Its synonym mail, mostly used in America, is an ellipsis from a 
mail of letters, i.e. „a bag of letters‟. It comes from Old French 

male (modern malle) „bag‟, a word of Germanic origin. Thus, the 
etymological meaning of mail is „a bag or a packet of letters or 
dispatches for conveyance by post‟. Another synonym of bag 
is sack which shows a different meaning development. Sack is a large 
bag of coarse cloth, the verb to sack „dismiss from service‟ comes 
from the expression to get the sack, which probably rose from the 
habit of craftsmen of old times, who on getting a job took their own 
tools to the works; when they left or were dismissed they were given a 
sack to carry away the tools. 
In this connection it should be emphasised that the social nature 
of language and its vocabulary is not limited to the social essence of 
extra-linguistic factors influencing their development from without. 
Language being a means of communication the social essence is 
intrinsic to the language itself. Whole groups of speakers, for 
example, must coincide in a deviation, if it is to result in linguistic 
change. 
The branch of linguistics, dealing with causal relations between 
the way the language works and develops, on the one hand, and the 
facts of social life, on the other, is termed sociolinguistics. Some 
scholars use this term in a narrower sense, and maintain that it is the 
analysis of speech behaviour in small social groups that is the focal 
point of sociolinguistic analysis. A. D. Schweitzer has proved that 
such microsociological approach alone cannot give a complete picture 
of the sociology of language. It should be combined with the study of 
such macrosociological factors as the effect of mass media, the system 
of education, language planning, etc. An analysis of the social 
stratification of languages takes into account the stratification of 
society as a whole. 
Although the important distinction between a diachronic and a 
synchronic, a linguistic and an extralinguistic approach must always 
be borne in mind, yet it is of paramount importance for the student to 
take into consideration that in language reality all the aspects are 
interdependent and cannot be understood one without the other. Every 
linguistic investigation must strike a reasonable balance between 
them. 
The lexicology of present-day English, therefore, although 
having aims of its own, different from those of its historical 

counterpart, cannot be divorced from the latter. In what follows not 
only the present status of the English vocabulary is discussed: the 
description would have been sadly incomplete if we did not pay 
attention to the historical aspect of the problem – the ways and 
tendencies of vocabulary development. 
Being aware of the difference between the synchronic approach 
involving also social and place variations, and diachronic approach we 
shall not tear them asunder, and, although concentrating mainly on the 
present state of the English vocabulary, we shall also have to consider 
its development. Much yet remains to be done in elucidating the 
complex problems and principles of this process before we can present 
a complete and accurate picture of the English vocabulary as a system, 
with specific peculiarities of its own, constantly developing and 
conditioned by the history of the English people and the structure of 
the language. 
2. The theoretical and practical value of English lexicology.  
The importance of English lexicology is based not on the size of 
its vocabulary, however big it is, but on the fact that at present it is the 
world‟s most widely used language. One of the most fundamental 
works on the English language of the present – “A Grammar of 
Contemporary English” by R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech and 
J. Svartvik (1978) – gives the following data: it is spoken as a native 
language by nearly three hundred million people in Britain, the United 
States, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and 
some other countries. The knowledge of English is widely spread 
geographically – it is in fact used in all continents. It is also spoken in 
many countries as a second language and used in official and business 
activities there. This is the case in India, Pakistan and many other 
former British colonies. English is also one of the working languages 
of the United Nations and the universal language of international 
aviation. More than a half world‟s scientific literature is published in 
English and 60% of the world‟s radio broadcasts are in English. For 
all these reasons it is widely studied all over the world as a foreign 
language. 
The theoretical value of lexicology becomes obvious if we 
realise that it forms the study of one of the three main aspects of 
language, i.e. its vocabulary, the other two being its grammar and 

sound system. The theory of meaning was originally developed within 
the limits of philosophical science. The relationship between the name 
and the thing named has in the course of history constituted one of the 
key questions in gnostic theories and therefore in the struggle of 
materialistic and idealistic trends. The idealistic point of view assumes 
that the earlier forms of words disclose their real correct meaning, and 
that originally language was created by some superior reason so that 
later changes of any kind are looked upon as distortions and 
corruption. 
The materialistic approach considers the origin, development 
and current use of words as depending upon the needs of social 
communication. The dialectics of its growth is determined by its 
interaction with the development of human practice and mind. In the 
light of V. I. Lenin‟s theory of reflection we know that the meanings 
of words reflect objective reality. Words serve as names for things, 
actions, qualities, etc. and by their modification become better adapted 
to the needs of the speakers. This proves the fallacy of one of the 
characteristic trends in modern idealistic linguistics, the so-called 
Sapir-Whorf thesis according to which the linguistic system of one‟s 
native language not only expresses one‟s thoughts but also determines 
them. This view is incorrect, because our mind reflects the 
surrounding world not only through language but also directly. 
Lexicology came into being to meet the demands of many 
different branches of applied linguistics, namely of lexicography, 
standardisation of terminology, information retrieval, literary criticism 
and especially of foreign language teaching. 
Its importance in training a would-be teacher of languages is of a 
quite special character and cannot be overestimated as it helps to 
stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of vocabulary and an 
organised comparison of the foreign and native language. It is 
particularly useful in building up the learner‟s vocabulary by an 
effective selection, grouping and analysis of new words. New words 
are better remembered if they are given not at random but organised in 
thematic groups, word-families, synonymic series, etc. 
A good knowledge of the system of word-formation furnishes a 
tool helping the student to guess and retain in his memory the meaning 
of new words on the basis of their motivation and by comparing and 
contrasting them with the previously learned elements and patterns.