Lexicology
Spring 2004
Mgr. Radek Vogel

        Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno
                                
Syllabus:  SEMINARS

Week 1
Introduction and bibliographical information.
Lexicology as a linguistic discipline.
The act of naming. Naming unit - conventionality and
universality.
Linguistic sign, its types and properties.
Reference and denotation.

Week 2
Semantic nucleus, semantic environment, semantic/lexical field.
Classification of meaning. Conceptual and associative meaning.
Change of meaning (extension, restriction, pejoration,
amelioration).

Week 3
Inflectional and derivational morphology. Morphemes - free and
bound. Root, affix, stem.
Week 4
Compounding -- coordinate and subordinate, endocentric and
exocentric compounds.
Week 5
Derivation. Back formation. Conversion. Abbreviation: clippings,
acronyms, blends.

Week 6
Collocations/word groups and phraseological units. Lexical
chains.
Week 7
Semantic relationships between lexical units (sense relations):
polysemy, homonymy, hyponymy, synonymy and antonymy
(complementarity, converseness).
Week 8
Language figures: metaphor, metonymy, simile, taboo, euphemism,
dysphemism, understatement, hyperbole, synechdoche, litotes. Loan
words.

Week 9
Form classes - nouns. Number, countability, definiteness, case,
gender.
Week 10
Form classes - adjectives. Central and peripheral adjectives.
Stative and dynamic adjectives. Gradability.
Week 11
Form classes - pronouns. Reference - anaphora, cataphora,
exophora/deixis. Adverbs.
Week 12
Form classes - verbs. Transitivity. Stative and dynamic verbs.
Tense, voice, aspect, mood.

Week 13
Final test. Colloquy.
Lexicology - Spring 2004 - topics:

Lexicology as a linguistic discipline. The functional analysis of
a language.

Vocabulary, lexicon, lexeme, word.

The act of naming. Naming unit - conventionality and
universality.

Linguistic sign, its types and properties.
Reference and denotation.

Semantic nucleus, semantic environment, semantic/lexical field.

Classification of meaning. Conceptual and associative meaning.
Change of meaning (extension, restriction, pejoration,
amelioration).

The classification of naming units - word/form classes. Open and
closed sets. Motivated and non-motivated words.

Inflectional and derivational morphology. Morphemes - free and
bound. Root, affix, stem.

Compounding -- coordinate and subordinate, endocentric and
exocentric compounds.

Derivation. Back formation. Conversion. Abbreviation: clippings,
acronyms, blends.

Collocations/word groups and phraseological units. Lexical
chains.

Diachronic and synchronic approach to the study of the wordstock.
The comparative vs. contrastive method.

The origin and development of the English wordstock. Word
formation processes: derivation, compounding, back formation.
Foreign naming units.

Semantic relationships between lexical units: polysemy, homonymy,
paronymy, hyponymy, synonymy and antonymy (complementarity,
converseness).

Semantic and stylistic neologisms. Metaphor, metonymy. Simile,
taboo, euphemism, dysphemism, understatement, hyperbole,
synechdoche, litotes.
The stratification of the English wordstock. Standard English,
geographical dialects and sociolects.
Centre and periphery in the lexis of a language. Language
varieties.
Stylistic differentiation of the lexicon. Functional styles.
Lexical cohesion and coherence of a text. Lexical chains.

Form classes - nouns. Number, countability, definiteness, case,
gender.
Form classes - adjectives. Central and peripheral adjectives.
Stative and dynamic adjectives. Gradability.
Form classes - pronouns. Reference - anaphora, cataphora,
exophora/deixis.
Form classes - verbs. Transitivity. Stative and dynamic verbs.
Tense, voice, aspect, mood.

Lexicography. Types of dictionaries. The structure of dictionary
entries. Corpus.


Lexicology -- Spring 2004

Bibliography:

Hladký, Josef -- Růžička, Milan: A Functional Onomatology of
English. Masarykova univerzita, Brno 1998.

Vachek, Josef: A Linguistic Characterology of Modern English. (3.
přeprac. vydání -- Clare Krojzlová a Josef Hladký). Státní
pedagogické nakladatelství, Praha 1990.

Vachek, Josef: Chapters from Modern English Lexicology and
Stylistics. SPN, Praha/Bratislava 1974.

Palmer, Frank Robert: Semantics. (2nd edition). Cambridge
University Press, first published 1976.

Hasan, Rugaiya-Halliday, M.A.K.: Language, context and text:
Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. 2nd
edition. Oxford University Press 1990.

Adams, Valerie: An introduction to modern English word-formation.
Longman, London 1973. English language series, no. 7.

Radford, A. - Atkinson, M. -- Britain, D. -- Clahsen, H. -- Spencer,
A.: Linguistics. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press
1999.

Mathesius, Vilém: A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on
a General Linguistic Basis. Transl. by Libuše Dušková. Academia,
Praha 1975.

Crystal, David: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language. Cambridge University Press 1995.

Čermák, František: Jazyk a jazykověda. Nakladatelství Karolinum,
Praha 2001.

Čermák, F. - Blatná, R. a kol.: Manuál lexikografie.
Nakladatelství H&H, 1995.

Peprník, J.: English Lexicology. UP, Olomouc.

Cruse, D.A.: Lexical Semantics. Cambridge University Press 1986,
1991.

Halliday, M.A.K.: Language as social semiotic. Edward Arnold
1978.

Bolinger, Dwight - Sears, Donald A.: Aspects of Language. Third
Edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers 1968, 1981.