Lecture english lexicology as a subject lexicology

lexico-semantic variants (LSVs) of the word and are used in contexts showing different meanings of polysemantic words: Example: Cat as a noun has 4 generally accepted lexico-semantic variants (LSVs), but might have also some technical options:

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  cat 1: a carnivorous furry mammal long domesticated and useful for keeping down mice;
  
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  cat 2: the fur or pelt of a domestic cat;
  
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  cat 3: any other member of the family, such as a lion, tiger, etc.;
  
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  cat 4: a malicious or spiteful woman.
  

However, in phraseological units the word ‘cat’ might acquire additional, connotational meanings, e.g. let the cat out of the bag, a game of cat and mouse, put the cat among the pigeons, etc.
Besides this, we must distinguish phonetic (often, again) and morphological variants (phonetic-phonetical). Within the language system the word exists as a system and unity of all its forms and variants, within its specific paradigm.
The major units of vocabulary are words, parts of words (morphemes) and set expressions. Any word has a sound form and a fixed morphological structure. A mere change in the order of morphemes is accompanied by a change in its meaning, e.g. ‘schoolboy‘ / ‘boy school‘. The most adequate working definition of the term `word` is as follows: “The word is the smallest unit of the language capable of functioning alone. It is characterised by the association of a given meaning with a given phonemic and a given morphological structure.” (Ginzburg R.S. et all). It has been rightly stressed that the word is the basic unit of both vocabulary and grammar and should be viewed in terms of the unity of the lexical and the grammatical aspects of the language.
The word may be motivated either 1) phonetically, 2) morphologically or 3) semantically: E.g.:
1) hiss, zipper, drip-drop – phonetic motivation;
2) re-write, self-sufficient, snow-white – morphological (structural) motivation;
3) hand > the hand of the clock > hands (workers) – semantic (metaphoric) motivation.
Motivation is the connection between the form of the word (its phonetic and morphemic composition and its structural pattern) and its meaning.
It is very important to know the different ways of the analysis of lexical units: in respect to their origin or structure, meaning or idiomatic usage, etc. But in all cases we must bear in mind the timing of those phenomena, that is, we should remember, that they may be analysed synchronically or diachronically.
These two approaches have different purposes of investigation, however their results do not contrast, but enrich our knowledge of a language phenomenon.
E.g. daisy < O.E. days’ eyes
lord < O.E. hl