Word as a basic unit of language.Types of words

The object, aims, value and the connection with other sciencies.

Lexicology is the part of linguistics, which deals with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-group. Its aim is to give systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use.

Lexicology studies words, word-groups, phraseological units and morphemes, which make up words.The term “vocabulary” is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language possesses. The term “word” denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning.The term “word-group” denotes a group of words which exists in the language as a ready-made unit, has the unit of meaning, the unity of syntactical function.The term “morpheme” is used to denote the part of the word into which it may be analyzed. Lexicology is closely connected with general linguistics, the history of the language, phonetics, stylistics, grammar and new branches of our sciences as sociolinguistics, paralinguistics, pragmalinguistics.The importance of the connection between lexicology and phonetics stands explained if we remember that a word is an association of a given group of sounds with a given meaning, so that TOP is one word and TIP is another.Phonemes have no meaning of their own but they serve to distinguish between meanings.Phonemes participate in signification. Discrimination between the words may be based upon STRESS(import – im’port).Stylistics studies the problems of meaning, connotations, synonymy, functional differentiation of vocabulary accordint to the sphere of communication and some other issues. Lexicology and grammar are arranged in certain patterns conveying the relations between the things for which the y stand, therefore alongside with their lexical meaning they possess some grammatical meaning(head of committee – to head a committee). The ties between lexicology and grammar are particularly strong in the sphere of word-formation, which before lexicology became a separate branch of linguistics had even considered as part of grammar.

Word as a basic unit of language.Types of words.

The term unit means one of the elements into which a whole may be divided or analysed and which possesses the basic properties of this word.

1/The word as a unit of communication

2/ The word can be defined as the total of the sounds, which comprises i.

3. The word possesses several charecteristics.

The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between the external(morphological structure) and the internal(meaning(semantic structure)) structures of the word.Another structural aspect of the word is its unity.The word possesses both external (formal)unity and semantic unity.Formal unity of the word is sometimes interpreted as indivisibility.A further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. Other units are morphemes that is a part of the words, into which words may be analysed, and set expressions or groups of words into which words may be combined.A word can be divided into smaller sense units- morphemes.The morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. Morphemes are divided into 2 groups:lexical and grammatical.They can be free and bound.Free lexical morphemes are roots of words, which express lexical meaning of the word.Free grammatical morphemes are function words:articles,conjunctions,prepositions. Bound lexical morp-mes are affixes(prefixes- dis, suffixes- -ish, blocked root morp=mes).Bound grammatical morphemes are inflexions(endings)(-s for plural nouns, -ed for the Past Simple)

Set expressions are word groups consisting of two or more words whose combination is intergral so that they are introduced into speech as ready-made units with a specialized meaning of the whole. A word is the smallest significant unit of a given language, capable of functioning alone and characterized by:1.positional mobility within the sentence;2.morphological uninterruptability;3.semantic intergrity. Types of words:semantically:mono -, polysemantic;stylistically:stylistically marked,neutral;syntactically:notional,functional;etymologically:native, borrowed, international;emotionally:colored,neutral.According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a word there are different structural types of words in English simple(one root morpheme), derived(one root morpheme+affix+inflextion), compound(two\more root morphemes+inflextion), compound-derived(two\more root morphemes+one\more affixes+inflextion).Also should mentioned sterms(remains unchanged throughout the paradigm of the word)
4. The notion of Lexical system. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations Lexical units constitute the system.The term system denotes a set of elements associated and functioning together according to certain laws.It is a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted by interdependent elements of the same related in certain specific ways.The vocabulary of a language is moreover an adaptive system adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communications and cultural surroundings.The extra-linguistic relationships refer to the connections of wors with the elements of objective reality they serve to denote, and their dependence on the social, mental and cultural development of the language community.Vinogradov has called it the lexico-semantic system.Vinogradov includes in this term the sum total of word and expressions and the derivational and functional patterns of word forms and word-groups, semantic groupings and relationships between words.All elements of the system have types of relationships:syntagmatic(define the meaning of the word possesses when it is used in combination with other words in the flow of speech e.g.He got a letter,He got tired), paradigmatic(exist between individual lexical items which make up one of the subgroups of vocabulary items).

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