Lexicology

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the science of language. The term Lexicology is composed of two Greek morphemes:

lexis meaning ‘word, phrase’ (hence lexicos ‘having to do with words’) and logos which denotes ‘learning, a department of knowledge’. Thus, the literal meaning of the term Lexiсolоgу is ‘the science of the word’.

The literal meaning, however, gives only a general notion of the aims and

the subject-matter of this branch of linguistic science, since all its other

branches also take account of words in one way or another approaching

them from different angles. Phonetics, for instance, investigating the pho-

netic structure of language, i.e. its system of phonemes and intonation pat-

terns, is concerned with the study of the outer sound form of the word.

Grammar, which is inseparably bound up with Lexicology, is the study of

the grammatical structure of language. It is concerned with the various

means of expressing grammatical relations between words and with the

patterns after which words are combined into word-groups and sentences.

Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims and methods of

scientific research, its basic task being a study and systematic description

of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with morphemes which make up words.

Distinction is naturally made between General Lexicology and Special

Lexicology.

 General Lexicology is part of General Linguistics; it is con-

cerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of

any particular language. Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particular language (e.g. English, Russian, etc.), i.e. the study and description of its

vocabulary and vocabulary units, primarily words as the main units of language. Needless to say that every Special Lexicology is based on the principles worked out and laid down by General Lexicology, a general theory of

vocabulary.

There is also a close relationship between Lexicology and Stylistics or,

to be more exact, L i n g u o - S t y l i s t i c s (Linguistic Stylistics).

Linguo-Stylistics is concerned with the study of the nature, functions and

structure of stylistic devices, on the one hand, and with the investigation

of each style of language, on the other, i.e. with its aim, its structure, its

characteristic features and the effect it produces as well as its interrelation with the other styles of language.