Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 4 стр.

LEXICOLOGY




        Unit 1.      The English Wordstock
     Topics for discussion: Language as a historical phenomenon. The
diachronic and the synchronic approaches to the study of vocabulary.
Semantic change (extension and narrowing of meaning). Borrowing.
Loan translations. Hybrids and etymological doublets. International
words. The sociolinguistic aspect of vocabulary changes. Neologisms
and occasional words.

      WORKING DEFINITIONS OF PRINCIPAL CONCEPTS

      1. Language, a semiological system serving as the main and
basic means of human communication.
      2. Vocabulary, the totality of words in a language.
      3. Diachrony, the historical development of the system of lan-
guage as the object of linguistic investigation. Diachronic, historical.
      4. Synchrony, a conventional isolation of a certain stage in the
development of language as the object of linguistic investigation. Syn-
chronic, representing one conventional historical stage in the develop-
ment of language.
      5. Semantic, extension (widening of meaning), the extension of
semantic capacity of a word, i. e. the expansion of polysemy, in the
course of its historical development.
      6. Narrowing of meaning, the restriction of the semantic capacity
of a word in the course of its historical development.
      7. Borrowing, resorting to the word-stock of other languages for
words to express new concepts, to further differentiate the existing
concepts and to name new objects, phenomena, etc.
      8. Loan translations (calques), borrowing by means of literally
translating words (usually one part after another) or word combina-
tions, by modelling words after foreign patterns.

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