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CHAPTER Lexicology

LEARNING OUTCOME

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. study of sounds or word segments;

2. distinguish between word formation as well as word classes; and

3. describe how lexicology are formed ;

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INTRODUCTION

Lexicology is the study of words and, whereas many readers will be new to the study of
sounds or word segments, most of us feel that we are very familiar with words. Indeed, when
we think of language we tend to think about words. We often ask: 'What's the word for a
stamp-collector?' or say: 'I just can't think of the right word,' As we have already seen, words
are only one of the strands in language, a strand that has, in the past, been given too much
attention and a strand that, because of our familiarity with it, we have often failed to study as
rigorously and as objectively as other aspects of language. In this chapter, we shall try, first
of all, to say what a word is. We shall then consider word-formation and word classes.

5.1 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY 'WORD'?

In spite of out familiarity with 'words', it is not always easy to say what a word is. Certain
scholars have suggested that a word can occur in isolation. This claim has some validity, but
would ‘a’ or 'my' or ‘if’ normally occur in isolation? They would not and yet we would like to
think of such items as words. Others have suggested that a word contains one unit of meaning.
This is perhaps true if we think of words like 'car' or ‘snow’, but when we think of sets of words
like ‘cow’, ‘bull’ and ‘calf’ or ‘ewe’, ‘ram’ and ‘lamb’, we become aware that the first set might be
regarded as follows:
cow → + noun bull → + noun calf → + noun
+ bovine + bovine + bovine
+ female + male + unmarked sex

and we could establish similar patterns for the second set. It would be hard to say, looking at
our patterns, that the word ‘cow’ contains only one unit of meaning.

A better approach to defining words is to acknowledge that there is no one totally satisfactory
definition, but that we can isolate four of the most frequently implied meanings of ‘word’:
the orthographic word, the morphological word, the lexical word and the semantic word.

An orthographic word is one which has a space on either side of it. Thus, in the previous
sentence, we have fourteen orthographic words. This definition applies only to the
written medium, however, because in normal speech we rarely pause between words.
Nevertheless, even in speech it is possible to isolate words by pausing between them.

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A morphological word is a unique form. It considers form only and not meaning. ‘Ball’, for
example, is one morphological word, even though it can refer to both a bouncing object and
a dance. 'Ball' and 'balls' would be two morphological words because they are not
identical in form.

A lexical word comprehends the various forms of items which are closely related by meaning.
Thus, ‘chair’ and 'chairs' are two morphological words, but one lexical word. Similarly,
take', 'takes’, 'taking', taken' and took' are five morphological words but only one lexical
word. Often in linguistics, when capital lettersare used for a word, for example TAKE , it
implies that we are dealing with a lexical word and so TAKE comprehends all the
various forms, that is, 'take', takes', 'taking', taken' and 'took'.

A semantic word involves distinguishing between items which may be morphologically identical
but differ in meaning. We have seen above that 'ball' can have two distinct meanings. This
phenomenon of 'polysemy' is common in English. Thus, 'table' can refer to a piece of
furniture or to a diagram. The diagram and the piece of furniture are the same
morphological word but they are two semantic words because they are not closely related in
meaning.

5.2 WORD-FORMATION

We have already looked at some of the methods of word-formation in English. These can be
summarised as follows:

Suffixation: man + ly > manly

Prefixation: un + true > untrue

Affixation: dis + taste + ful > distasteful

As well as the above techniques of derivation, the commonest type of word-formation in

English is called 'compounding', that is, joining two words together to form a third.
Compounding frequently involves two nouns:

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book + case → bookcase

sea + man → seaman

wall + paper → wallpaper

Occasionally, the possessive form of the first noun is used although apostrophes are not found in
the compound:

bull's + eye → bullseye

lamb's + wool → lambswool

Other parts of speech can, of course, combine to form new words and we provide selective
examples of these below.

noun + verb

hair + do > hairdo

blood + shed > bloodshed

adjective + noun

blue + bell > bluebell

hot + house > hothouse

adjective + verb

easy + going > easygoing

wide + spread > widespread

verb + noun

lock + jaw > lockjaw

scare + crow > scarecrow

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verb + adverb

come + back > comeback

take + away > takeaway

adverb + verb

down + fell > downfall

out + cry > outcry

Often, when the compound is new, whether it involves a prefix and a word or two words, a hyphen
is used between the parts:

come-back

dis-inter

but, as the compound becomes more familiar, the hyphen is dropped. The main exception to this
rule is that the hyphen is often retained when two vowels come together:

co-operation

multi-ethnic

take-off

New words are formed in English by four other processes: coinages, backformations, blends
and acronyms. Words can be coined from existing material to represent a new invention or
development:
wireless
television
hypermarket

Often, when the coinages refer to trade-names, untraditional spellings are used:
kleenex (tissues)
sqezy (washing-up liquid)

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Backformations involve the use of analogy to create forms that are similar to ones already in
existence in the language. Thus, recently we have derived:
gatecrash from gatecrasher
globetrot from globetrotter
pop from popular

Blends involve joining two words together by taking parts of both words and welding the
parts into a new whole:
breakfast + lunch > brunch
chuckle + snort > chortle
motor + hotel > motel

The fourth technique involves creating words out of the initial letters of well-known
organisations:
UNESCO from United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
Laser from Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

5.4 WORLD CLASSES

We have looked at the farm of some English words and we shall now sort these words into
classes according to the way they function. One crucial generalisation has to be made first,
however. Words in English can function in many different ways. Thus ‘round’ can be a noun in:

He won the first round.

an adjective in:
She bought a round table for the dining room.
a verb in:
They rounded the comer at eighty miles an hour,
an adverb in:
The doctor will come round this evening,
and a preposition in:
He went round the track in four minutes.

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In English, it is always essential to see how a word functions in a particular example before
assigning it to a word class.

In spite of the flexibility of English words, we can use test frames to distinguish a number of word
classes which we shall list and then describe:
 nouns
 determiners
 pronouns
 adjectives
 verbs
 adverbs
 prepositions
 conjunctions
 exclamations/interjections

A noon has often been defined as the name of a person, animal, place, concept or thing. Thus
Michael, tiger, Leeds, grace and grass are nouns. If you wish to test an item to see if it is a noun, you can
use such test frames as:
(The) … seemed nice.
(This/these) … is/are good.
Little …
Lovely …
Ancient …

A determiner is an adjective-like word which precedes both adjectives and nouns and can fit into such
frames as the following:
Have you … wool?
I don't want … cheese.
… cat sat on … woollen gloves.

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There are five main kinds of determiners: articles such as a/an and the; demonstratives this, that,
these, those; possessives my, your, his, her, its, our, their, numbers when they precede nouns as in
‘one girl’, 'first degree', 'seven hills'; indefinite determiners such as some, any, all, enough, no, both, each,
every, few, much, more, most, fewer, less, either, neither.

Determiners always indicate that a noun follows. Many indefinite determiners can function
as other parts of speech. The words in italics below are used as determiners in column A and
as pronouns in column B:
A B
I ate some bread. Give me some.
I haven't any money. I don't want any.
Both parents were late. I saw both.

A pronoun is, as its name suggests, similar to a noun in that it can take the place of a noun or a
noun phrase:
Muhamad met his future wife on a train. He met her on
it/one.
Pronouns can fit into such test frames as:
… don't know your name.
Give to …
but the simplest test for a pronoun is to check if it can replace a noun or a noun phrase.
Pronouns in English can reflect number, case and person:

Person Singular Plural

Nominative Accusative Nominative Accusative
First I me we us
Second you you you you
he him they them
Third she her
it it

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As well as reflecting nominative and accusative cases with all personal pronouns except you and
it, English also has a set of seven possessive pronouns:
Person Singular Plural
First mine ours
Second yours yours
his
Third hers theirs
its

As is clear from the two tables, natural gender is marked in the third person singular
He lost his wallet, (that is, the man)
She lost her purse, (that is, the woman)
It lost its railway link, (that is, the city)

English has six other types of pronoun: reflexives such as myself, themselves; demonstratives this,
that, these, those; interrogatives what?, which?, who?, whom?, whose?; relatives that, which, who, whom, whose;
distributive pronouns which are often followed by 'of you': all (of you), both (of you), each (of
you), either (of you), neither (of you); and a set of indefinite pronouns such as some, any and
occasionally so and such in sentences like:
Who said SO?
Such is the way of the world.

An adjective is a descriptive word that qualifies and describes nouns as in:

a cold day
a heavy shower

Adjectives occur in two main positions in a sentence, before nouns as in the above examples
and after verbs like BE, BECOME, GROW, SEEM:
He is tall.
He became angry.
He grew fiercer.
He seems content.

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Adjectives can thus fill such frames as:

(The) … men seemed very …
(The) … bread is not very …

A verb is often defined as a 'doing' word, a word that expresses an action:

Muhammad climbed a tree,
a process:
Muhammad turned green.

or a state:
John resembles his mother.

Verbs tit into such frames as:

They….
Did he … that?
We might …
She is … ing.

There are two main types of verbs in English, headverbs and auxiliaries. A few examples
will illustrate this. In sentences such as:
He hasn't seen me.
He was seen.
He didn't see me.
He might see me tomorrow.

the various forms of SEE are known as the headverb whereas has, was, did and might are called
auxiliary verbs because they help to make more precise the information carried by the
headverb. In English it is possible to have a maximum of four auxiliaries in the one verb phrase:
He may have been being followed.

Verbs that can replace 'may' are called 'modals'; HAVE, in this context, is the 'perfective
auxiliary'; the first BE is the ‘continuative’ or 'progressive auxiliary'; and the second BE is used
to form ‘passives’. There is one other auxiliary in English, often called the 'dummy auxiliary'

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because it has little meaning but a great deal of structural significance. In the absence of
other auxiliaries, DO is used to turn positive statements into negatives or to create questions:
I like him.
I do not (don't) like him.
Do you like him?
Do you not (Don't you) like him?

An adverb is used to modify a verb, an adjective, a sentence or another adverb:

John talked strangely.
He is dangerously ill.
He was, however, the best person for the job.
He talked very strangely.

Adverbs tit into such test frames as:

He ran very …
He is … intelligent.

A preposition is a function word, such as at, by, for, from, to and with. Prepositions are always
followed by a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun.
He talked to John.
He arrived with another man.
He did it for me.

Prepositions fit into such test frames as:

Who went … Muhammad.
Do it … me.

A conjunction is, as its name suggests, a 'joining' word. There are two types of conjunctions: co-
ordinating conjunctions such as and, but, so, which join units of equal significance in a sentence:
Muhammad and Siti ran upstairs.
Give the parcel to Muhammad but give the money to Siti.

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and subordinating conjunctions which join subordinate clauses to a main clause:

He wouldn't tell me why he did it.
He said that he was tired.

An exclamation may be described as an involuntary utterance expressing fear, pain, surprise:

Good lord!
Heavens above!
Oh dear!

The term ‘interjection’ is often reserved for monosyllabic utterances such as:
Oh!
Wow!
Ouch!

In the written medium, both exclamations and interjections are marked by exclamation marks.

How many (a) orthographic, (&) morphological, (c) lexical and (d) semantic words
have we in each of the following lists?
(1) make, makes, making, made, maiden
(2) fire, fires, fir, firs, fur
(3) take, taken, took, taking, takings
(4) bass (fish), bass (singing voice), bass (tree bark)
(5) royal, regal, kingly (in the context 'royal/regal/kingly bearing')

Expand the following compounds by showing how the two parts are connected. (For
example an 'applepie' can be expanded into ‘a pie made from apples’ and a 'bookcase'
can be expanded into la case/container for books'.)

(a) farmyard
(b) fieldmouse
(c) girlfriend
(d) hothouse
(e) playhouse
(f) postman
(g) raincoat
(h) silkworm
(i) steamboat

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SUMMARY

The foregoing survey is a superficial account of how words function in English. It will guide
the student in making decisions about word classes as long as it is remembered that each
word must be judged in a specific context. Only context tells us that any is a determiner
in the first sentence and a pronoun in the second:
Have you any wool?
Have you any?

that up is a preposition in the first sentence below, an adverb in the second and a verb
in the third:
It ran up the clock.
I can't get up.
He has decided to up his prices.

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