Lexicology
Encyclopedia
Lexicology is the part of linguistics
which studies word
s, their nature(?) and meaning
, words' elements(?), relations between words (semantical
relations), word groups and the whole lexicon
.
The term first appeared in the 1820s, though there were lexicologists in essence before the term was coined. Computational lexicology
as a related field (in the same way that computational linguistics is related to linguistics) deals with the computational study of dictionaries and their contents. An allied science to lexicology is lexicography
, which also studies words in relation with dictionaries – it is actually concerned with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that perspective with the whole lexicon
. Therefore lexicography is the theory and practice of composing dictionaries. Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part or a branch of lexicology, but the two disciplines should not be mistaken: only lexicologists who do write dictionaries are lexicographers. It is said that lexicography is the practical lexicology, it is practically oriented though it has its own theory, while the pure lexicology is mainly theoretical.
"λεξικόν" (lexicon), neut. of "λεξικός" (lexikos), "of or for words", from "λέξις" (lexis), "speech", "word", (in turn from "λέγω" lego "to say", "to speak") + "-λογία", (-logia), "the study of", a suffix derived from "λόγος" (logos
), amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason", it turn also from "λέγω".
. Lexical semantics is somewhat different from other linguistic types of semantics like phrase semantics, semantics of sentence, and text semantics, as they take the notion of meaning in much broader sense. There are outside (although sometimes related to) linguistics types of semantics like cultural semantics and computational semantics, as the latest is not related to computational lexicology
but to mathematical logic
. Among semantics of language, lexical semantics is most robust, and to some extend the phrase semantics too, while other types of linguistic semantics are new and not quite examined.
may not be understood without a brief exploration of its history.
as a linguistic discipline has its beginning in the middle of the 19th century, and because linguistics
at the time was predominantly diachronic, thus lexical semantics
was diachronic too – it dominated the scene between the years of 1870 and 1930. Diachronic lexical semantics was interested without a doubt in the change of meaning with predominantly semasiological
approach, taking the notion of meaning in a psychological aspect: lexical meanings were considered to be psychological entities), thoughts and ideas, and meaning changes are explained as resulting from psychological processes.
's work, prestructuralist diachronic semantics was considerably criticized for the atomic study of words, the diachronic approach and the mingle of nonlinguistics spheres of investigation. The study became synchronic, concerned with semantic structures and narrowly linguistic.
Semantic structural relations of lexical entities can be seen in three ways:
WordNet
"is a type of an online electronic lexical database organized on relational principles, which now comprises nearly 100,000 concepts" as Dirk Geeraerts states it.
.
. It studies compound meanings of two or more words, as in "raining cats and dogs". Because the whole meaning of that phrase is much different from the meaning of words included alone, phraseology examines how and why such meanings come in everyday use, and what possibly are the laws governing these word combinations. Phraseology also investigates idiom
s.
. In this way, word roots
have been found that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance, the Proto Indo-European language.
Etymology can be helpful in clarifying some questionable meanings, spellings, etc., and is also used in lexicography. For example, etymological dictionaries provide words with their historical origins, change and development.
. Dictionaries are books or computer programs (or databases) that actually represent lexicographical work, they are opened and purposed for the use of public.
As there are many different types of dictionaries, there are many different types of lexicographers.
Questions that lexicographers are concerned with are for example the difficulties in defining what simple words such as 'the' mean, and how compound or complex words, or words with many meanings can be clearly explained. Also which words to keep in and which not to include in a dictionary.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
which studies word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
s, their nature(?) and meaning
Meaning (linguistics)
In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same...
, words' elements(?), relations between words (semantical
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
relations), word groups and the whole lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
.
The term first appeared in the 1820s, though there were lexicologists in essence before the term was coined. Computational lexicology
Computational lexicology
Computational lexicology is that branch of computational linguistics, which is concerned with the use of computers in the study of lexicon. It has been more narrowly described by some scholars as the use of computers in the study of machine-readable dictionaries...
as a related field (in the same way that computational linguistics is related to linguistics) deals with the computational study of dictionaries and their contents. An allied science to lexicology is lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
, which also studies words in relation with dictionaries – it is actually concerned with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that perspective with the whole lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
. Therefore lexicography is the theory and practice of composing dictionaries. Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part or a branch of lexicology, but the two disciplines should not be mistaken: only lexicologists who do write dictionaries are lexicographers. It is said that lexicography is the practical lexicology, it is practically oriented though it has its own theory, while the pure lexicology is mainly theoretical.
Etymology
The word "lexicology" derives from the GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
"λεξικόν" (lexicon), neut. of "λεξικός" (lexikos), "of or for words", from "λέξις" (lexis), "speech", "word", (in turn from "λέγω" lego "to say", "to speak") + "-λογία", (-logia), "the study of", a suffix derived from "λόγος" (logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
), amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason", it turn also from "λέγω".
Domain
Semantical relations between words are manifested in respect of homonymy, antonymy, paronymy, etc. Semantics usually involved in lexicological work is called lexical semanticsLexical semantics
Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...
. Lexical semantics is somewhat different from other linguistic types of semantics like phrase semantics, semantics of sentence, and text semantics, as they take the notion of meaning in much broader sense. There are outside (although sometimes related to) linguistics types of semantics like cultural semantics and computational semantics, as the latest is not related to computational lexicology
Computational lexicology
Computational lexicology is that branch of computational linguistics, which is concerned with the use of computers in the study of lexicon. It has been more narrowly described by some scholars as the use of computers in the study of machine-readable dictionaries...
but to mathematical logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
. Among semantics of language, lexical semantics is most robust, and to some extend the phrase semantics too, while other types of linguistic semantics are new and not quite examined.
History
Lexical semanticsLexical semantics
Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...
may not be understood without a brief exploration of its history.
Prestructuralist semantics
SemanticsSemantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
as a linguistic discipline has its beginning in the middle of the 19th century, and because linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
at the time was predominantly diachronic, thus lexical semantics
Lexical semantics
Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...
was diachronic too – it dominated the scene between the years of 1870 and 1930. Diachronic lexical semantics was interested without a doubt in the change of meaning with predominantly semasiological
Semasiology
Semasiology is a discipline within linguistics concerned with the question "what does the word X mean?". It studies the meaning of words regardless of their phonetic expression. Semasiology departs from a word or lexical expression and asks for its meaning, its different senses, i.e. polysemy...
approach, taking the notion of meaning in a psychological aspect: lexical meanings were considered to be psychological entities), thoughts and ideas, and meaning changes are explained as resulting from psychological processes.
Structuralist and neostructuralist semantics
With the rise of new ideas after the ground break of SaussureSaussure
People of the surname Saussure or de Saussure include* Horace-Bénédict de Saussure , Swiss physicist and Alpine traveller** Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure , chemist, son of Horace-Bénédict, and brother of Albertine...
's work, prestructuralist diachronic semantics was considerably criticized for the atomic study of words, the diachronic approach and the mingle of nonlinguistics spheres of investigation. The study became synchronic, concerned with semantic structures and narrowly linguistic.
Semantic structural relations of lexical entities can be seen in three ways:
- semantic similarity
- lexical relations such as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy
- syntagmatic lexical relations were identified
WordNet
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets...
"is a type of an online electronic lexical database organized on relational principles, which now comprises nearly 100,000 concepts" as Dirk Geeraerts states it.
Chomskyan school
Followers of Chomskyan generative approach to grammar soon investigated two different types of semantics, which, unfortunately, clashed in an effusive debate, these were interpretative semantics and generative semanticsGenerative semantics
Generative semantics is the name of a research program within linguistics, initiated by the work of various early students of Noam Chomsky: John R. Ross, Paul Postal and later James McCawley...
.
Cognitive semantics
Cognitive lexical semantics is thought to be most productive of the current approaches.Phraseology
Another branch of lexicology, together with lexicography is phraseologyPhraseology
In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units , in which the component parts of the expression take on a meaning more specific than or otherwise not predictable from the sum of their meanings when...
. It studies compound meanings of two or more words, as in "raining cats and dogs". Because the whole meaning of that phrase is much different from the meaning of words included alone, phraseology examines how and why such meanings come in everyday use, and what possibly are the laws governing these word combinations. Phraseology also investigates idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
s.
Etymology
Since lexicology studies the meaning of words and their semantic relations, it often explores the origin and history of a word, i.e. its etymology. Etymologists analyse related languages using a technique known as the comparative methodComparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal...
. In this way, word roots
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
have been found that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance, the Proto Indo-European language.
Etymology can be helpful in clarifying some questionable meanings, spellings, etc., and is also used in lexicography. For example, etymological dictionaries provide words with their historical origins, change and development.
Lexicography
A familiar example of lexicology at work is that of dictionaries and thesauriThesaurus
A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...
. Dictionaries are books or computer programs (or databases) that actually represent lexicographical work, they are opened and purposed for the use of public.
As there are many different types of dictionaries, there are many different types of lexicographers.
Questions that lexicographers are concerned with are for example the difficulties in defining what simple words such as 'the' mean, and how compound or complex words, or words with many meanings can be clearly explained. Also which words to keep in and which not to include in a dictionary.
Noted lexicographers
Some noted lexicographers include:- Dr. Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
(September 18, 1709 – December 13, 1784) - French lexicographer Pierre LaroussePierre LaroussePierre Athanase Larousse was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15 volume Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle.-Early life:Pierre Larousse was born in Toucy, where...
(October 23, 1817-January 3, 1875) - Noah WebsterNoah WebsterNoah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...
(October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) - Russian lexicographer Vladimir DalVladimir DalVladimir Ivanovich Dal was one of the greatest Russian language lexicographers. He was a founding member of the Russian Geographical Society. He knew at least six languages including Turkic and is considered to be one of the early Turkologists...
(November 10, 1801 – September 22, 1872)
Lexicologists
- Damaso Alonso, (Oct. 22, 1898-) Spanish literary critic and lexicologist
- Roland BarthesRoland BarthesRoland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
, (Nov. 12, 1915-Mar. 25, 1980) French writer, critic and lexicologist
See also
- LexemeLexemeA lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN...
- LexiconLexiconIn linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
- LexicographyLexicographyLexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
- CalqueCalqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
- Phono-semantic matchingPhono-semantic matchingPhono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
- List of lexicographers
- List of linguists
- Computational lexicologyComputational lexicologyComputational lexicology is that branch of computational linguistics, which is concerned with the use of computers in the study of lexicon. It has been more narrowly described by some scholars as the use of computers in the study of machine-readable dictionaries...
- SemasiologySemasiologySemasiology is a discipline within linguistics concerned with the question "what does the word X mean?". It studies the meaning of words regardless of their phonetic expression. Semasiology departs from a word or lexical expression and asks for its meaning, its different senses, i.e. polysemy...
- OnomasiologyOnomasiologyOnomasiology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the question "how do you express X?" It is in fact most commonly understood as a branch of lexicology, the study of words .Onomasiology, as a part of lexicology, starts from a concept which is taken to be priorOnomasiology (from — to name,...
- English lexicology and lexicographyEnglish lexicology and lexicographyEnglish lexicology and lexicography is that field in English language studies which examines English word-formation, the evolution of vocabulary and the composition of English dictionaries.-Bibliography:...
- Analysis of subjective logicsAnalysis of subjective logicsAnalysis of subjective logics is an original method of discourse analysis developed and taught by the French psychoanalyst Jean-Jacques Pinto.- Definition :A.S.L...
Societies
- Association for Automatic Language Processing (ATALA), Paris, France
- International Society for Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, University of Leicester