A Course in Modern English Lexicology

R. S. Ginzburg , S. S. Khidekel, G. Y. Knyazeva, A. A. Sankin A COURSE IN MODERN ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY SECOND EDITION Revised and Enlarged Допущено Министерством высшего и среднего специального образования СССР в качестве учебника для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков Сканирование, распознавание, проверка: Аркадий Куракин (ark # mksat. net), окт-2004. Орфография унифицирована к британской. Для некоммерческого использования. MOSCOW VYSŠAJA ŠKOLA 1979 ББК 81.2-3 Англ Л 43 Р е ц е н з е н т : кафедра английской филологии Ленинградского государ- ственного педагогического института им. А. А. Герцена Л 43 Лексикология английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз./Р. 3. Гинзбург, С. С. Хидекель, Г. Ю. Князева и А. А. Санкин. — 2-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Высш. школа, 1979. — 269 с, ил., табл. Список рек. лит. В пер.: 1 р. 0 0 к. Данная книга является вторым изданием учебника по лекси- кологии тех же авторов, вышедшего впервые в 1966 г. В учебнике нашли отражение такие вопросы лексикологии, как семасиология, структура слова, словосложение и словообра- зование, словосочетания и фразеологические единицы, этимоло- гия словарного состава английского языка, основы английской лексикографии и др. Второе издание дополнено разделом «Методы лексикологи- ческого исследования», значительно расширен раздел «Лексико- графия» и др. Учебник предназначается для студентов институтов и фа- культетов иностранных языков. ББК 81.2-3 Англ 4602010000 4И (Англ) © ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО «ВЫСШАЯ ШКОЛА», 1979 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION This book makes no pretension to deal with the whole vast field of Eng- lish Lexicology. It has a more limited aim, to assist the students of foreign language institutes and departments in their study of the fundamentals of Modern English Lexicology. Post-graduates specialising in English and teachers of English may also find it useful. This book is, as its title implies, concerned only with the vocabulary of English as it exists and functions at the present time. The authors* major concern is, therefore, with the treatment of the problems inherent in a course of Lexicology mainly from the synchronic angle. The diachronic approach which is, in the authors’ opinion, indispensable in any study of vocabulary occupies its due place in the book too. The book is based on the course of lectures in English Lexicology deliv- ered by the authors for a number of years at the Moscow Maurice Thorez State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. The subject matter corre- sponds to the programme on English Lexicology issued by the USSR Minis- try of Higher and Secondary Special Education. In preparing this work the authors have tried to take into consideration the latest achievements in linguistic science made in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. The authors’ indebtedness to various books and studies will be readily perceived from List of Books Extensively Used as well as from the authors quoted or referred to in the foot-notes. The factual material collected in some of the best graduation papers compiled under the authors’ guidance has also been made use of. The work of preparing the separate parts of the course has been distributed among the authors as follows: 1. Introduction — A. A. Sankin 2. Varieties of English — G. Y. Knyaseva 3. Semasiology — R. S. Ginzburg 4. Word-Groups and Phraseological Units — R. S. Ginzburg 5. Word-Structure — S. S. Khidekel and A. A. Sankin 6. Word-Formation: affixation, conversion, shortening of words and minor ways of word-forming — A. A. Sankin Word-Composition — S. S. Khidekel 7. Etymological Survey of English Vocabulary — G. Y. Knyazeva 8. Conclusion — R. S. Ginzburg and S. S. Khidekel 9. Fundamentals of English Lexicography: Number of Vocabulary Units in English — R. S. Ginzburg Main Types of English Dictionaries — G. Y. Knyazeva The authors owe a great debt to a number of their colleagues from the Chair of English Lexicology and Stylistics who offered them advice on one or another portion of the book. The authors are highly indebted to E. M. Mednikova who read an earlier version in its entirety and made many ex- tremely valuable suggestions aimed at improving the treatment of the subject and the arrangement of the material. Warm thanks are also due to E. M. Le- bedinskaya who was especially helpful during later stages of the work. But, of course, no helpers, named or unnamed, are responsible for the blemishes that nevertheless remain. The authors will welcome any comment and criticism that will help to improve the book. The Authors PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The first edition of this book has been used in the classroom for over ten years. Since the first publication of “A Course in Modern English Lexicology” there has been considerable progress in linguistic studies and the authors’ ideas about some points have changed. So some chapters had to be revised or modified. The authors also found it necessary to introduce a special chapter on the procedures and methods of lexicological analysis written by R. S. Ginzburg, replace Conclusion by the chapter Various Aspects of Vocabulary Units and Replenishment of Modern English Word-Stock written by R. S. Ginzburg and S. S. Khidekel and also to enlarge the chapter on lexicography. The work of preparing the separate parts of the present edition has been distributed among the authors as follows: I. Introduction — A. A. Sankin II. Se- masiology — R. S. Ginzburg III. Word-Groups and Phraseological Units — R. S. Ginzburg IV. Word-Structure — S. S. Khidekel and A. A. Sankin V. Word-Formation — A. A. Sankin Word-Composition — S. S. Khidekel VI. Etymological Survey of the English Word-Stock — G. Y. Knyazeva VIL Various Aspects of Vocabulary Units and Replenishment of Modern English Word-Stock — R. S. Ginzburg, S. S. Khidekel VIII. Variants and dialects of the English Language — G. Y. Knyazeva IX. Fundamentals of English Lexicography — G. Y. Knyazeva X. Methods and Procedures of Lexicological Analysis — R. S. Ginzburg Besides some rearrangements have been made for the sake of greater clarity and simplicity of presentation. The authors owe a great debt to a number of their colleagues who offered them advice on this or that part of the book. Special thanks are due to Professor V. A. Kunin who has supplied the authors with the scheme of his conception of phraseology and to Professor I. V. Arnold whose criticism was of invaluable help to the authors. The authors are greatly indebted to Mr. Mark White for going over the text of the first edition and making valuable suggestions as to the English word- ing. The Authors OF ABBREVIATIONS AE — American English Am. — American AS. — Anglo-Saxon AuE — Australian English BE — British English Br. — British cf. — compare Chin. — Chinese CnE — Canadian English colloq. — colloquial Fr. — French G. — German gen. E. — general English Gr. — Greek It. — Italian L. — Latin ME. — Middle English MnE. — Modern English OE. — Old English OFr. — Old French ON. — Old Norse Russ. — Russian Scand. — Scandinavian Scot. — Scottish sl. — slang U.S. — American I. Introduction § 1. Definition. Links with Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the sci- Other Branches ence of language. The term Lexi c o l o g y of Linguistics 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 L e x i с o l о g у 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 patterns, 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. Lexi- cology 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 concerned 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 prin- ciples 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. § 2. Two Approaches to There are two principal approaches in linguistic Language Study science to the study of language material, namely the synchronic (Gr.

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