Lexicology

Lexicology

•   Lexicology is a part of linguistics.

•   It studies words, their nature and meaning, words` elements, relation between words, word-groups and the whole lexicon.

•   The term first appeared in the 1820s and it composed of two Greek morphemes, “lexis”- which means “word, phrase” and “logos” – which denotes “learning a department of knowledge”. Thus, the literal meaning of the term “lexicology” is the science of the word.

General and special lexicology

General lexicology 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 (Azerbaijani, English, Russian, German, French, etc.). It is based on the principals of general lexicology and laid down by general lexicology of vocabulary.

LEXICAL DECOMPOSITION

the first of these is lexical decomposition. lexical decomposition is a means of characterizing the detail lexical features of a word. example taking the words "kitten" ,  and "fawn" , we can see some commonality in them. individually we can assign each of them the following features :

·         kitten - young - four legged - animate – living

·         fawn -  young - four legged - animate - living

if we add  chicken or baby to his set the decomposition will be :

·         chicken - young - two legged, animate, living

·         baby-young-, two lagged, human, living

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation refers to the strict definition of a word, the class of things denoted by word. It is the refential or dictionary meaning of a lexical item. For example the lexeme “mother” has its dictionary definitionas “female parent”. Connotation, on the other hand, goes into the extralinguistic associations and overtones of meaning of words. These meanings would not be explicitly statd in the dictionary. Thus for “mother” the connotative meaning would entail, “love, comfort, solace, strength”.

Feelings

Denotation : emotions

Connotation : happy, sad, frightened, glad .