АНГЛИЙСКА ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИЯ

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 п е р . : 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.

4602010000

© ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО
«ВЫСШАЯ ШКОЛА», 1979


ББК 81.2-3 Англ
4И (Англ)

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 distrib-
uted 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 of-
fered 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

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, the sci-
ence of language. The term Lexi c o l o g y
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 lit-
eral 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 pat-
terns, 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 con-
cerned with the study of vocabulary irrespective of the specific features of
any particular language. Special Lexicology is the Lexicology of a particu-
lar 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 lan-
guage. 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.
There are two principal approaches in linguistic
science to the study of language material,
namely the synchronic (Gr. syn — ‘together,
with’ and chronos — ‘time’) and the diachronic (Gr. dia — ‘through’)
approach. With regard to S p e c i a l Lexicology the synchronic approach
is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as it exists at a given time,
for instance, at the present time. It is special
7

§ 1. Definition. Links with
Other Branches
of Linguistics
§ 2. Two Approaches to
Language Study

D e s с r i p t i v e L e x i c o l o g y that deals with the vocabulary and
vocabulary units of a particular language at a certain time. A Course in
Modern English Lexicology is therefore a course in Special Descriptive
Lexicology, its object of study being the English vocabulary as it exists at
the present time.
The diachronic approach in terms of Special Lexicology deals with the
changes and the development of vocabulary in the course of time. It is
special Historical Lexicology that deals with the evolution of the vocabu-
lary units of a language as time goes by. An English Historical Lexicology
would be concerned, therefore, with the origin of English vocabulary
units, their change and development, the linguistic and extralinguistic fac-
tors modifying their structure, meaning and usage within the history of the
English language.
It should be emphatically stressed that the distinction between the syn-
chronic and the diachronic study is merely a difference of approach sepa-
rating for the purposes of investigation what in real language is insepara-
ble. The two approaches should not be contrasted, or set one against the
other; in fact, they are intrinsically interconnected and interdependent:
every linguistic structure and system actually exists in a state of constant
development so that the synchronic state of a language system is a result
of a long process of linguistic evolution, of its historical development.
A good example illustrating both the distinction between the two ap-
proaches and their interconnection is furnished