The Word as the Basic Unit of Lexicology

1. Comment on the terms:

A) lexicology, subject of lexicology, system, vocabulary as a system, lexical units, a set-expression, language and speech, synchrony, diachrony, general/ special lexicology, contrastive lexicology, etymology, descriptive lexicology, sociolinguistics, semaciology, phraseology;

B) indivisibility, positional mobility, uninterruptability, phonetic variants, morphemic variants, morphological variants, lexico-semantic variants, root-morpheme, affix (suffix, prefix, infix), free/ bound morphemes, pseudo- morphemes, semi-affixes.

2. Establish the number and types of morphemes making up the word:

friendliness, merciless, effective, long-legged, gentleman, good-looking, ex-husband, unbutton, handrail, pocket, time-consuming, unwrapped, snowflake.

3. Give examples of free and bound morphemes (5 – 7 of each type).

4. Find a word with an inflection:

worker, darkness, books, rewrite.

5. Find a word with a derivational affix:

night, heartless, Ivanov’s, papers.

6. Find a word with two free morphemes:

unbearable, childhood, merry-go-round, first-nighter.

7. Find a word with two bound affixational morphemes:

kindness, snow-white, uneatable, book-keeper.

8. Find a word with a pseudo-morpheme:

rewrite, remain, speaker, lady-killer.

9. Find a word with a semi-affix:

red-hot, long-haired, self-possessed, undisputable.

10. In which word a root-morpheme has transformed into an affixational morpheme?

actress, friendship, question, childish.

Theme 2: English Etymology

1. Comment on the terms:

native component (Indo-European element, Germanic element, English Proper element), borrowed component (Celtic. Latin, Scandinavian, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch), causes of borrowings (social, linguistic), types of borrowings (transliteration, transcription, translation-loans, semantic loans, etymological doublets, international words, hybrid words), assimilation (phonetic, grammatical, semantic), degree of assimilation (complete, partial).

2. Identify the period of the following Latin borrowings:

wall, cheese, intelligent, candle, major, moderate, priest, school, street, cherry, music, phenomenon, nun, kitchen, plum, pear, pepper, datum, cup, wine, philosophy, method.

3. Study the map of Great Britain and write out the names of the cities and towns ending in:

a) caster (chester) (Lat. – military camp),

b) wick, Thorpe, by (Sc. - place).

4.In the given sentences find examples of Scandinavian borrowings:

1. He went on to say that he was sorry to hear that I had been ill. 2. She was wearing a long blue skirt. 3. Two eyes – eyes like winter windows, glared at him with ruthless impersonality. 4. The sun was high, the sky unclouded, the air warm with a dry fresh breeze. 5. It’s not such a bad thing to be unsure sometimes. It takes us away from rigid thinking.

5.Explain the etymology of the following words. Translate them into Russian:

coup d’etat, tete-a-tete, enfant terrible, beau monde, bon mot, persona grata, etc., e.g., a.m., p.m., sputnik, kindergarten, opera, piano, potato, tomato, czar, violin, coffee, alarm, cargo, blitzkrieg, steppe, banana, balalaika.

6. Identify the degree of assimilation of the following words:

pen, hors d’oeuvre, ballet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, gay, port, river, autumn, uncle, law, lunar, skirt, bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne.

7. State the origin of the following translation loans:

five-year plan, wonder child, masterpiece, first dancer, fellow-traveller.

8. State the origin of the following etymological doublets:

captain-chieftan, canal-channel;

shirt-skirt, shrew-screw;

gaol-jail, corpse- corps;

shadow-shade, off-of.

9. Supply the adjectives of Latin origin corresponding to the following nouns. Comment upon their stylistic characteristics:

nose, tooth, sun, hand, child, town, sea, life, youth

Theme 3: Word-building in Modern English

1. Comment on the terms:

word-building, word-building pattern, productive, non-productive, dead affixes, motivation, degrees of motivation, affixation, origin of affixes, theories of conversion, origin of conversion, composition (structural, semantic, theoretical aspect), shortening (lexical, clipping), blending, back-formation, sound-and-stress interchange, sound imitation, reduplication.

2. Deduce the meanings of the following derivatives from the meanings of their constituents:

reddish, overwrite, irregular, retype, old-womanish, disrespectable, disorganize, eatable, snobbish, handful, sandy, breakable, underfed.

3. Make up the names of people according to the following word-building meanings:

connection with action (V+er), place, residence (N+er), object (N+ist), instrument (N+ist), nationality (-ese, -an, -ish).

4.Specify the levels of lexical meaning in:

-er, -ish, -ist, -ian, -like, -ly, -ful.

5.Prove that the following affixes are highly productive:

un-, re-, dis-, -ing, -able, -ize, -er, -less, -ish, -ness, -ed.

6. Define the meanings of the nonce-words:

breakfaster, word-breaker, notatallness, mother-in-lawed, seasider, a take-my-word-for-itist, a collarless appearance, a lungful of smoke.

7. Say whether the following lexical units are word-groups or compounds:

railway platform, snowman, light dress, traffic light, landing field, film star, white man, hungry dog, medical man, landing plane, distant star, small house, evening dress, bluecoat, roughhouse, booby trap, black skirt, medical student, black shirt, hot dog.

8. Translate the words into English. Comment on the type of compounding:

cтарик, рыбак, колокольчик, свекровь, тесть, зять, невеста, белить, железная дорога, космический корабль, незабудка, черноволосый, зеленоглазый, вечнозеленый, самоанализ.

9.Form compounds:

to paint pictures, to break stones, to own land, to love art, something that kills pain, a brush for hair, the end of the week, the sill of a window, a chair with arms, filled with smoke, driven with wind, having dark eyes, the process of drilling holes.

10.Translate the word-combinations and sentences into Russian:

a) to head an army, to eye a foe, to chain a prisoner, to fish for accomplishments, to dress a wound, to hand a plate, to book a ticket;

b) 1. They will holiday in Italy. 2. It was a good buy. 3. She never notices the obvious. 4. Pocket your pride. 5. Why shoulder the burden alone? 6. His eyes narrowed. 7. The beer wasn’t iced. 8. Don’t baby him. 9. Women pilot planes and man ships. 10. The drop-out in colleges has a lot of reasons.

11.Write in full the shortened words. Define the type of shortening:

pub, ad, fancy, UNO,V-day, mike, mob, lab, jeep, fridge, V.I.P.

12.Give the words denoting sounds produced by the animals:

The cat… the hen….

The dog… the sparrow…

The cow… the pig…

The cock… the bee…

The frog… the duck…

The sheep… the snake…

13.Comment on the type of word-building. Translate into Russian:

walkie-talkie, ping-pong, dilly-dally, wishy-washy, flip-flop, helter-skelter, hanky-panky, hurly-burly, Humpy-Dumpy.

14.Form nouns from the verbs and adjectives according to the models:

a)to breathe – breath:

to live, to grieve, to advise, to use, to excuse, to bathe, to believe, to prove, to practice, to relieve;

b)strong – strength:

wide, deep, long, broad.

15.Form verbs from nouns and adjectives:

Food, brood, blood, full, gold.

16.Explain the formation of the following words:

a) to pettifog, to burgle, to typewrite, to sight-read, to beg, to meditate, to inflate;

b) flush, glaze, good-bye, smog, cablegram, electrochute, swellegant, motel.

Theme 4: Lexical Meaning as a Linguistic Category.

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