Lexicology as a branch of linguistics

Lexicology (from Greek “lexis”- “word” and “logos”- learning”) is a part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of words as the main units of the language. The term “vocabulary” means the total sum of all the words and word equivalents that a language possesses. The term “word ” denotes the basic unit of a given language. It is a unity of a particular meaning and a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word is a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit simultaneously. According to I. Arnold, a word is the smallest significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and characterised by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability and semantic integrity.

The vocabulary of a language is an adaptive system constantly adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communications and cultural surroundings. It is continually developing by overcoming contradictions between its state and the new tasks and demands it has to meet.

The general study of word and vocabulary, irrespective the language, is done by general lexicology. Special lexicology deals with description of peculiarities of a given language. Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic grouping and semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponomy, semantic fields, etc. Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics – the study of meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar.

There are two principally different positions from which a language can be studied: diachronic (historical) and synchronic (descriptive). A language is a reality of thought, and thought develops together with the development of society, therefore the language and its vocabulary must be studied in the light of social history. Every new phenomenon in human society and in human activity in general, which is of any importance for communication, finds a reflection in vocabulary. A word, rendering some notion through its meaning, is a generalized reflection of reality. It is impossible to understand its development if one is ignorant of the changes in social, political or everyday life, production or science, manners or culture it serves to reflect. These extra-linguistic forces influencing the development of words are considered in historical lexicology. It should be emphasized that the social nature of language and its vocabulary is not limited to the social essence of extra-linguistic factors influencing their development. A language being a means of communication the social essence is intrinsic (inner) to the language itself. The branch of linguistics dealing with casual relations between the way a language works and develops, on the one hand, and the facts of social life, on the other hand, is termed socio-linguistics. A linguistic and extra-linguistic approach must be always be borne in mind, yet in language reality all the aspects are inter-determined and cannot be understood one without the other.

Comparison of linguistic processes of two or more languages is done by contrastive (comparative) linguistics. Contrastive lexicology provides a theoretic basis upon which a comparison of vocabularies of different languages is possible. Contrastive lexicology also takes into account data obtained by comparative linguistics, which is being a branch of historical linguistics concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness. Comparative linguistics aims to construct language families, to reconstruct proto-languages and specify the changes that have resulted in the documented languages.

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