What is lexicology?


Linguistics, as a science of language, has several sections. Lexicology is one of them.

What is lexicology? This section of the science of language, studying the vocabulary of the language, its vocabulary. This name comes from two Greek roots: lexis – “word” and logos – “teaching.”

The object of lexicology is the word as the basic unit of language.

The subject of lexicology is the word, its meaning, origin, sphere of use.

Classifications of words

By lexical meaning, words are divided into:

Single-valued (pitcher, starling) and polysemantic words (the handle is a piece of furniture and a device for writing); phraseological units, that is, stable combinations: “headlong”, “through the sleeves”; synonyms – similar in meaning words (large – huge); antonyms – opposite in meaning words (large – small); homonyms – words that are identical in spelling and pronunciation, but different in meaning (spit of a girl and a scythe as a tool of labor).

Depending on the place of origin, the words are divided into:

Aboriginal Russian (head, table); foreign languages ​​(present, bazaar); neologisms – new words (computer).

The sphere of the use of words is also important. In this regard, they are divided into:

Common (sky, do, cheerful); obsolete, that is, obsolete, replaced by new words (eyes – eyes); historicisms – denote objects and phenomena that have disappeared from people’s lives (king, boots); conversational (rush, laugh); dialectal, ie, used in a certain area (good – good weather); professional (scalpel, balance); slang, characteristic of certain groups of people connected with common interests, for example, youth, thieves’ slang (darken – that is, hide something).


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What is lexicology?