Objectives and competences
The aim of this course is to provide the students with the description of the lexical aspects of English. The emphasis is on the origin and formation of English words, on lexical meaning and lexical relations, on semantic change and on English phraseology and idioms.
Content (Syllabus outline)
• Definition of the discipline and basic terminology (lexeme, lexical and grammatical words, vocabulary).
• Origin and formation of English words (neologisms, eponyms, interlingual borrowing, other sources; derivation, compounding, conversion, clipping, blending, acronyms). Productivity in word formation.
• Internal structure of words (morphological, semantic)
• Levels of lexical meaning (dennotation, connotation, polysemy, synonyms, homonyms, hyperonyms, hyponyms, antonyms, false friends)
• Phraseology and idioms (collocations, cliches, idioms, proverbs)
• Semantic change caused by external and internal factors (technology and current relevance, loss of specificity, accidental associations, analogy). Amelioration, pejoration, changed/narrowed/extened lexical meaning.
• Lexical entries in dictionaries and different types of dictionaries.
Learning and teaching methods
Type (examination, oral, coursework, project):
• Written exam
• Problem solving
• Active participation in lectures and tutorials
Readings
Aitchison, J. 1998. Words in the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cruse, D. A. 1997. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gabrovšek, D. 2004. Words Galore: Aspects of General and Slovene-English Contrastive Lexicology. Ljubljana: FF.
Katamba, F. 1994. English Words. London: Routledge.
Stockwell, R. in Minkova, D. 2001. English Words: History and Structure. Cambridge: CUP.
