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PRACTICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS TO THE USE OF THEORETICAL LAWS IN THE SCIENCES OF THE 21ST CENTURY
tashkent, o-8 mav 2004 www.in~academy.uz
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEXICOLOGY AND LEXICOGRAPHY IN ENHANCING THE VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE OF STUDENTS
Qoldigiz Mirzayeva Axilbekovna
Senior teacher of department of foreign language and literature Faculty of history and philology Tashkent university for applied sciences mirzayevaxolida9@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13164924 English lexicology is a subject that helps students systematically master English vocabulary from three aspects: sound, form and meaning. This article based on the main relationships between Lexicology and Lexicography in enhancing vocabulary knowledge of students
Keywords: lexicography, lexicology, distinction, word, lexicon, lexicographer, etymology, relationships, dictionary
1 INTRODUCTION
English lexicology is the subject of studying the form, meaning and whole vocabulary system of English words. The importance of vocabulary is self-evident in the process of second language acquisition. As lexicologist Wilkins put it in his 1972 book: "Without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed." As an English teacher in a university, the author finds that students' limited vocabulary is always a major obstacle to pass the English proficiency test. Students are generally troubled by problems such as long memory time, fast forgetting speed, lack of lasting motivation for a long time. The lack of vocabulary makes students afraid of English and even gives up this subject.
By now lexicology and lexicography represent two separate disciplines, as is well known. Yet they are so deeply interrelated that it is most advisable to treat (and teach) them simultaneously, as they overlap in several rather important aspects. What they have in common first and foremost is their subject, their "material" as it were, that is, word and vocabulary (the lexicon).
But then, there is also a marked difference between them: while lexicology is for the most part a theoretical study dealing with the process, lexicography is preoccupied mostly with the result of lexicalization. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW David Crystal in his wonderful book (CRYSTAL 1995) wrote a very educational chapter on the nature and sources of the English lexicon. He is absolutely right, and lexicographers have to forgive him for his slant - in stating that if someone wants to write a dictionary, he/she needs to have had some training in lexicology. On the other hand, "a lexicologist is very well off without ever having written a dictionary at all." It is clear that lexicography without its theoretical background, that is lexicology is similar to a house without foundations. So, one must start teaching lexicography together with lexicology. First of all, we
should clarify what we mean by lexicology and how it differs from lexicography.
The term lexicology and lexicography come from the Greek words. Lexicology comes from the Greek words lexikos - meaning "dictionary", logo - meaning "teaching", "teaching about the meanings of words". Lexicography comes from the Greek words lexikos -meaning "of words" and grapho - meaning "to write". It is used to look up definitions, spelling, and pronunciation. So, the origin of both words comes from the Greek "lexicon" meaning "dictionary, vocabulary, word-stock." Hence the prefix lexico- to which was added first -graphia (-graphy) also from Greek ("graphein" meaning "to describe"): "lexicography". It became lexicalized and recorded in 1680, Oxford English Dictionary. It was some 150 years later (in 1838, according to Oxford English Dictionary) that another linguistic term was coined with the same prefix, and -logia (-logy) was attached to it (from the Greek "legein" meaning "to say"): "lexicology".
The main goals of lexicography are to provide a reliable, comprehensive account of a spoken language. The lexicographer must research, organize, define, and compile the words in a dictionary. For each dictionary entry, the lexicographer provides a definition, a pronunciation, a list of synonyms, an example of the word being used, and sometimes its etymology.
The main aim of lexicology is to define the essence of words. Its studies are word formation, semasiology, etymological characteristics of words, phraseological units, lexicography and so on. Lexicology deals with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.
Lexicology does not study each word in isolation, but in conjunction with other words. Lexicology is closely related to such branches of linguistics as lexicography, phraseology, semantics, etymology, stylistics, the study of word formation, etc. One of the
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TASHKENT. 0-8 MAY 2024
main problems of lexicology is the existence of the word as an independent language unit.
Lexicology also studies the relationships of words, such as monosemy, polysemy, synonymy, antonymy, free or interdependence of word meanings. When vocabulary is considered as a system, it is assumed that the meanings and concepts of a word are interrelated. The subject of lexicology is the study of structural and systemic features of lexical wealth, patterns of development, its relationship with other levels of language.
Thus, the subject of lexicography and lexicology is the same, that is, "word", the difference being that while lexicology is a term used to refer to the theoretical aspect of the study of a language's vocabulary, lexicography is a more practical discipline, lexicology applied. Although they are interrelated, it does not mean that lexicology is merely a theoretical discipline, and lexicography merely practical. They complement and presuppose each other. From among the differences between the two disciplines we underline just one: how they are organized.
While the author of lexicological studies takes optional parts of vocabulary discussing the form, meanings, origin and various peculiarities of words from any arbitrary aspect, the lexicographer faces at all times the entire vocabulary of the language he is concerned with, and creates numerous mini-monographs, in other words, dictionary entries.
When the lexicologist deals with the major and minor categories of word-formation, that is, affixation, compounding, conversion, or back-formation, clipping, blending, abbreviations and acronyms, he or she is preparing the ground for the lexicographer who is soon fully aware of the relevance of these categories (models, structures, functions and relationships) to his/her dictionary.
Again, when polysemy, synonymy or homonymy are highlighted by the lexicologist, unawares he/she is treading on the soil of lexicography. 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS
There are three main components of a dictionary: the lexical, the grammatical
and the semantic. This involves three basic disciplines of lexicography: lexicology, descriptive grammar and (lexical) semantics. There may be three ways of looking at words. The "word" as a lexical unit or lexeme (MCARTHUR 1996) is referred to in lexicography as headword, the basic unit of a dictionary.
Firstly, we have to treat the main types of headwords which may be:
- single words (book, house, bird, pen, pencil, cat),
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- groups of words such as compounds (clockwork, grass snake, lampblack),
- attributive phrases (grandpiano, genetic engineering),
- compound verbs (phrasal verbs etc.) (get on, put up
with),
- parts of words (auto-, -logy and other affixes and combining forms or morphemes),
- shortened forms or clippings (ad, info, disco, ham),
- abbreviations and acronyms (EU, NATO, UNO), and
- encyclopedic elements (Alexander the Great, Court of St James's, United Kingdom, Scotland, Sydney).
Secondly, the modes of arrangement of headwords have to be considered. This can be alphabetic (within it: root or cluster-type arrangement or the combination of the two) or thesaurus-type arrangement, typically the synonym dictionaries.
Thirdly, the selection and dimension of vocabulary, and within this the proportion of the general and technical (specialist) vocabulary (MAGAY 1984) is treated. Students have to be aware how large their English and their native language's vocabulary is (about one million at least). But, again, it is the question of lexicology which words we regard as being technical as opposed to general. For example, ant and fly are both insects, two out of more than one million identified insects.
Fourthly, the sources of compilation come under investigation. We have to turn first to historical lexicography to survey the traditional ways of collecting the desired headword list (excerpting from various texts, primary and secondary literature, existing dictionaries, encyclopedias). Then the radically new ways of collecting and recording linguistic material of the electronic age: databanks (databases) and corpora. The dimensions of a dictionary in terms of headwords (vocabulary) are determined basically by the orientation of the dictionary: who the prospective users or target audience are. This is what we call user-oriented dictionary-making. 4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS It can be argued whether the phonological representation of word, i.e. pronunciation, should be treated separately or within the category of grammar. Whereas spelling and the division into word classes are the minimum information in all types and sizes of dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, pronunciation can be regarded as optional when, for example, a bilingual L1 - L2 dictionary is involved. In an L2 - L1 dictionary, however, it is most advisable to include current pronunciation of the source language.
Grammatical indications cover morphological and syntactic information. As to whether morphological information should be given in the introductory material
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PRACTICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS TO THE USE OF THEORETICAL LAWS IN THE SCIENCES OF THE 2IST CENTURY
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of the dictionary or under the appropriate headword preferably by means of codes from the text of the dictionary to an appendix or prefatory material, has to be decided in the policy for each single dictionary. Depth of grammatical information varies with dictionaries. Some of the most typical morphological information include spelling variants, alternative forms (enquire / inquire, organize / organise, colour / color), irregular forms (went, dying, men, mice), dropping of final -e (dance, dancing), changing of -y into -ie (study, studies), word-division etc. Whether we call it "meaning" or "sense" (MCARTHUR 1996, BERG 1993) let us agree right at the beginning that they are synonymous terms, referring to the basic fact that words in general have more than one sense or meaning, and this phenomenon is called polysemy. Whatever we think of a dictionary or what kind of reference book, a dictionary is at all depends on (1) how it defines the notion of polysemy and (2) how it treats polysemy in the given dictionary. When we look at polysemy in contrast with homonymy, it can be argued whether homonymy is a semantic category or not. (LIPKA 1990) Another crucial question crops up when we face polysemy in contrast with functional shift (or conversion). Can lexical meaning and grammatical function be separated? Is it a question of semantics whether the various distinguishable senses of a word (or lexeme) are treated within separate word classes as it is done in most of the current dictionaries or ordering the various senses should be irrespective of their word-class category as it is done e.g. by Collins Cobuild (SINCLAIR et al. eds. 1995)?
In teaching lexicography to potential dictionary users (and makers) it has to be made clear that meaning discrimination (or sense division) is carried out in a totally different way in historical dictionary with chronological listing of senses and in dictionaries describing the current state of language with frequency of senses as the guiding principle, i.e. with the current and general meaning first, followed by the less common or current and special meaning(s) / sense(s).
Next, students have to realize that in describing the various meanings (or senses) and differentiating them (i.e. carrying on the process of disambiguation), the dictionary is compelled to use a metalanguage. What then are the means of disambiguation? The meaning of each headword and each sense or sub sense of it is explained in definitions with information about content, context, typical use and other relevant facts. Synonyms often substitute definitions.
It is a much-debated question where to treat the various forms of multi-word lexical units. As it often happens, as in the present paper, the author fails to find
a proper slot in the treatment of general lexicographic questions, therefore he gives it a separate chapter. The reason may be found in the double goal of their inclusion it the dictionary. First, they behave grammatically as single words and as such they have to be recorded together with other lexical elements to fulfil the descriptive role of dictionary-writing; second, they can be used best as illustrations of the various meanings (or senses) of the headword.
Since phrases and idioms (and idiomaticity) have far outgrown the dimensions of lexicography (inaugurating perhaps a new discipline: "phraseography") and have cut their own way through the countless mass of dictionary references, either collecting them in phraseological dictionaries (as e.g. COWIE 1975 and 1983) or treating them monographically (MAKKAI 1972, MOON 1998 and others), I would prefer assigning "phraseology" to the chapter of meaning when dealing with the lexicographical issues of generalpurpose dictionaries.
One can visualize phraseology in a dictionary as a "continuum", with free combinations at one end and proverbs at the other, and collocations, phrases, phrasal verbs, idioms, sayings in between. Idioms are to be treated as lexemes: they have to be defined as any other lexical unit, or their equivalents have to be found in the target language in the case of a bilingual dictionary, and have to be exemplified duly.
When, however, it is the case of an L1 - L2 dictionary (i.e. from native to foreign language), the lexicographer has to be on full alert when choosing target-language equivalent idioms for source language idioms, so that the equivalent idiom is not a dated idiom. It is therefore more than necessary to find frequency indications in native dictionaries of idioms, as e.g. by Collins Cobuild (1995). Set phrases, fixed expressions (MOON 1998) and idioms, and an important subcategory: phrasal verbs, have to be included in due proportion in both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. But collocations (i.e. words often used together, sometimes called semi-idioms) are even more important in the bilingual dictionary than in the monolingual, and have a special role in the L1 - L2 dictionary.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, distinction between lexicology and lexicography is now accepted by most lexicologists and lexicographers: lexicology is the study of the lexicon and lexicography is concerned with the writing of dictionaries. Lexicology develops the laws of practical use and development of vocabulary, the principles of methodological classification of words. The norms of use in the colloquial and literary languages,
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PRACTICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS TO THE USE OF THEORETICAL LAWS IN THE SCIENCES OF THE 2IST CENTURY
tashkent, o-8 may 2004 www.in~academy.uz
professionalism, dialectics, archaism, neologisms, standardization of lexical phrases are also analyzed and certain conclusions are drawn from them.
As lexicography is an independent academic discipline, this also implies that there must be a theory and methodology for designing, constructing and updating high quality specialized dictionaries.
Lexicography fulfils all the requirements necessary as a separate science or area of academic study:
-lexicography constitutes a system of knowledge growing out of social practice;
-lexicography has its own subject field; -lexicography is rooted in the form of concepts, categories, theories and hypotheses;
-lexicography comprises both the history of dictionaries and its own history including pre-theoretical ideas
REFERENCES
[1] Sinclair, J., Hanks, Patrick et al. (1987), "Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary", Collins, London, Glasgow. Second Edition 1995.
[2] Atkins, Beryl T., Duval, Alain et al. eds. (1993), "Collins Robert French and English / English and French Dictionary Unabridged", Third Edition, Harper Collins, Glasgow.
[3] J.A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner., "The Oxford English Dictionary" (1989) Second Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
[4] Cowie, A., Mackin, R., (1975) "Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English ", Vol 1: Verbs with Prepositions and Particles. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
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[7] Atkins, B.T. (1992) "Putting lexicography on the professional map." In: EURALEX '90 Proceedings. Bibliograf, Barcelona, PP. 519-26.
[8] Bejoint, H. (1981), "The foreign student's use of monolingual English Dictionaries", In: Applied Linguistics 2: pp. 207-20.
[9] Cowie, A.P. (1981) "Lexicography and its pedagogic applications", In: Applied Linguistics 2: 203-6.
[10] Greenbaum, S. (1996) "The Oxford English Grammar", Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[11] Hartmann, R.R.K. (1981) "Training in lexicography", In: EURALEX '90
