The Subfields of Linguistics

1.3. Lexicology

Definition: it is a branch of linguistics that studies the stock of words (lexicon) and word formation in a given language.

Meaning of “word”: there is no common definition of the word “word”, but there are four frequently implied meanings for it, which are:
An Orthographic Word: is the one which has a space on both sides of it. This definition applies only to the written medium (exception of spoken medium).
Example: I am happy= 3 orthographic words.
A Morphological Word: it deals with form only (structure).
Example: table=one morphological word though it can refer to different meanings: an object or a diagram. “table” and “tables” are two morphological words since they are different in form.
A Lexical Word: unlike the morphological word, it deals with meaning.
Example: “teach, teaches, teaching, taught, teacher”= 5 morphological words BUT 1 lexical word.
“TELL” is a lexical word which comprehends all the various forms: tell, tells, told, telling…..etc.
A Semantic Word: involves distinguishing between words which maybe morphologically the same but differ in meaning
Example: “miss”= a girl or female, “miss”= to have feeling of missing towards someone. They are 1 morphological word BUT 2 semantic words.

Word Formation Processes
In English, there are many methods of word-formation, which can be summarized in the following sub-titles:

1/ - Suffixation: fortunate + ly =fortunately
- prefixation: un + lucky= unlucky
- affixation: un + fortunate +ly =unfortunately
2/ - Compounding: compounding helps forming a word out of two or more root morphemes. These words are called 'compounds'. They can be formed with two or more morphemes from different grammatical classes as follows:
- Noun + noun: house + wife =housewife
- Adjective + noun: black bird, hard drive, green house
- Verb + noun: pick pocket, cut-purse, lick-spittle, salesman
- Adjective + verb: wide+ spreed = widespreed
- Verb + adverb: look + down =lookdown
- Adverb + verb: under + go = undergo, overlook
- Noun + verb: hair +do =hairdo, sunrise, sunshine
- Possessive noun + noun: bull's + eye =bulleye
N.B: When the compound word is new, a hyphen is used between the parts. When it becomes familiar, the hyphen is dropped.
Example: switch-off.
In case of combining two vowels, the hyphen is involved: co-ordinate.

3/ Coinage, Backformations, Blends and Acronyms

- Coinage: words can be coined from existing material to represent a new invention or development.
Example: greenhouse, Facebook.

- Backformations: involves the use of analogy to create forms that are similar to the ones already existing in the language.
Example: pop from popular.

- Blends: involves combining two words by taking parts of both words and recombining them to form new word e.g. mock+ cocktail (mock tail), splog (spam and blog)
- Acronyms: are formed by taking the initial letters of a phrase and making a word out of it.
Example: secret national police (SNP)

Word Classes
       In English, words are classed into classes according to their function which are: noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, determiners, pronouns, conjunctions and exclamations / interjections.
1/ noun: is the name of a person, animal, place, concept or thing
2/determiner: a word which precedes both adjectives and nouns.
3/ verb: is an action done by the subject and are divided into main verbs and auxiliaries.
4/ adverb: is used to modify a verb, an adjective, a sentence or another adverb
5/ preposition: is a function word followed by noun, noun phrase or pronoun.

6/ conjunction: it is a linking word. There are two types of conjunctions: co-ordinate conjunctions which relate units of equal significance in a sentence such as: and, yet, but; and subordinating conjunctions which join subordinate clauses to main one such as: that
7/ exclamation: is an expression of fear, pain or surprise e.g. Oh darling! Both exclamation and interjection are marked by exclamation marks.

       In order to test an item to figure out its class, TEST FRAMES can be used. Check Todd (1987) page 53-54.