Introduction to Lexicology

This course provides an introduction to the basic terminology and fundamental general features of vocabulary. These include the lexical item and its properties – spelling, pronunciation, meaning in broad terms, grammar, word family, phraseology, as well as the role of context and the culture-bound element. Further, we explore dictionary treatment of meaning: types of dictionary definitions and illustrative examples in monolingual dictionaries. Other angles include: semantic features of lexical items: monosemy and polysemy, metaphoricity, levels of lexical meaning (denotative, connotative, stylistic, collocational); phraseological units and wider patterning; elements of pragmatics within lexicology; general and contrastive lexicology.