Lexicology

“what is lexicology”????

 

Lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies words. This may include their nature and function as symbols,^[1] their meaning, the relationship of their meaning to epistemology in general, and the rules of their composition from smaller elements (morphemes such as the English -ed marker for past or un- for negation; and phonemes as basic sound units). Lexicology also involves relations between words, which may involve semantics (for example, love vs. affection), derivation (for example, fathom vs. unfathomably), usage and sociolinguistic distinctions (for example, flesh vs. meat), and any other issues involved in analyzing the whole lexicon of a language.

The term first appeared in the 1970s, though there were lexicologists in essence before the term was coined. Computational lexicology as a related field (in the same way that computational linguistics is related to linguistics) deals with the computational study of dictionaries and their contents.

An allied science to lexicology is lexicography, which also studies words, but primarily in relation with dictionaries – it is concerned with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that perspective with the whole lexicon. Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part or a branch of lexicology, but properly speaking, only lexicologists who actually write dictionaries are lexicographers. Some consider this a distinction of theory vs. practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicology

 

• Content Words and Function Words
  "[T]eachers of English have customarily distinguished between content words, like snow and mountain, and function words, like it and on and of and the. . . . Lexicology is the study of content words, or lexical items."
  (M.A.K. Halliday et al., Lexicology and Corpus Linguistics. Continuum, 2004)
• Lexicology and Grammar
  "Both grammar and lexicology involve us in an indefinitely large number of superficially different units. In the case of grammar these are phrases, clauses, and sentences; in the case of lexicology the units are words, or more precisely . . . lexical items. It is typical of grammar to make general and abstract statements about the units concerned, showing a common construction despite formal differences. It is typical of lexicology to make specific statements about individual units. In consequence, while the grammar of a language is best handled in chapters devoted to different types of construction, it is normal to deal with the lexicon of a language in an alphabetical dictionary, each entry devoted to a different lexical item."
  (Randolph Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 2nd ed. Longman, 1985)
• Lexicology and Phonology
  "[I]t may be thought at first sight that phonology does not interact with lexicology in any significant manner. But a close analysis will reveal that, in many cases, the difference between two otherwise identical lexical items can be reduced to a difference at the level of phonology. Compare for example the pair of words toy and boy, feet and fit, pill and pin. They differ only in one sound unit (the position of which has been [italicized] in each word) and yet the difference has serious consequences at the level of lexicology."
  (Etienne Zé Amvela, "Lexicography and Lexicology." Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning, ed. by Michaël Byram. Routledge, 2000)

Pronunciation: lek-se-KAH-le-gee

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/lexicologyterm.htm