МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ

ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
«САМАРСКИЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ИМЕНИ АКАДЕМИКА С. П. КОРОЛЕВА»
(САМАРСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ)

ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИЯ СОВРЕМЕННОГО
АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
(ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY)
Рекомендовано редакционно-издательским советом федерального государ-
ственного автономного образовательного учреждения высшего образования
«Самарский национальный исследовательский университет имени академика
С. П. Королева» в качестве методических указаний для студентов Самарского
университета, обучающихся по основной образовательной программе высшего
образования по направлению подготовки 45.03.01 Филология

Составители: Т.А. Гуральник,

В.Д. Шевченко

САМАРА
Издательство Самарского университета
2018

1
УДК 42 (075)
ББК 81.2я7
Составители: Т.А. Гуральник, В.Д. Шевченко

Рецензент: д-р филол. наук, проф. С.И. Д у б и н и н

Лексикология современного английского языка (English lexicology):

метод. указания / Т.А. Гуральник, В.Д. Шевченко. – Самара: Изд-во Самар-
ского университета, 2018. – 40 с.

Цель курса «Лексикология» заключается в систематизации теоретических

знаний и практических навыков в области лексикологии английского языка, в
формировании прочной лингвистической основы в структуре профессиональ-
ных компетенций бакалавров.
В связи с данной целевой установкой предлагаемая программа семи-
нарских занятий включает обсуждение теоретических аспектов курса и
выполнение практических заданий, предназначенных для закрепления
знаний, полученных студентами в лекционном курсе «Лексикология», а
также в процессе самостоятельной работы с учебными пособиями и теоре-
тическими работами по основным проблемам формирования и развития
словарного состава современного английского языка.
Основными формами контроля на семинарских занятиях являются:
опрос по теоретическим аспектам курса, отчетность о выполнении практи-
ческих заданий, подготовка теоретических сообщений реферативного ха-
рактера.
Предназначены для студентов, обучающихся по направлениям подго-
товки 45.03.01 Филология.

УДК 42 (075)
ББК 81.2я7

© Самарский университет, 2018

2
 SEMINAR № 1
English Vocabulary as a System

A. Points for discussion:

1. The object of lexicology. Theoretical and practical value of lexicol-
ogy. Links of lexicology with linguistic and social sciences.
2. The word as the basic unit of lexicology. Paradigmatic and syntag-
matic relations in the vocabulary.
3. Principles of vocabulary study: a) non-semantic morphological
groupings; b) lexical and semantic fields; c) lexical-grammatical groupings;
d) thematic and ideographic groups.
4. Territorial variation of the English language: lexical differences be-
tween British and American English.
5. Stylistic stratification of the English vocabulary. Lexical layers in
English vocabulary: a) learned and official words; b) poetic words; c) collo-
quialisms and slang; d) neologisms, obsolete and archaic words;

Glossary: historical lexicology, descriptive lexicology, paradigmatics

(paradigm), syntagmatics (syntagma), lexicon, vocabulary, word-stock, di-
alect, national variety, colloquialism, slang, neologism, obsolete word, ar-
chaic word, historical word

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. English Lexicology. Chapters 1 & 2, pp.6- 21, 27-38.
Arnold I.V. The English Word. M.,1986., pp.9-12, 199-209, 216-220, 243-251.
Дубенец Э.М. Modern English Lexicology. Theory and Practice. М.: 2002,
pp 4-5, 141-153.

B. Assignments
Exercise 1.a) Classify the following nouns into subgroups assuming that
nouns can further be subdivided into N object, N action N instant ac-
tion or N process, N agent etc.

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Abbey, alteration, ace, back, blame, bureau, circus, confession, cream, cut,
day, division, dive, docker, fortune, gipsy, giggling, hurry, jump, knocker,
laughter, maker, monument, person, process, run, satisfaction, shape, table,
writer.
b) Divide the above nouns into 1) concrete 2) abstract;
c) countable;
d) uncountable

Exercise 2. Write collocations for the words “book”, “tree”, “girl”

e.g. the bark of a tree, girl’s book
approach, bark, big, boy, branch, cry, culmination, dress, exciting, green,
grow, interesting, laugh, leaves, little, long, mischief, naughty, plot, pretty,
run, smart, soil, style, sulk, tall, thick, write.

Exercise 3. Organize the following words into logical groups comprising

the general and the particular. Suggest a general term (hyperonym) for
each group
e.g vehicle: truck, bicycle, train
animal, asparagus, beet, building, bull, bungalo, bush, cabbage, carrot, cat,
cottage, dog, fiction, flower, football, grass, horse, mansion, novel, onion,
plant, polo, short story, sport, story, swimming, tennis, tree, vegetable, villa

Exercise 4. a) State the stylistic differences between the words in the fol-
lowing pairs. Consult the dictionary if necessary.
nightly - nocturnal, yearly - annual, cloudy - nebulous, heavenly - celestial,
womanly - feminine, brotherly - fraternal, bodily - corporeal, goodly - con-
siderable, friendly - benevolent, homely - domestic, truthful - veracious,
earthly - terrestrial
b) Fill in the blanks with stylistically correct word from the list above
He gave me a _______ answer. 2. The astronomers used an extremely elab-
orate _______ map. 3. To enable the struggling authors to live Smith estab-
lished a _______ society. 4. New ideas were introduced both into the foreign

4
and _______ policy. 5. She looked at him, her eyes ______ with sleep. 6.
This specimen belongs to a species of __________ animals. 7. She was in
_____ fear of the man. 8. The place had a ______ air and the child soon
quieted down. 9. This is an ________ publication. 10 She looked very
______ in her new dress.

Exercise 5. Read the extracts below and decide which types of discourse
they belong to. Underline key stylistically marked words which help you
identify the discourse: terms, bookish/poetic words, officialese/literary
words etc.
A

Insecurity Haunts North African Regimes

Southern Mediterranean states hope to exploit their growing internal
security concerns as a means of intensifying pressure on the European Un-
ion to cement inter-regional ties during the Barcelona summit.
Among North African states there is growing insistence that the EU
should respond more positively to demands for resources which would
bolster the incumbent governments of the region in the face of insecurity
they portray as threatening to Europe.
The EU aid package for Mediterranean states, amounting to 4 billion
pounds, announced at the Cannes summit in June, is regarded by the ben-
eficiaries as little more as a token gesture. North African states will use
the Barcelona meeting to emphasize the link between political insecurity
and a lack of investment. The Algerian councilor for foreign affairs says:
“It’s necessary to give much more money than that provided at Cannes.
There cannot be stability and security without the settling of the social
questions.”

5
 B

The gold paper was stamped with a pattern of ridges and spines, a
miniature nautilus wrapped around dark imported chocolate. Unlike
cheap candy that clawed and irritated, this confection slipped down the
throat and satisfied.
The gold paper was subtly textured and, like fine damask, when angled
just so to the light, it revealed secret designs – diamonds – iridescent and
intermittent. Opened flat, the foil was about a three-inch square. It never
failed to amaze Fei Lo how boxes and bags could be knocked down to a
flat piece of hard paper with notches and missing corners. But the spines
that formed this shell design could not be flattened. They were hot-
stamped into the paper almost permanently giving the wrapped chocolate
its crisp elegance. Fei Lo turned the foil over. A shard of chocolate fell
free from the crease. He stared at it before knocking it into his mouth.

«O God of Earth and Altar

Bow down and hear our cry.
Our earthly rulers falter.
Our people drift and die.
The walls of gold entomb us.
The swords of scorn divide.
Take not thy thunder from us.
But take away our pride.»

Exercise 6. a) Read the two texts and say what country, the United Kingdom
or the United States, the girls are from. Make a list of the differences be-
tween British and American English. Consult the wordlist of British and
American vocabulary at http://www.english-zone.com/vocab/ae-be.html.

6
Trudi: Eileen:
I got up at seven-thirty. I put on I got up at half past seven. I put on
my bathrobe, went into the bathroom my dressing gown, went into the bath-
and turned on the bath-tub faucets. room and turned on the bath taps. Af-
After my bath I ate breakfast with ter my bath I had breakfast with my
my parents on the deck. Out apart- parents on the terrace. Out flat’s on
ment’s on the fifteenth floor, so the the fifteenth floor, so the view’s ter-
view’s terrific. At eight o’clock my rific. At eight o’clock my mum and I
mom and I took the elevator to the took the lift to the car park under our
parking lot underneath our apartment block of flats. First we stopped for
block. First we stopped for gas, then petrol, then she drove me to school.
she drove me to school. The freeway The motorway was really busy –cars
was really busy – automobiles every- everywhere. When I got to school it
where. When I got to school it was was raining. Luckily I’d brought my
raining. Luckily I’d brought my ga- Wellington boots and an umbrella, so
loshes and an umbrella, so I didn’t I didn’t get wet.
get wet. School was OK except that we
School was OK except that we had a maths exam before break. I
had a math test before recess. I think I think I failed it, Anyway, after school
flunked it, Anyway, after school I I took a bus to the city centre to meet
took a bus downtown to meet my sis- my sister, Susan. She became a pri-
ter., Susan. She became a grade mary school teacher after she left
school teacher after she left college university last year. We went out for
last year. We ate out at Chinese res- dinner to a Chinese restaurant. Per-
taurant. Personally, I don’t like rice, sonally, I don’t like rice, so I ordered
so I ordered French-fries instead. Su- chips instead. Susan disapproved. Af-
san disapproved. After dessert and ter sweet and coffee we paid the bill
coffee we paid the check and left. It and left. It had stopped raining, but
had stopped raining, but the sidewalks the pavements were still wet. Susan
were still wet. Susan gave me a ride gave me a lift home, then I did some
home, then I did a history assignment history homework for the next day,
for the next day, watched a movie on watched a film on the TV and went
TV and went to bed around. to bed.

7
b) Study the meaning of the following words in British and American
English from the “List of words having different meanings in American
and British English” at https://en.wikipedia.org/
bureau, carnival, casualty (person), coach, custodian, dormitory, faculty,
garbage, bathroom, liquor, mate, prom, reader

Exercise 7. It is well known that lexical differences between British and

American English are obvious in the vocabularies of the educational sys-
tems. Fill in the table with British and American terms. Consult Wikipe-
dia, if necessary

Concept British English American English

государственная школа state school public school
директор школы
детский сад
начальная школа
средняя школа
класс (ступень обучения)
cтаршее звено средней школы
частная школа
оценка
диплом (свидетельство, атте-
стат) об окончании средней
школы

Clues: principal, public school, grade, primary school, general certificate of

secondary education (GSCE), sixth form, infant school, senior high school,
headmaster/headmistress, elementary school, private school, mark, high
school diploma, comprehensive school, mark, day nursery , form, middle
&junior high school

8
 SEMINAR № 2
Etymology of the English Word-Stock

A. Points for discussion

1. The origin of English words.
2. Causes and ways of borrowings.
3. Assimilation of loan words.
4. Loan words impact upon the English vocabulary.
5. Etymological doublets in English.
6. International and pseudo-international words in the English language.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid., Chapters 3 & 4, pp. 44-70.
Arnold I.V. Ibid. pp.252- 255, 259-261
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp. 98 – 123.

Glossary: borrowing, loan word, etymology, etymological doublets, assim-

ilation, international word, pseudo-international word, cognate, source,
origin, hybrid

B. Assignments

Exercise 1. Subdivide the following words of native origin into a) Indo-

European; b) Germanic; c) English proper.
daughter, woman, land, cow, moon, red, three, lady, always, bear, lord, nose,
glad, heart, hand, night, to eat, to see, to make

Exercise 2. Explain the etymology of the following words. Write them

down in 3 columns as a) fully assimilated; b) partially assimilated; c) un-
assimilated. State the type of assimilation (phonetical, graphical, lexical),
if necessary.

9
pen, hors’d’oeuvre, ballet, beet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance,
monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, nice,
coup’detat, sequence, gay, port, river, loose, autumn, low, uncle, lunar,
bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne

Exercise 3. State the period when the following words were borrowed into
the English language
Wall, cheese, candle, priest, street, music, pepper, philosophy, method, sput-
nik

Exercise 4. Using an etymological dictionary compare the meanings of the

following pairs of words and explain why they are called etymological
doublets.
captain – chieftain, canal – channel, goal – jail, shadow – shade, pauper –
poor, scar – share

Exercise 5 . Do the etymology matching quiz at http://www.universal-

teacher.org.uk/lang/etymolquiz.htm. Check your answers.

Exercise 6. State the etymological composition of the following words and

explain why they are called hybrids
avidly, countless, courtly, faintness, goddess, hindrance, joyful, relation-
ship, unquestionable

Exercise 7. Give at least 10 examples of international words belonging to

different spheres of human activity

SEMINAR № 3
Semantic Structure of the English Word.

A. Points for discussion

1. The object of semasiology. The concept and definition of meaning.

10
2. Types of meaning in English: a) lexical meaning vs the notion; b) gram-
matical meaning and part-of-speech meaning; c) word meaning and mo-
tivation.
3. Word meaning and usage.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapters 7, pp.129-
Arnold I.V. Ibid, pp, 37-39, 42-47.
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp.123-125.

Glossary: semasiology, lexical meaning, part-of-speech meaning, denota-

tion, connotation

B. Assignments:
Exercise 1. Is there any lexical difference between day, day’s, days, days’?
What is the grammatical meaning of these units? Proceeding from the
working definitions of the concepts of lexical meaning and grammatical
meaning explain the difference between them
1) tree, tree’s, trees, trees; 2) write, wrote, writing, written; 3) writes,
sings, runs, goes; 3) boys, girls, students, teachers; 5) colour, colours; col-
ours; 6) bead, beads; beads.

Exercise 2. Explain why the following words are treated as motivated or

non-motivated. State the type of motivation (phonetic, grammatical, or se-
mantic) where necessary:
splash, unanswerable, to winter, a bee (трудолюбивый человек), skin-
deep, big, to read, baker’s dozen.
Exercise 3. Look up the italicized words in the English-English dictionary.
Identify the denotative and connotative components of the meaning in the
following words. Use the words in the sentences that follow. (Choose ei-
ther (a) or ( b)
a) murmur, mumble, grumble, mutter, whine, scream

11
1. She _____ when she saw the snake. 2. The breakfast was spoilt; every-
body was _______ the porridge was burnt. 3. The child was ____ for a toy.
4. “Do you really care for me,” Eve ______. 5. “I don’t know what the world
is coming to”, he ____. 6. The stranger _____ something but so indistinctly
that I could not make anything out.
b) walk, stroll, wander, stagger, shuffle, creep, slip, dash
1. The old man was ____ down the corridor. 2. For a long time he ___ about
the town. He _____out of the room unnoticed. 4. He _____ towards the door,
trying to make no noise. 5. He was bumped into by the women who ____
out of the shop doors with their purchases, without looking first to right or
left. 6. Now I was quite content to ____ mile after mile through this silent
moonlit wood. 7. He ____ towards the door clutching at his wound, and then
fell to the door. 8. They ____ down the land hand in hand.

SEMINAR № 4
Polysemy and Change of Meaning

A. Points for discussion

1. The system of meanings in polysemantic words and types of polyse-
mantic development.
2. Diachronic and synchronic approach to the study of polysemy. Historic
changeability of semantic structure.
3. Extralinguistic and linguistic factors of semantic changes.
4. Results of semantic change: a) specialization and generalization; b)
amelioration and deterioration of meaning.
5. Types of semantic change: a) metaphor, b) metonymy; c) other types.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapter 8, pp.147 – 160.
Arnold I.V. Ibid., pp.37-76.
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp. 74 – 82, 125 – 127.

12
Glossary: polysemy, specialization, generalization, amelioration, deterio-
ration (pejoration), metaphor, metonymy, irony, hyperbole

B. Assignments
Exercise 1. Read the entries for the English word “COURT’ and the Rus-
sian “CУД” in English-English and Russian-English dictionaries. Ex-
plain the difference in the semantic structure of both words.

Exercise 2. a) Study the meaning of the verbs in the box. Choose the
proper verb to fill in the space in each sentence. Sometimes more than one
word is possible

shine dazzle flicker flare

twinkle glow sparkle flash

Literal meaning
a. ‘__________,________, little star’ is a well-known nursery rhyme. It
means the light of the star changes rapidly from bright to faint.
b. If car drives don’t dip their headlights at night, they can ____ you, and
you can’t see anything.
c. This what the dying embers of a fire do. _________.
d. Sailors who are in difficulty fire these into the air to attract attention.
______
e. This is what lighting does. ______.
f. This what the sun does. _____.
g. This what diamonds do, or the sea on a bright, clear day. _____ .
h. A candle ______ in a breeze, and casts shadows round a room.
b) Tick the boxes to show the differences between the words to do with
light. The first one has been done for you.
bright dim on and off suddenly continuously
sparkle  
shine

13
 glow
twinkle
flicker
flare
flash

c) Fill in the blanks with the above verbs of light (or their derivatives) in
metaphorical meanings. Comment on the type of metaphor
i. The book got a ___________ review in the newspaper, so I went out and
bought it.
j. He’s not much good at creative thinking, but he really ______ at anything
that requires manual dexterity.
k. People say that just before death, the whole of your life ______ in front
of you.
l. He prepared a gourmet meal, totally unassisted, in the ________ of an eye.
m. Violence has ______ up again on the island of Kroana, where the situa-
tion is bordering on civil war.
n. As soon as I saw her come on stage, I was ______ both by her beauty and
performance.
o. When our eyes met, a _____ of recognition crossed his face, but he made
no other sign that he remembered me.
p. The party was alright, but it lacked _____ . There was nothing very excit-
ing or lively about it.

Exercise 3. Identify the type of meaning (direct or figurative) rendered in

the following sets of words. Comment on the semantic change in each
collocation:
SMART: clothes, answer, house, garden, blow, punishment
STUBBORN: child, look, horse, resistance, fighting, cough, depression;
SOUND: lungs, scholar, tennis player, views, advice, criticism, ship,
whipping
ROOT(n) edible r., the r. of the tooth, the r. of the matter, the square r.,

14
 cube r.
DRINK(v): milk, poison, wine, smb’s health, a toast to smb
SPREAD (v): butter, propaganda, cheese, an epidemic, rumours, jam,
disease, gossip, a cloth

Exercise 4. State the development of meaning in the following words.

Specify logical and associative ties between the meanings of the follow-
ing polysemantic words.
1.Big Ben: колокол часов на башне Вестминстера  часы на башне
Вестминстера
2. cockney: лондонец из низов (особкнно уроженец Ист-Энда), кокни
 кокни, лондонское просторечие (преимущественно жителей Ист-
Энда)
3. barbecue: рама, на которой жарится туша  туша, зажаренная на
раме  праздник, во время которого таким образом жарится туша
 пикник
4. Limerick: город в Ирландии  шуточное стихотворение из пяти
строк, в котором рифмуются первая, вторая, пятая и третья и чет-
вертая строки
5. Ampere: французский физик  единица силы электрического тока
6.tube: труба; трубка  телевизионная трубка  телевизор

Exercise 5. Which of the meanings are 1) generalized; 2) specified;

3) metaphoric; 4) metonymic
1. shark: 1) акула; 2) обманщик, вымогатель
2. conversion: 1) превращение; переход из одного состояния в
другое; 2) конверсия (способ словообразования)
3. crusade: 1) крестовый поход (ист.) 2) поход с освободитель-
ной миссией, борьба за справедливость
4. gold: 1) золото; 2) золотая медаль (a gold)

15
Exercise 6. The words listed below have experienced changes in meaning
over the centuries. Look up each word in English-English historical dic-
tionaries (e.g. www.m-w.com), and provide the information about its ety-
mology: a) an earlier (us. obsolete) meaning of the word (or the meaning
of the word as it was used in another language before entering English);
b) the most common meaning of the word today. State the result in the
change of meaning
e.g. nice a) strange, lazy, foolish (Middle English);
b) agreeable, considerate, precise → amelioration
musclesalary gorilla gregarious hazard lunch
assassin bachelor

Exercise 7. Explain which type of semantic transfer is observed in each

pair of phrases. Indicate the type of metaphorical and metonymical
meanings
the wing of the bird the wing of the building
the eye of a man the eye of a needle
the hand of a child the hand of a clock
the heart of a man the heart of the matter
the bridge across the river the bridge of the nose
the tongue of a person the tongue of a bell
the tooth of a boy the tooth of a comb
the coat of a girl the coat of a dog
green grass green years
black shoes black despair
nickel (metal) nickel (coin)
glass a glass
copper a copper
Ford (proper name) a Ford (make of car)
Damascus (Syria) Damask
Kashmir (India) Cashmere

16
 SEMINAR № 5
Homonymy, Synonymy, Antonymy, Paronymy

A. Points for discussion

1. Homonymy. Types of homonyms in Modern English. Classification of
homonyms due to the type of meaning a) lexical homonyms; b) gram-
matical homonyms; c) lexical-grammatical homonyms.
2. Phonetic coincidence and semantic differentiation of homonyms: hom-
ophones, homographs and homonyms proper.
3. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to homonymy. Criteria of differ-
entiation between polysemy and homonymy. Historical homonymy.
4. Semantic equivalence and synonymy. Types of synonyms and criteria
of synonymity. Classification of synonyms.
5. Semantic contrasts and antonymy. Classification of antonyms.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapters 9,10, 11, pp.166- 175, 184-197, 209-219.
Arnold I.V. Ibid. pp.194-203, 203-215.
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., 127-140.

Glossary: homonym, homophone, homograph, split polysemy, synonym, an-

tonym, patronym

B. Assignments
Exercise 1 .а) Find homonyms proper of the following words:
band, seal, ear, cut, to bore, corn, fall, to hail, ray, draw
b) Write homophones of the following words:
heir, dye, cent, tale, steel, knight, sun, coarse, write, sight, hare
c) Find homographs of the following words:
to bow, wind, to tear, to desert, row, mow

Exercise 2. Classify the following italicized homonyms. Use Professor

Smirnitsky’s classification

17
1.a) He should give the ball in your honour as the bride. B) The boy was
playing with a ball. 2) a) He wished he could explain about his left ear. b)
He left the sentence unfinished. 3.a) I wish you could stop lying. b) The
yellow mouse was still dead, lying as it had fallen in the crystal clear liquid.
4.a) This time, he turned on the light. b) He wore $ 300 suits with light ties
and he was a man you would instinctively trust anywhere. 5.a) He was bound
to keep the peace for six months. b) You should bound your desires by rea-
son. 6.a) The pain was almost more than he could bear. b) Catch the bear
before you sell his skin. 7.a) To can means to put up in airtight tins or jars
for preservation. b) A Man can die but once.

Exercise 3. Choose the correct word in brackets to go with each of the

synonyms given below:
1. acute, keen, sharp (knife, mind, sight), 2. Abysmal, deep, profound (ig-
norance, river, sleep); 3. diminutive, miniature, petite, petty, small, tiny
(camera, house, speck, spite, suffix, woman); 4. brisk, nimble, quick, swift
(mind, revenge, train, walk).

Exercise 4. Classify the following words and word combinations into syn-
onymic sets and decide which word is the dominant word (the unique be-
ginner). Identify ideographic and stylistic synonyms (Choose either a), b)
or c):
a) abhorrence, adoration, affection, attachment, audacity, boldness, bravery,
chivalry, compassion, courage, daring, detestation, dislike, enmity, fearless-
ness, fondness, , gallantry, guts, hate, hatred, heroism, idolatry, ill-will, lik-
ing, love, nerve, passion, pluck, spunk, structure, undauntlessness, valance,
valour;
b) attend, drag, draw, force out, haul, lug, medicate, minister, nurse, pull,
put to use, serve, strain, tend, tug;
c) angry, chic, cross, displeased, dressy, effort-wasting, elegant, fashiona-
ble, fruitless, furious, helpless, hurt, impracticable, inapplicable, in a temper,

18
incensed, indignant, infuriated, irate, modish, piqued, resentful, smart, styl-
ish, tiny, unserviceable, unusable, unworkable, useless, worked up, worth-
less.

Exercise 5. Using the synonyms given below make up word combinations

according to the pattern:
the fragrance of flowers
aroma, fume, odour, perfume, reek, scent, smell, stench, stink, tang.

Exercise 6. Give antonyms of the following words:

Bright (day, student, idea, star); dull (book, lecture, landscape, weather, ra-
zor), low (voice, armchair, pressure), narrow (street, mind, vowel), shallow
(waters, person), sharp (knife, eyesight, image, wind, tongue).

Exercise 7. Write c, g or r in column C in order to indicate whether the

pairs in Columns A and B are complementary, gradable, or relational op-
posites:

A B C
Expensive cheap
Parent offspring
Pass fail

Note: complementary antonyms are complementary in that not alive = dead,

present = not absent; gradable adjectives indicate a certain position on a
scale/continuum tiny-small-medium-large-huge-gargantuan; relational op-
posites display symmetry in their meaning: if X is Y’s teacher, then Y is X’s
pupil. Pairs of words ending in –er and –ee are usually relational opposites.
If Mary is Bill’s employer, then Bill is Mary’s employee.

Exercise 8. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate paronym

Campaign , company

19
 1. The election _______ in England lasts about a month. When
_____ stays too long, treat them like members of the family and
they’ll soon leave.
Canal, channel
2. The Panama ____ was opened in 1914. She looks as if she just
swum the English ___.
Cause, course
3. In the ____ of time he will realize it. All the deaths were from nat-
ural _____.
Human, humane
4. He is interested in ______ studies. It’s contrary to _____ nature.
Personal, personnel
5. The door was marked “Airline _____ only.” May I ask you a
_______ question?
Quite, quiet
6. Keep _____. I ____ forgot about it.

SEMINAR № 6
Lexical Morphology and Word Building in English

A. Points for discussion

1. Lexical morphology and word building. Principles of morphemic analy-
sis. Derived words.
2. Classification of morphemes according to their place in the word struc-
ture. Structural classification of morphemes (free, bound, semi-bound mor-
phemes).
3. Derivative relations. Derivational bases. Stem types. Derivational and
functional affixes.
4. Productivity and semantic properties of affixes.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapter 5, pp. 78-86.

20
Arnold I.V. Ibid. pp.81-67.
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp.5-21

Glossary: derivation, base, morpheme, stem, suffix, prefix, free morpheme,

bound morpheme, ultimate constituents, immediate constituents

B. Assignments
Exercise 1. Analyze the morphological structure of the following words:
a) reduce the words to immediate constituents and point out the stem type
and word building means; b) reduce the word to ultimate constituents.
e.g. a) one liner (n)(остроумный ответ) → affixation: one line (noun
stem) + er (suffix)
b) one (numeral stem) + line (noun stem) + er (noun suffix)
all-nighter, open-mindedness, disappointment, unknown, handbook, well-
dressed, black, morphologically, superman, good, readable, classification,
theatre-goer, accordingly, high-priced
Exercise 2. Explain the difference between the meaning of the following
words. Use them in sentences of your own
watery – waterish, embarrassed – embarrassing, respected – respectful – re-
spectable, exhaustive – exhausted – exhausting, touchy – touching – touched

SEMINAR № 7
Productive Word Building Means

A. Points for discussion

1. Affixation. Structural and semantic properties of the English affixes.
2. Conversion as a productive type of English word building. Semantic re-
lationships in conversion. Partial conversion.
4. Composition as means of word building. Structural analysis of com-
pounds. Criteria of compounds. Semantic properties of compounds. Com-
pound derivatives.

21
5. Shortening. Semantic and stylistic correlation of shortened word and its
prototype. Types of shortened words: clippings, blends, acronyms, abbrevi-
ations.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid, pp. 66-72.
Arnold I.V. Ibid.
Дубенец Э.М. Ibid, pp.5-21.

Glossary: affixation, composition, conversion, blending, compound, exocen-

tric compounds, endocentric compounds, shortening, abbreviation, acronym

B. Assignments
Exercise 1. Define the particular type of word formation
a mike, to babysit, to buzz, a torchlight, theatrical, old-fashioned, to book,
unreasonable, merry-go-round, V-Day, BBC, to bloodtransfuse, a go, to
quack, eatable, NATO, Anglo-American, to murmur, a pub, okay, NIMBY,
to thunder, a.m., earthquake, to dilly-dally, fatalism, zoo.
Exercise 2. Divide the following compounds into two groups: a) idiomatic;
b) non-idiomatic
cabman, necklace, earthquake, medium-sized, highway, wolf-dog, black-
berry, light-hearted, looking-glass, bluebell, lazy-bones.

Exercise 3. Explain the semantic correlations in the following pairs of

words
shelter – to shelter, breakfast – to breakfast, fish – to fish, nurse – to nurse,
empty, to empty, poor – to poor, monkey – to monkey, ape – to ape

Exercise 4. Point out the derivational means of the underlined words.

1. It doesn’t interfere with your own likes and dislikes.
2. It had been quite a wait before he heard her voice.
3. It was the usual conflict of the haves and the have-nots.

22
 SEMINAR № 8
Phraseology

A. Points for discussion

1. Phraseology as a branch of lexicology. Similarity and difference between
phraseological units and words.
2. Criteria of distinguishing set-expressions (phraseological units) from
free word groups.
3. Classification of phraseological units by A.A.Vinogradov,
A.I.Smirnitsky, N.N.Amosova, A.V.Koonin.
4. Synonymy and antonymy in phraseology.

Recommended References:
Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapters 12 & 13, pp.173-199.
Arnold I.V. Ibid.
Dubenets. Ibid.
Glossary: phraseological unit, set phrase, free word group, idiom, idio-
maticity, phraseme, phraseological unity, phraseological fusion, phraseo-
logical combinations (collocations)

B. Assignments
Exercise 1. Match the phraseological units in column A with those in
column B to make up pairs of synonyms. Explain your choice.

A B
to go to one’s long rest as plain as a pikestaff
as weak as a cat – to shut up
a heart of gold – to sail in the same boat;
to have a head on one’s shoulders – to join the silent majority
to hold one’s noise – as weak as a water
to row in the same boat – a heart of stone

23
 as clear as a day – to have one’s head screwed on
right

b) Match the phraseological units in column A with those in column B to

make up pairs of antonyms:
A B
as heavy as lead spring chicken
as rich as Croesus a far cry
old bird as hard as nails
as gentle as a lamb as poor as a church mouse
at close quarters as light as a feather
as drunk as a lord foul play
fair play as sober as a judge

Exercise 2. Complete the similes by matching A and B. Determine the

peculiarities of similes as phraseological units
A B
as black as a gooseberry
as green as a cucumber
as cold as ink
as white as hills
as old as a sheet
as changeable as houses
as safe as weather
as brown as ditchwater
as clean as a berry
as dull as a whistle

Exercise 3. Indicate, wherever possible, the structural variations in the

following phraseological units. If in doubt, consult the dictionary.

24
to catch at a straw, a big bug, the last drop, to build a castle in the air, to
weather the storm, to get the upper hand, to run for one’s life, to do wonders,
to run a risk, just the other way about.

Exercise 4. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units

and classify them on the semantic principle (word combinations – phrase-
ological unities – phraseological fusions)
1. The operation started badly and everyone was in a temper throughout. 2.
I know a man who would love meeting you. The perfect nut for you to crack
your teeth on. 3. I wish I had you for Maths (my favourite subject) But alas,
we cannot have our cake and eat it too. 4. He said: “Well, never mind, Nurse.
Don’t make such heavy weather about it.” 5. Did you know that 50 per cent
of the time I’ve been barking up all the wrong trees” 6. However, while ap-
preciating that the best way to deal with a bully is to bully back, I never had
quite the nerve. 7. What is it – First Aid? All you need know is how to treat
shock and how to stop haemorrage, which I drummed into you till I am blue
in the face. 8. Don’t let them (pupils) lead you by the nose. 9. But I thought
he was afraid I might take him at his word. 10. Ruth made no bones about the
time she was accustomed to have dinner.

Exercise 5. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units

and classify them on the structural principle
1. Ella Friedenberg thinks she’s Freud, but actually she is Peeping Tom.
2. What it symbolized was a fact of banking-corporate life: You scratch my
back and I’ll scratch yours.
3. There was a man I cared about, and this afternoon he told me out of a
clear sky that he was poor as a church mouse.
4. Finally, he asked me out of the blue if I could drive a car.
5. But Nelson did not believe in letting the grass grow under his feet and
applied for the headmastership of a Mission School that was being started
in New Guinea.

25
6. He took his ideas from “Daily Telegraph” and the books in prep school
library, and his guiding rule in life was to play safe.
7. By God! I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too
much those days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.
8. Then I got a shock that stiffened me from head to toe.

Exercise 6. Group the following italicized phraseological units, using Pro-

fessor Koonin’s classification system
1. Margot brightened “Now you are talking! That would be a step up for
women’s lib”.
2. Why was I more interested in the one black sheep than in all the white
lambs in my care?
3. To the young, clichés seem freshly minted. Hitch your wagon to the star!
4. Out of sight out of mind. Anyway it’ll do you good to have a rest from me.
5. In a sense it could be said that the ice was broken between us.
6. Rose Waterford smothered a giggle, but the others preserved a stony si-
lence. Mrs Forrester’s smile froze on her lips. Albert had dropped a brick.
7. “The fact is that Albert Forrester has made you all look a lot of damned
fools”. “All”, said Clifford Boyleston. “We’re all in the same boat”.
8. It’s no good crying over spilt milk.
9. Like many serious patriots, in her inability to know for certain which way
the cat would jump she held her political opinions in suspense.
10. “How long do you want to go for? For always?” – “Yes, for always”.
“Oh, my God!
11. That also was a gentleman’s paper, but it had bees in its bonnet. Bees in
bonnets were respectable things, but personally Soames did not care for them.

SEMINAR № 9
English Lexicography

A. Points for discussion

1. The object of lexicography. Methods of lexicographical research.
26
2. British and American lexicographical tradition. Linguistic and encyclo-
pedic dictionaries.
3. General and specialized dictionaries. Methods of compiling monolin-
gual and bilingual dictionaries.
4. Problems of lexicography: selection of lexical units, principles of ar-
ranging entries, principles of sense definitions, etc.
5. Types of Learner’s dictionaries and principles of their compiling.

Recommended References:
Минаева Л.В. English Lexicology and Lexicography. М.: АСТ «Астрель»,
2007, cc.115-143.
Гвишиани Н.Б. Современный английский язык. Лексикология. Гл.6.1.
Федорова И.В. Учебная лексикография. Теория и практика. М.: Акаде-
мия. 2006.
Glossary: dictionary, lexicon, glossary, thesaurus, entry word, definition,
label, quotation

B. Assignments
Exercise 1. Study the Preface to your dictionary and fill in the Dictionary Quiz.
Dictionary Quiz
1. Examples showing how words are used are given
a) in brackets____
b) in italic type ___
2. Phrasal verbs are
a) printed in thick type___
b) shown by a symbol____
3. Information about place names is found
a) in Appendix____
b) on special pages____
4. Are there any study pages
a) yes ___
b) no ____

27
5. Where will you find additional information on the usage of words?
a) in notes___
b) on colourful pages____
6. Labels are printed
a) in brackets____
b) in italics____
7. Idioms are
a) printed in bold type____
b) shown by a symbol ____
c) shown by a label
8. Are compounds within the entry
a) printed in bold type____
b) shown by a symbol___
c) shown by a label___
9. Is grammatical information
a) shown by a code within the entry ___
b) in grammatical notes in the extra column___
shown by means of examples and patterns within the entry____
10. Is there any information on related words
a) yes___
b) no ___

Exercise 2. Compare dictionary entries of LANGUAGE and CLIMATE

in a general purpose English dictionary, in an encyclopedic dictionary
and in a learners’ dictionary . Explain the principles of defining the lexi-
cal items in these dictionaries.

Exercise 3. Transcribe the following words and show the difference be-
tween American and British variants of their pronunciation. Consult Eng-
lish-English dictionaries.

28
 British American
Data
Exploratory
Dictionary
Lieutenant
Territory
Last
Clerk
Diphthong
Clothes

Exercise 4. Show the difference in the pronunciation of the following words

conduct (n) conduct (v)
progress (n) progress (v)
contract (n) contract (v)
produce (n) produce (v)
increase (n) increase (v)
decrease (n) decrease (v)
export (n) export (v)
Exercise 5. a) Study the following expressions in one of the Learner’s
dictionaries and explain the difference between:

to consist of to consist in
to compare with to compare to
to die of to die for
to gasp at to gasp for
guilty of guilty about
to agree to to agree with
to be concerned with to be concerned about

a) Give examples of their usage

29
 Exercise 6. Match a collective noun in column A with an appropriate noun
in column B. Explain your choice.

A B
directors
cards
old clothes
a flock deer
a swarm sheep
a herd grapes
a pack actors
a bunch thieves
a bundle soldiers
a company bees
a gang of flowers
a ring sticks
a board
cattle
keys
labourers
wolves

Exercise 7. Read the text. Guess the meaning of the italicized phrasal verbs.
Replace them with one-word synonyms or descriptive phrases. Consult gen-
eral-purpose English-English dictionary
I’m tired of my boss. Every time I try to talk up a new idea, he talks down
to me, or else he just talks around the issue. Of course, I can’t talk back to
him, and it is impossible to talk him into anything. I suppose that we could
try to talk out the problem, but I think that I could talk until I was blue in
the face, or all talked out, and nothing would change. He’d hear me out and
then just rattle off reasons why I was wrong.

30
 Appendix
Lexical Field “MADNESS

insane
schizophrenic of unsound mind

demented not in full possession

neurotic
unhinged
psychotic
non compos mentis
bereft of reason
maladjusted
mental
unbalanced
balmy
MAD bananas
gaga
bonkers
cuckoo
crackers
batty
round the bend
potty
off one’s chump
loony

daft nuts
crazy

31
Stylistic Differentiation of English Vocabulary

32
Ogden-Richards’ Triangle of Reference

33
 Topics for Reports, Papers, Projects and Essays

1. The Origins of Lexicology.

2. Lexical Features of American English (Australian English)
3. Terminology and Terminography as Branches of Lexicology.
4. English Dialects and Sociolects.
5. The Differences between Colloquial Words and Slang Words.
6. Neologisms of the 21st century in the English Language: A Case of
Macmillan Buzz Words.
7. The Conditions of Borrowing. (From Readings in Modern English Lex-
icology. Английская лексикология в выдержках и извлечениях. По-
собие для студентов пед.ин-тов (на англ.яз). Л., «Просвещение»,
1975. – 238 с.)
8. Loan Words in American English.
9. American and British Lexicologists on the Concept of Word Meaning.
(From Readings in Modern English Lexicology. Английская лексико-
логия в выдержках и извлечениях. Пособие для студентов пед.ин-
тов (на англ.яз). Л., «Просвещение», 1975. – 238 с.)
10. Types of Euphemisms in English.
11. Rhythm, Rhyme, Alliteration, Contrast as Integral Parts of Phraseologi-
cal Units.
12. The Problem of Phrasal Verbs.
13. Derivation of Phraseological Units.
14. Prefixal and Suffixal Word Building in Contemporary English
15. The Problem of Semi-affixes.
16. Non-productive Means of Word Building (Back Formation, Reduplica-
tion, Sound Imitation, etc.)
17. Innovations in English Lexicology: Corpus Linguistics and Computer-
assisted Lexicography.
18. Componential Analysis in Semantic Studies.
19. Longman Language Activator: A Case Study.
20. Oxford (Cambridge) Advanced Learner’s Dictionary : A Case Study.

34
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2. Арбекова, Т.И. Лексикология английского языка (практический
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Т.И. Арбекова – М.: Высшая школа, 1977. – 240 с.
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4. Гвишиани, Н.Б. Современный английский язык. Лексикология:
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с.
5. Дубенец Э.М. Лексикология современного английского языка: лек-
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Soars. – OUP, 1994.

Internet resources

33. www.onelook.com – dictionary search engine, more than 1000 online

dictionaries
34. www.etymonline.com – Online Etymology Dictionary
35. www.merriam-webster.com – Merriam Webster Dictionary and Thesau-
rus
36. www.thefreedictionary.com – the world's most comprehensive free
online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia with synonyms, defini-
tions, idioms, abbreviations, and medical, financial, legal dictionaries.

37
37. http://dictionary.cambridge.org – Cambridge Dictionary of the English
Language
38. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/ - Oxford
Learner’s Dictionaries
39. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/recent.html -
Buzzword Archive (glossary of neologisms)
40. www.urbandictionary.com – online dictionary of slang, or cultural
words or phrases
41. http://wordspy.com – Word Spy the Word Lover’s Guide to New Words
42. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444302851.gloss/pdf -
Glossary of Linguistic terms (Wiley Online Library)
43. http://www01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/ - Glossary
of Linguistic terms (Summer Institute of Linguistics)
44. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/subject/code/000075 - Wiley Online Li-
brary – Language and Linguistics
45. http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/etymolquiz.htm - English Ety-
mology Matching Exercise

38
 Методические материалы

ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИЯ СОВРЕМЕННОГО
АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
(ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY)

Методические указания

Составители:
Гуральник Татьяна Андреевна,
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Редактор А.В. Ярославцева

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