Types of Lexical Units

1. Types of lexical units

TYPES OF LEXICAL
UNITS
LECTURE 3

2. unit

UNIT
one of the elements into which a whole may be
divided or analysed and which possesses the basic
properties of this whole.

3. The units of a vocabulary (or lexical units)

THE UNITS OF A VOCABULARY (OR LEXICAL
UNITS)
• two-facet elements possessing form and meaning.
• The basic unit forming the bulk of the vocabulary is the
word.

4. units:

UNITS:
• morphemes (that is parts of words, into which words may be
analysed)
• set expressions (or groups of words into which words may be
combined).

5.

Words are the central elements of language system.
They face both ways:
• they are the biggest units of morphology
• and the smallest of syntax.

6.

Words can be separated in an utterance by other such units and can be
used in isolation.
Morphemes cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units and are
functioning in speech only as constituent parts of words.

7. Set expressions

SET EXPRESSIONS
word groups consisting of two or more words whose
combination is integrated so that they are introduced in speech
ready-made as units with a specialised meaning of the whole that
is not understood as a mere sum total of the meanings of the
elements.

8.

In the spelling system of the language words are the smallest units of written discourse:
they are marked off by solid spelling.
Orthographic words are written as a sequence of letters bounded by spaces on a page.
Yet, there exist in the English vocabulary lexical units that are not identical with
orthographic words but equivalent to them:
as far as, in spite of, except for, due to, by means of, for the sake of ;
• phrasal verbs (so numerous in English): bring up ‘to educate’, call on ‘to visit’.

9. s y s t e m

SY ST E M
a set of elements associated and functioning together according
to certain laws.
It is a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted by
interdependent elements of the same order related in certain
specific ways.

10.

• The vocabulary of a language is an adaptive system constantly
adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of
human communications and cultural surroundings.
• It is continually developing by overcoming contradictions between
its state and the new tasks and demands it has to meet.

11.

Lexicology studies this whole (the system) by determining the
properties of its elements and the different relationships of
contrast and similarity existing between them within a language,
as well as the ways in which they are influenced by extralinguistic reality.

12. extra-linguistic relationships

EXTRA-LINGUISTIC RELATIONSHIPS
the connections of words with the elements of objective
reality they serve to denote, and their dependence on
the social, mental and cultural development of the
language community.

13.

Elements of the system are characterised by their
combinatorial and contrastive properties determining
their s y n t a g m a t i c and p a r a d i g m a t i c
relationships.

14.

A word enters into syntagmatic (linear) combinatorial relationships with
other lexical units that can form its context, serving to identify and
distinguish its meaning.
Lexical units are context-dependent.
• E. g. in the hat on her head the noun head means ‘part of the body’,
• in the head of the department - head means ‘chief.

15.

A word enters into contrastive paradigmatic relations
with all other words, e. g. head, chief, director, etc. that can
occur in the same context and be contrasted to it.

16.

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic studies of meaning are f u n c t i o n al
because the meaning of the lexical unit is studied first not through its
relation to referent but through its functions in relation to other units.
Functional approach is contrasted to referential (or onomasiological
approach), otherwise called theory of nomination, in which meaning is
studied as the interdependence between words and their referents, that is
things or concepts they name, i.e. various names given to the same sense.