To phonetics Phonetics is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for the description, classification and transcription. It is closely connected with lexicology. Without sound there is no word because every word is a unity of sound and meaning.







1. Course Name: Modern English Lexicology 2. Hours : 90mins/lecture, one lecture / week 3. Teaching Material: Modern English Lexicology 《现代英语词汇学》 by Lu Guoqiang(陆国强) 4. Reference Books: 1) 张维友：《英语词汇学教程》（第2 版），武汉：华中 师范大学出 版社， 2004 年2 月版。 2) 汪榕培、卢晓娟编著：《英语词汇学教程》（第1 版）， 上海外语教育出版 社，1997 年10 月版 3) 汪榕培、王之江、吴晓维的《英语词汇学教程读本》， 上海外语教育出版社，英语编写。


English lexicology itself is a sub branch of linguistics. But it is closely related to other branches of linguistics, such as phonetics（语音学）, morphology（形态学）, grammar, semantics,etymology（语源学）, stylistics（文体学）, lexicography（词典编纂 学）, each of which has been established as a subject on its own.


To stylistics（文体学） Stylistics is the study of style. It is concerned with the user‘s choices of linguistic elements in a particular context for special effects. Among the areas of study are lexis（词汇）, phonology(音韵学) , syntax（句法学）, and graphology（笔迹学）. Lexicology studies stylistic variants on the basis of meanings of words and their changes: synonyms, antonyms, figures of speech（修辞 grammar（语法） Grammar is the study or the use of the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences. Words and grammar are organically related to one other. Vocabulary，as flesh, and grammar, as skeleton, jointly construct a given language.


English lexicology is a theoretically oriented course in which the basic theories of English words are discussed. However, it is also a practical course, for in the discussion, we shall inevitably deal with copious(=rich) stocks of words and idioms, and study a great many usage examples. There will, naturally, be a lot of practice involved.


(Background information) 1.The Nature and Domain of English Lexicology (lexicon: lexikon, Greek origin,”of words”)
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. English lexicology deals with English words, their origin meaning, historical development, morphological structures(形态结构), semantic structures, sense relations, idioms, formation and usages. In short, it is the study of the signification and application of English vocabulary.



3) Some acceptable topics for your graduation thesis
现代英语词汇迅速发展的源泉 网络英语的词汇类型及其特点 广告英语的词汇特点 英语词汇意义的特点与词汇教学 论中英文中动物词汇的文化差异 英汉文化内涵在动物词汇上的体现






2) The history of English vocabulary development
Roman Invasion--- Anglo-Saxon Conquest-- Norman Conquest ---- the Renaissance --the 17th and18th century----the 19th and 20th century----after World War II

To semantics（语义学） Semantics is the branch of linguistics, which studies the meanings of language at different levels: lexicon（词汇，与语法相对应的）, syntax（句法）, utterance（表达）, discourse( 语段，话语), etc. Lexicology focuses on the lexical level. The types of meaning and sense relations, such as synonymy, antonymy,hyponymy(上下位关系), polysemy（ 一词多义）, homonymy （同音异义）and semantic fields(语义场) all belong to the semantic study and constitute an important part of lexicology.
OLD ENGLISH
MIDDLE ENGLISH
MODERN ENGLISH

The period from 450 to 1150 is known as the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon period.

It is described as the period of full inflections, since during most of this period the case endings of the noun, the adjective, and the conjugation（词形变化） of the verb were not weakened



To morphology（词态学/形态学） Morphology is the branch of linguistics, which studies the internal structure of words and rules by which words are formed. Morphology is generally divided into two fields: the study of inflections (also called Inflectional Morphology曲折形态学) and the study of word-formation (often referred to as Lexical or Derivational Morphology.（词汇形态学/派生形态学） This is one of the major concerns of lexicology, which discusses the inflections of words, the internal structure of words and methods of word-formation.


Lexicography shares with lexicology the same problems: the form, meaning, origin and usage of words, but they have a difference. A lexicographer‘s task is to record the language as it is so as to present the genuine picture of words to the reader, providing authoritative reference, whereas the student of lexicology is to acquire the knowledge and information of lexis so as to enhance their awareness and capacity of language use.